After spending the last 11 days helping my husband care for his mother who was in the hospital with atrial fibrulation, we left for my parent's home on Christmas Eve, leaving my mother-in-law in the hands of my husband's siblings. Opening the door into my parent's house after the 3 hour drive in unusually cold and snowy weather, this is what greeted us! Aaaaaaghhhhhh.........it's good to be home!!
We walked into the family room and THIS is what greeted us. A warm, roaring fire. A dog sleeping peacefully by the fire. Christmas presents under a sparkling tree. Christmas music softly playing in the background. Hugs from my parents. Aaaaghhhh......it's good to be home!
After unloading a jam-packed car trunk and getting the dogs to all settle down, we all sat around the fire and enjoyed cocktails and wonderful treats that my mother had prepared. It was great to just sit back and visit. No place to have to be. No place to check in on. Just existing in the here and now. Aaaaghhhh.......I love being home!
It was unseasonably cold, below freezing on the first few days, and the dogs wanted to be in our laps more than ever. These are only a few of the pictures I took of all of the dogs wanting to snuggle. This is my mom with their little, chihuahua mix, Couger. She's about 10 pounds of fierceness, but she loves to snuggle with my mom.
This is my husband with our scottie, Pippen. My two mustached "boys". If my mom's dogs were going to snuggle in someone's lap, so was Pippen! He just doesn't realize that he's not a little 10 pound lap dog. 
This is Justa in my lap. She's named Justa because my dad always said that their next dog was going to be named Justa because he wanted my mom to remember that she was Just A Dog. Justa is in love with my dad and he with her!Now that we're back home, my mother-in-law's health continues to give her trouble. She's back in the hospital for congestive heart failure and they are planning to do an angiogram tomorrow to see what they can do to help her. As we go through these next few days of unknown with her, I keep the warm memories of Christmas at home close.........memories of my happy place.
Hope you have warm memories of the holidays as well.
~Allie
