Earl Grey, hot

 

To quote Jean-Luc Picard, that is, "Earl Grey, hot!" to the replicator on board the Enterprise, in Star Trek, TNG.  Yes, that's how I take my tea.  Earl Grey, hot, no milk or lemon, just tea.  It makes the perfect complement to Christmas cookies, which are, imho, too sweet.

Ember and I worked on snuggles and lap puppy skills on Sunday.  

After tucking her back in for puppy nap #2, Mom packed up the gifts, and most of the contents of Frosty's belly and headed over to her son's house.  The University of Nebraska was playing volleyball against Wisconsin, and that was the backdrop for the gift exchange.

The foster grandson arrived shortly after all us "grands" did, having been on a visit with his birth family.  We shared eggnog and cookies.  Son fixed the eggnog with whiskey for the adults who do imbibe.  He put mine in a different shaped glass to identify it as the one without booze.  Foster grandchild turned down the offer of eggnog, preferring root beer!

Carl had on his jingle bell collar.  It was nice having a one-dog gathering.  Foster grand kiddo and Carl did a lot of tug with the velcro-destroyable tugger.

There was a game of Pokémon cards played at the kitchen table, but foster grandchild wasn't going to play by the modified rules.  Kiddo wanted to deal every hand, and control who got the high value cards.  He wanted to win every hand.  My son quit the game when it became clear that rules were not going to be followed.  

I followed my son's example, as it was getting close to the limit of the time I was willing to let Ember chill at home alone, anyway.  After we both left the game, the other grandma and my daughter in law talked the kiddo into at least rotating dealers.  

The three adult males shared the couch as the volleyball match was wrapping up.  Nebraska goes on to the Final Four again!

As a reward for her extra-long crate nap, I browned ground beef to top Ember's kibble when I got home.  I let her stay up later than usual before going down for the night, essentially combining puppy naps #2 and 3 into that one long crate time.

Ember, on her part, sniffed me over really thoroughly, and gave me that look your dog does.  If you have a dog, you know the one, the one that says, accusingly, that they know (their nose knows) that you've been spending time with other people and another dog, and you didn't take them with!

Yes, yes, that look!

We worked on couch-cuddles again after the sun went down, and eventually she went back into her safe space, and I came up to my room to watch the end of Christmas in Connecticut and get ready for bed myself.

Monday Ember has a grooming appointment, with Tony, her favorite groomer! 

Life is good!  Spark on!