Beaumont's Christmas Letter Debut (2005)

2005

Greetings to all of my favorite friends and relatives,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits as 2005 draws to a close.  As I lay down beneath the desk to write this, I cannot help but reflect on all of the blessings and excitement of this past year.  Since Patrick and Hattie were too modest to share a Christmas letter with everybody, I took it upon myself to let everybody know how the Maguire’s are doing this year.  Besides, outside of barking at the neighbors and begging for a piece of Dad’s pizza I really had nothing better to do. 

We started off the year by going skiing in Vermont.  This was a big step for Mom as she is not much of a skier, but she decided to give it a try after finding the Two Dog Lodge.  This was a magnificent bed and breakfast near the ski resort ant it was built around ME.  They had doggie day care, a doggie bed in the room, and biscuits in bed served every morning.  I had a lot of fun playing and being spoiled.  Apparently mom also took lessons and learned to ski as well as Dad. 

 Although Mom enjoyed the snow and winter in Vermont, she apparently got tired of the snow and winter at home.  After finally helping Dad shovel the driveway once or twice, she gave him the go-ahead on buying a snowblower.  This has become Dad’s and my favorite tool.  Whenever a flake hits the driveway, Dad fires up the snowblower and I help by running around in the snow and howling. 

 Spring brought warmer weather and many projects around the house.  Mom planted a new garden for me in my back yard and Dad got stuck doing an extensive ‘clean up project’ of the back yard which he kept blaming me for.  I kept a close eye on the garden all summer and enjoyed lying down in Mom’s beautiful flowers.  Dad also built a small patio for the hot tub which had been sitting in the garage for a year.  After some help from Uncle John, they got the tub up and running (I still do not understand the whole ‘hot tubbing’ thing since they won’t let me jump in), and Mom now gets to park her car in the garage. 

Mom and Dad cashed in on a wedding present of frequent flyer miles and went to Europe on vacation in June.   They studied my Swiss heritage by visiting the St. Bernard Monastery in Switzerland, where they saw a herd of St. Bernards less beautiful than me.  They also went to Paris and Amsterdam.  While they took planes and trains all over Europe, I got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Maguire’s where I was spoiled for nearly two weeks.  I really wish they would lecture Mom and Dad on how to properly love and provide for such a beautiful four-legged specimen. 

In keeping with her tradition of having too many irons in the fire, Mom went and got a summer job at the mall.  She must have finally figured out that it was not fair that Dad has to work all year while she gets all summer to be lazy.  By fall, Mom had amassed quite the wardrobe.  I am pretty sure that the whole thing was not much of a money-maker, but it gave Mom something to do when she wasn’t walking me or at the gym.  Speaking of jobs, Dad must have screwed up at work, because they gave him a partner who has to live with us now.  They started calling Dad a ‘K-9’ officer and he brought home ‘Lenny’.  Lenny is a German Shepherd with pointy ears.  Mom and I do not like pointy ears, but Lenny is turning out to be not so bad.  He is kind of goofy looking, but we get along famously now that I have explained that while I am a family member, he is simply an employee.  He must be pretty dumb, too.  Dad and Lenny have to go to school for 14 weeks in Indiana.  They spend all week down there where Dad tries to teach Lenny how to use his nose and chase people and find things and stuff.  According to Dad it is going pretty well, but Lenny still doesn’t get to graduate until February.

While you may be impressed by Lenny’s higher education, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my greatest personal achievement so far this year.  After taking several classes with Mom, she entered me in my first dog show this fall.  That’s right, I got to enter the annual South Lyon Pumpkinfest Dog Show. I won a beautiful ribbon and was crowned ‘Biggest Dog’. I know that the judge wanted to give me Best in Show, but I told him it would be tacky for me to win in two categories.  I won a whole big bag of prizes, but unfortunately a lot of them were to places like restaurants where I was not welcome.  Mom and Dad owe me big time. 

School started back up for Mom and she is no longer teaching Spanish.  She is now teaching English and Debate.  Her Debate Team has had a lot of tournaments his year and I have had to give up a lot of my quality time with Mom so she could travel around the state with her team.  She is going to he headed to the State Finals pretty soon and once debate is over, she will be moving into the Forensics season.  I like Forensics a lot more than debate because Mom is home to walk me more during Forensics season. 

Mom also recently found out that she will be going to Australia this summer.  She has gotten involved in a youth program called ‘People to People’ and is going to be a chaperone on a three week trip to Australia .  Dad and I are already planning all of the fun bachelor activities we can do.  However, Mom seems to think we will be too busy working on her list of things to do around the house.   Dad’s got big plans to put a new roof on the house this summer and Mom wants a new kitchen.  Personally, I think I have a better chance of getting a gold plated dinner bowl than Mom does of getting a new kitchen next summer.  But we’ll see.

Well, this letter is getting long and I think I hear something to bark at in the back yard.  As I put on my barrel to enjoy the snowy winter months, I think of all the wonderful friends and family we have and hope that your holiday season is filled with blessings and joy.

Merry Christmas,

Beaumont

 

(and Hattie and Patrick)

 

(…ok and Lenny, too)