Xena: Me and Lucy had a great Christmas with Uncle Bill and Aunty Jen and Ella and Achilles. We all opened our pressies Christmas morning, and I got a santa that makes crinkly sounds that I don’t really like, and a great new bear.
Lucy: They are for me, too, Xena.
Xena: You don’t like to play with them, so they’re mine. But I will be kind and give you the crinkly santa thingie.
I love my new bear friend.
Anyhoo, Mommy asked me today why I keep taking my new bear friend (who I haven’t thought of a name for yet – any suggestions?) into the bathroom and leaving him/her there. All I could say is, “Why not?” Ya know, it’s not my fault if I take new bear with me through the house and she/he doesn’t follow me back, right?
Lucy: Mom and Dad got home just before our aunt and uncle left. That was a good present. Then our peeps brother Andrew came over for a while, too.
Xena: And then, on the day after Christmas, Mommy brought out all these new pressies for us that she had been hiding.
Lucy: I got new jammies. I’ve never had jammies before, and I’m not sure if they look OK on me. At XXL, they are the largest that Chewy.com carries. Mom says I am just a beautiful big girl. 
They are soft and warm, so whenever it gets cold, I will be cozy, especially now that I’m not allowed to sleep in the bed with Mom and Dad any more. But that’s a story for another time.
Then Mom helped us open our other pressies. I kept my jammies close so Xena didn’t take them.
Xena: I we got two bags of treats. One of them is Stella & Chewy’s Wild Weenies Grass-fed Lamb. The other one is Dr. Jodie’s Natural Pets N-Trail Mix with lamb liver and spleen, grass fed beef kidney, turkey heart and gizzards, and pork brain. Mmmm. 
They are both freeze-dried raw, so they fit nicely into our raw diet.
And I got a treat puzzle! I’m so excited about that ! I tried one at an agility classes, and I got really good at it. You see, all you have to do is smell where the treat is, then move the circle thingie out of the way with your mouth or paw. I always go back and double and triple check that I got every single one. I think that’s called being detail-oriented.
Lucy: I wanted to try it, but Xena wouldn’t let me.
Xena: Too slow, Luce. You snooze, you lose. (Especially when it comes to a schnauzer and treats!)
Lucy: Mom got a pressie from Dad that me and Xena just didn’t quite understand. They moved with her when she walked.
Mom laughed and said, “Leave them alone,” and “They’re not toys.” But we think otherwise. By the way, do I look odd in this picture? I think it’s just the camera angle, right?
Xena: Wrong.
Lucy: Be quiet Xena. So, can you see that they have stained beards, just like Xena? The bad news is that one-size-doesn’t-fit-all, contrary to what the ad said. So Mom got the company to agree to pay for return shipping with her refund. She called it “false advertising.”
That’s the end of our Christmas recap, friends. We hope you had a good holiday, too. Love and wiggles from Xena the Schnauzer Princess Warrior and Lucy
Xena: Pee S. I have decided that my new bear is a girl and I think I will name her after my aunty and call her Jen Jen (unless you have a better name.
PeePee Ess: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Her Mom had to leave her for three hours while she worked, so Roxxii came upstairs to stay with us.
Oh, you’ve got hair on your face now like me. I think we’re twinsies!
Ok, you can be part of our clan. You may feed me now.
I remember you now!! You just surprised me, coming in without Mom and Dad. Where’s my bestie, Ella?
This little guy was first up, and he was really terrified. I gave him some thoughts of confidence that no one was going to hurt him, and to just relax. He listened to me, and while we passed thoughts back and forth Mom was able to hold him in her lap to finish cutting his nails. He is to be a Christmas present from a fire fighter in Georgia for his little girl. The puppy promised me that he would be a good boy for her.
The one with hair like his daddy growled at me. If you look hard, you can see my tail wagging, ’cause this little guy fussing at a big girl like me made me laugh.
Mom said, “Sit,” and we all sat. The growler (he, he) is up front. He is the only one with a single coat (that means no undercoat), like his Dad. The one that I helped with is in the middle, all groomed and ready to go make a little girl happy. Mom’s favorite is the one in the back. Just looking in his face, we could tell he is smart. He’s really good-natured too, and has a thick coat. He’s in the middle in the next picture.
Mom said me and Xena are enough for this home, so I won’t get to raise a baby brother.
Hi Friends. This story for Nature Friday is from a walk we took the first Sunday in December. The days leading up to it were very rainy and dreary, and no one would take us for a good walk. OK, so we got to go for a short neighborhood walk one day, but there was no one else out to say hi! Slowly, the weather started to warm up from the 30’s to the 50’s F (-10’s to 10’s C) and then Sunday the sky was a clear blue with temperatures in the mid 70’sF (24’sC). Mom helped me with the temperature conversion with a new app she downloaded ’cause her old app disappeared when her old phone got dropped in the t…. Oops, Mom is making the cutting motion across her throat so you can just use your imagination as to why she had to break the bank to get a new phone.
Mom had been 
You can see the creek behind us. It was flowing pretty fast, so we stayed on the trail (mostly). There were ginormous puddles on the trail, too, from last week’s rains, and Mom and Xena kept exploring other ways around the trails while Dad plodded along the edge with me.
There were some really beautiful areas — at least from Mom’s perspective. Me and Xena mostly had our noses down. Xena and Mom were following me and Dad, trying to keep up, and Xena kept pulling on her leash. Me and Dad knew this because we walked to a chorus of “Xena, walk pretty,” and “Xena, walk with me,” and “Xena!!” I told Dad we should just lose them so we didn’t have to listen to it, but he said that wouldn’t be nice,” and “Try to be patient.”
Xena:
This is the Christmas gorilla. I think I will name him Grod, like on our favorite Netflix show, The Flash. Only our Grod will be a nice ape.
I promise I won’t hurt Grod, Mommy. Can I keep him? He’s my new friend, and I’m not afraid of him.
She said it was Angel Piper’s hoodie, and now it can be mine. I wonder if Piper ever pretended to be R2D2 from Star Wars. Beep, boop, beep, beep! He, he. 
I’ve been wearing my new hoodie to bed ’cause Mommy and Daddy
Thank you, Piper and Auntie Jen. We love you!
Today is Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. Xena and I have been thinking about what we are thankful for, so here goes.
This is from Sammy’s birthday on the fourth of July. Every year, Mom used to keep 10 dogs for that whole week, so they all helped Sammy celebrate his birthday. Freda was Mom’s first schnauzer.
The big lunk, Achilles. (We love you Achilles.)
I love you, too, Luce the Deu…I mean Lucy. XOX 
Then it was Xena’s turn.
Mom dragged her out a couple of times to go potty, but she wouldn’t do her bizness. All she wanted was to go back in her kennel. Mom put her food and water in there, too, but she wouldn’t eat, either.
Dad was a bit skeptical about holding Chaz while playing word games with Mom.
But then Chaz helped him win. Mom said, “No fair!” but Chaz and Dad just laughed. They got to be such good friends that at bedtime Chaz slept on Dad’s pillow, right next to his head. Chloe was invited too, but she still wouldn’t come out of her kennel, and growled every time Xena walked past.
Mommy said they are both very, very loving and great pups, too. And she met the birds, the fancy chickens, the pig, the rabbits, the koi fish, and I don’t remember who all else. 
Noodle sat with his Dad while Molly laid on Mommy’s lap and the Moms visited. Mrs. Noodle’s Mom said to come again and be sure to bring me and Lucy, too. Oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy, I can hardly wait. Hi-i-i- Noodle. 🙂
Angel Lexi: Lookout, Xena, here I come. You may eat raw meat every day, but I have not yet had my fill of blood. Eating kibble all my life has left me very, very thirsty. (in best Bela Lugosi voice) I come to suck your…oh forget it, that’s just too corny, even for me. Now, where was I? Tonight, Xena, you become like me!
I told her to quick, get some pictures, ’cause we all know what happens to most of the stuff she plants, BOL! Don’t you think the color goes pretty with my furs? 
It was nice to sit in the orange chair and…
smell the 
Be sure to drop by 
He found my vibrating dog – the one I hate – and tried to make me jealous (I’m not) by carrying it all over the house, like it was his girlfriend or something. Doesn’t it look just like him? Twinsies! Mommy said he could keep the doggie, ’cause Lucy and I don’t like it anyhow. 
Once they got home from Octoberfest Saturday afternoon, Achilles totally ignored Lucy. There she is in the chair behind him, mooning over the big lunk. 
At least I still had the tin schnauzer my Auntie and Uncle gave us. They said tin is the correct gift for wedding anniversary number ten. (He, he, that’s funny — tin for ten.) Now, if I can just get to the wine bottle inside of it… I know that always makes Mommy feel better.
Maria (L) owned a ballroom dance studio and Dad became her 
Then we had a great time together!
We watched Mom and Dad polka and we watched Auntie Jen and Dad polka and we watched Mom and Uncle Bill try to polka, BOL! Talk about a total failure!
Mom and Dad doing the polka.
We listened to the band and watched peeps learn to do the Chicken Dance. Of course the peeps had to have their fun with us, too.
I found out that this was his first time to go anywhere away from home (he’s 4, but was recently adopted by my Uncle and Auntie), so he was a bit freaked. I think that’s why he snapped at me every time I sneaked a kiss on his mouth.
She said we could all be BFF’s, though. I said I was good with that(he, he, yeah, sure, right).
Achilles was so into me that he laid with his back right up against me until his folks took him to the other end of the pavilion.
Ella, stop giving your Dad the stink eye. They’re just getting a funny picture drawn…they’ll be back, and Mom’s here with us.
Look, there’s the nice man who was petting us earlier. Doesn’t he look silly doing the Chicken Dance?
I stayed with Uncle Bill and Dad until Dad got off work. I guess it doesn’t take guys as long to get ready as it does the ladies, BOL!
I don’t know if these ferns count, since they don’t have flowers on them.
They didn’t have beer floats this year, so I didn’t get a chance to do that!
Every time I got a little nervous, I scooted between her legs and she helped me to calm down. I didn’t even mind sitting with her while Mom and Dad did the polka.
That was ok, ’cause there were lots of people walking around who wanted to pet me. I would look at everyone with my friendliest expression and wag my tail so hard that my whole body wagged. There were other dogs there, too. Some of them gave me a friend request, and I always answered with a yes!
I wanted to try to help teach like Angel Lexi used to do with the ballroom dancers, but I wasn’t allowed to. I still made friends with one of the students.
One lady even came out of the lesson just to meet me!
She pet me and we got to be friends.
Sunday is sometimes me and Xena’s day to not eat breakfast. Mom calls it fasting, but like Xena is quick to point out, there is nothing fast about those days! So, when Mom bought me my very own basket of Rocktoberfest sauerkraut to eat at lunchtime, she made me promise not to tell my sister. I convinced her to give me some of hers before I promised.
But wouldn’t you know, the first thing that little schnauzer did when I got home was smell my breath…and she knew! At least I didn’t break my promise, right?
