Puppy Times - 2nd week

My family has been enjoying the puppies as much as I have been.

Puppy Times - December

For Christmas my family got two short Jack Russell terriers.  And it seems like ever since then I haven't had time to blog much.  I wonder why?   But once you see some of their pictures I think you can guess why my time has been focused on them and not other things.

I went to my vets office to drop off some newspapers.   For years I have been giving my vet our papers so she could use them in their kennel.  I would usually take them when I needed to get special food for my very old dogs, but when they died I stopped having a reason to go their.  Christmas was coming and I wanted to clean my house for expected guests.  The papers were piled high in a corner and needed to be gotten rid of. 
    I walked into the office with the papers  and look at what one of the assistants was holding.

 I was immediately attracted to them.  I thought they were someone's puppies that had been brought in for a check up. 

 Instead I found out that they were the vet's and they were for sale.

 On that day they were not ready to leave their mom because they were still nursing. 

 Here's a better picture of the mom.

 Isn't she a good looking dog?  And she's pretty well behaved.  I figure they were from really good stock and as such would make great pets.  

 I also got to meet their uncle.  He was there to get his shots that day and belonged to one of the workers that was there.  The vet said that the puppies would probably end up being about his size once they were done growing.  It sure was nice to have a reference like that. 

By the time I left I had totally fallen in love with them. I wanted both of them.   I went ahead and put a deposit down with the understanding I had 24 hours to change my mind. 
  I couldn't wait to get home and tell my family.  They were very interested in them too and wanted to see them.  By then it was too late to go back to the office so we had to wait for the next day. 

   The next day I was able to take my two sons to see them.  The mother made a big hit with them.  They liked the way she looked and thought the puppies would be good looking dogs too.

 This time we had more time to be with them since there were no other customers in the office and they could be put down to play around. 

 After all that playing around they started to get tired.  The white and brown one came over to my one son and wanted him to pick him up.  He was instantly hooked. 

 And then he fell asleep in his arms and I thought if we could take them home now they'd be gone. 

 The other one had more energy and wasn't as tired.  He went to my other son.

 By the way my son was smiling I could tell, he wanted them just as much as I did. 

 Just look at that face.  How could I not fall in love with it. 

 And the same goes for his brother.

  They heard something and that got his attention. 

  The one thing about puppies they do like to chew and that would have been the main reason I wouldn't have gotten them.  I didn't want my stuff chewed up. 

In the end they won out over my concerns about chewing and my boys both wanted them just as much as I did. 

Inside the Strand Theater @ Christmas

I love going to the theater and seeing live performances.  There is just something about it that is so hard to describe.    I really like going to the theater that is in our town because it is so ornate and beautiful.  It was built in the 1920's.  It was almost torn down when it had fallen into ruin but luckily there were people in the community who recognized it for its beauty and saved it.
Here's some images I took on my cellphone while waiting for the show to start.  I had pulled it out to turn it off but had decided to just snap a few before I put it away.

Inside the Strand Theater - Shreveport, LA

 If I'm not mistaken - I think these are Tiffany glass chandlers.  Even if they are not I still love them.  They remind me so much of the Art deco style of the 1920's. 

 Here's another one in more light.

 They have these murals on the walls that I really like too.

 Here's another view of the other side.

They sure don't build many buildings like this and it is so nice for us to have it in our community.  I hope it lasts for a long long time and do what I can to support it.

New Year's eve bonfire

We went to a bonfire to bring in the new year. The neighbors collect the old Christmas trees and burn them.  I was surprised that they were able to get as many as they did.  They sure were pretty to watch burn.
When a new tree was added it would go up in a fireball. 

 Then it would just shoot sparks off all over the place.

 This was my favorite one.  It looked like the ghost of Christmas pass was exscaping.

Christmas tree bonfire

Most of the time the fire was pretty tame.

 They added this one tree and we were surpised to see blue flames come from it.  It must have been sprayed with a flame retardant. It didn't do much to keep it from burning but it sure did make the fire look pretty after that.

 When the flames would get low like this then they would add another tree.

This one was interesting too.

 The kids seem to like it, and it was nice to have something like this on that cold night.