Christmas Eve (day)

Christmas Eve day turned out to be as busy as I thought it might be. First things first.. Chester had a visit to the vet for the last of his puppy shots. Even though I adore my vet from the "old town", I decided to take Chester to a vet here, mainly for convenience. NEADS operates a lot on donations, so we asked this vet.. Dr. Spahn .. if he might contribute some of his services for Chester - which he gladly did... not charging me or NEADS for any of this visit!!! (thank you so very much!!!!) Chester is such a good puppy, and is taking to training like a "duck to water"!!! Here he sits proudly on the scale!!!!



And then waited quietly with Camille until it was his turn to go in and see Dr. Spahn. I have to keep reminding myself, that he is NOT a cocker spaniel!!! He's growing so quickly and even though his dinner bowl looks so big and so full of food... he's NOT a cocker. For this visit, he weighed in at 20lbs, already bigger than the others!!! He was a very good boy for his shots and doesn't have to go back again until spring time (for the big operation!!!)

Returning home, I noticed that the Channel 8 news truck was at the fire station. Certainly "something" must be up to have the news truck at the fire station, I had heard some "rumors" around town that a very special person had said something about "making a special stop" in Acton. Seeing this news truck could only mean one thing... that "he" had decided to come......








could it be?? Yes, I am quite certain...

It's SANTA!!!! seems there are some very special children in Acton that he needed to see, so he left the sleigh at the North Pole (to have the elves pack) and borrowing a fire truck, Santa and a few helpers from the fire department, made some deliveries around town.....

Course, we took advantage of this private encounter ... and introduced Abbie to Santa, making sure that he added her name to his list....












She seemed pretty comfy in his arms, almost like she had been there before!!! :-)

and then Chester had to say hello, and make sure that he was also on Santa's list.. especially after being such a good puppy at the vet. He wasn't one bit afraid of this gentlemen in the long white beard....

After visiting with Santa, it was back home.. barn chores waiting and Christmas Eve beginning. Now, I must confess here, I was actually feeling rather sad about Christmas Eve... we had made plans to be with Kas and Nate , going to their church and then over to Pease Air base to welcome home the soldiers returning from Iraq. Well, when the bell choir plans changed, it meant that I would have to "give up" our plans and be at our church. Since everyone had other plans, it would mean that just Sadie, Abbie and Ed would see me play with the choir..I had been hoping for a much bigger audience!!! About two hours before church, Ed got called out with the fire department to a structure fire... a barn - fully involved. Now, I've been around the fire department for many years, and "fully involved structure" means one thing for sure... hours of work!!! Ed would now miss the bells too.


So, Sadie and I packed up Abbie and headed to the church. Going there in such a "bad mood" certainly was not the way to begin the Christmas celebration... but, I just couldn't help it.

As we were doing a quick practice and the folks were coming into church, I noticed a pretty gal in a pink coat, and thought to myself.. "Kas has a coat like that"... and then, looking a bit closer.. it was Kas!! and Nate!!! Plans had changed again (the flight bringing home the soldiers was bumped to an earlier time that they couldn't make).. so they surprised me and came to hear the bells. Then, just before service began.. in came Ed. The barn fire was a total loss, but no one - including animals - were hurt, and since it was in a neighboring town, Ed felt he could leave and come to hear me..... so, for all my fretting - Christmas Eve turned out to be a very nice time. AND a good reminder to me as to "why" we celebrate this very special season!! The birth of our Lord and Savior -Jesus!!!!

We had a short visit with Kas and Nate after church.. it was late and they had a drive home, we would be with them all Christmas Day...

then it was time for bed and wait for "Santa" to do his work (he was probably at church too!!!) but looking at some beautiful gifts sitting on the counter, I would say that Santa had already made some drops!!!! (right, Rick??)