Post Christmas......

Well it's over, except for the cleaning up. What a busy, busy Christmas it has been. Our first year with the kennel at Christmas, whew.....I took the week efore Christmas off and the 27th, we had the 26th off since Christmas fell on a Sunday. We overbooked and had dogs in every nook and cranny in the place. LOTS of walking cleaning and cleaning and walking. Christmas eve was a tmy folks new condo. They love it there. They had previously lived in a beautiful old house in the historic neighbourhood but they were tired of the maintenance, racoons in the attic, squirrels in the attic, poor heat, no AC and all the attendant problems with a old house. So they moved. Nice condo, nice neighborhood. My brother nad his wife also came and we had a lovely champagne drenched Christmas and dinner. My family does Christmas in the european fashion. Formal Christmas Eve with dinner and present opening etc. Then home and go over and walk the dogs...at 12:30pm? Oh well, I guess we do what needs to be done.

Christmas day we had Mel come over and take care of the kennel and we drove to Tampa to see all the kids and grandkids. Carolyn was down with Sarah and Nicole from NY and we had a nice time and nice dinner. Then, back in the car and back to G'ville. On the way back we had alternator probs but made it anyhow. Whew....

Ever since it's been the kennel, the kennel, the kennel. We walk all the dogs multiple times each day, it seems to lower the stress level for them and consequently keeps the barking and destructive behaviour at a minimum. Something no one else seems to do unless they have to. After the New Year most of the dogs will be going home rather quicKly so we'll finally be able to get some rest. Thank God that Carolyn and the kids are here. They have been a big help at the kennel and since I had to go back to my slavey job Dolly would have had a hard time with the kennel. Always seems that things are working out. Blew our income projections out of the water. We will end up exceeding our projections by about 10-15% over what we had anticipated. looks like we'll go ahead and build out the other side of the kenel next summer and should be able to fill it after we hit all the phone books. Wahooo! Scary when a plan works out. See you all next year........

Have a safe and happy new year!