November....

...and I have taken down the Halloween decorations. Actually, I packed them away the day after I did a small Halloween party for my book club kids who live down the road.  We didn’t have a Halloween party this year, and we don’t get Trick or Treaters out here, so I saw no sense in leaving the pumpkins and black cats and witches sitting around the house. Back into the storage closet they went....

And out came the Christmas decorations. I have arranged all the Santas and angels and elves and reindeer and table-top trees.... all that’s left to do is the silver aluminum tree. Every room of this house has a Christmas explosion in it... all the way up to the third floor library.

Tomorrow is Monday, so my book club kids will be here in the afternoon. When they left here last Monday, they were wearing their Halloween costumes and this house was happily spooky. They will walk into a Christmas wonderland tomorrow. The looks on their faces will be my reward.... those kids are so joyful.

We met a very nice couple at the Farmers’ Market last week, and today we took our dog Savannah to meet their dog Milo. Our dog is a Great Pyrenees/Border Collie mix; theirs is pure Great Pyrenees. Both dogs have similar issues with trusting strange people and strange places. Well, you would not have guessed that this afternoon. Within five minutes, the dogs were comfortable together, and Savannah didn’t seem to have a problem being in a new yard with new people and a dog she had never seen before. We all walked around their property, then sat on their porch, then went into their house... and Savannah was on her best behavior. I was so proud of Savannah... she had a wonderful afternoon and I could have just cried happy tears for her. We all agreed to get the dogs together again, at our house next time.