Being a dog Aunt will have to do

I have talked several times here about how I would like to have a dog, see my collected works for the background story.  However, lately I have been thinking that for the time being "borrowing" a dog is a good option.  I love coming home to visit my childhood dog (and maybe my parents too) whenever I can.  Also, my sister (and MOH) got a beagle puppy a few months ago.  Even though he is a crazy little puppy with an extreme amount of enthusiasm for life (aka- running around like a psycho for long amounts of time) I think being his Aunt (favorite!) is great.  He makes me laugh hysterically and is a real lover when he's not being insane.  On Tuesday my sister and I took a drive to scout out some houses for Doug and I to look at (we're moving!) and we took Copper with us.  The whole way home he slept in my lap with his head nestled on my arm, while I was driving of course. :)  My heart majorly melted.

Here are some pictures I took of him while working on a Christmas project.  Hi, my name is Copper and look what a cutie I am.

I don't really understand why you are trying to make me sit still and nice with this stupid hat on, but since you're my favorite Aunt I will try to go with it.

You can only ask so much though woman, because I would much rather eat this hat than wear it.  This is the one that I framed for my sister because I think it is the most representative of the true Copper spirit.

I fully intend to make him my running partner when the weather isn't so yucky and when we have moved (!) closer to my family.  And because he is way too cool and important to be left out, here is a nice picture of the first love of my life, Rascals.

I call this Mr. Ace's "I'm going to kill you in your sleep for ruining my life" look.  If a glare could kill, I would definitely be dead as many times as I have seen it.

Merry Christmas from everyone in our house except the aforementioned angry feline!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well, no, I guess it really isn't here in the Midwest, but inside our house it is since we put up the tree on Monday. Yes, I know that today is Thanksgiving and I have a post about what I am thankful for in the works too, don't worry. Just a bit out of order. I love Christmas and I don't care for turkey, so deal with it. :)

Our tree is a hodgepodge of decorations from both before and since we have been together. It's definitely a random assortment of items, but it works. Here are some of my favorites:

This is an ornament with a picture of our first cat and from our first Christmas together. We actually got a kitten in late August, who I thought I had written about but I guess not. So now I need to work on a blog post about her in addition to getting her an ornament for the tree.This is a new ornament for this year and was a gift from my mom. Nothing can put me in the Christmas mood faster than watching the claymation Rudolph. Of course, this can also make me a tad homesick, as it reminds me of the long hours spent watching Christmas movie after Christmas movie with my mom pretty much every December that I can remember.
I couldn't resist purchasing this adorable cow angel ornament that I found at Target when Doug and I stopped by to pick up ornament hangers. I am considering it a tribute to my Aunt Sharon who married a dairy farmer.
Doug made a set of two Ninja Turtles when he was a kid and they have always found a place on our tree as a reminder of how one of the first things we bonded over when we met was our mutual admiration for the Turtles when we were younger. What can I say? - Barbie just didn't interest me. We also bonded over going to and disliking the same orthodontist but that hasn't warranted an ornament.
This ornament was a gift from Doug's mom from the Christmas we got engaged.
This sparkly pear is from the wedding of my sister Audra and brother-in-law Derrick. I'm not actually sure if it is in fact an ornament but I love sparkly things.
I majorly heart snowmen. When we move (hopefully before next Christmas) and have more room I fully intend to have two trees. One will be our hodgepodge tree. The other I hope to decorate in snowmen, silver garland and ribbon, and white lights. These are two of my snowmen from past years...

... and this is a new snowman for this year, also a gift from my mom.
And to top it off, our version of an angel- the angel bear! This is actually a small Boyds bear that was a gift from my mom's good friend forever ago. I have always loved it and when we were putting up the tree together for the first time and I discovered that Doug had no tree topper, I knew just the perfect one!
Anyone else have such a motley crew of ornaments on their tree?