Merry Christmas!!
This year's Christmas card provided some unique challenges. As usual, we started with the cats, who are usually good for spreading joy, one way or another. After last year's great showing, this year they just didn't seem to be in the holiday spirit. We tried a couple new hats, one with a Santa beard that was universally despised - we got this shot of Jackson and failed completely with the other two cats.
Then we tried this hat that is supposed to be a Christmas tree with the skirt around the cat's neck - yeah, right. Here's what it looks like in action:
So we moved on to some old favorites from past years. Overall, there's obviously some adorable shots, but it kind of felt like they were phoning it in - nothing inspired here.
We tried to post Mitten with Mickey, and that got ugly real fast:
Mickey is okay, but it was touch and go for a bit there. So we gave up and worked with Rowdy. Have you ever seen a dog less interested in posing?
Okay, maybe you have, but when we had to actually prop his head up to keep him awake, we gave up.
This is when it got fun. Many of you already know the background, but for those who don't, we had a baby pony born this Summer!
His name is Bennett, and he had a pretty rough start but is doing better now. Have you ever taken a 5 month old colt that hasn't been out of his stall for a couple days because of the rain and tried to photograph him in a Santa hat and antlers? No? Well here's a hint: it's an adventure. All things considered, I'm pretty happy with the pictures that we did get, and he had a great time chewing on the crop, and chewing on the hat, and chewing on Dan's arm, and chewing on my hair... you get the idea.
It's been a crazy year, and we are very grateful for all the support that we have received from family, friends, and also complete strangers this year. Happy holidays to all of you!
Dan & Robyn Beagle
We are working on this year's Christmas card, and thought it would be fun to add the cards from the last couple years here so they can be enjoyed again. This was our card in 2013:
Merry Christmas!!
This year our annual Christmas email has a new victim family member. Introducing: Jackson!! Here he is trying on his Christmas Eve jammies:
He is our new rescue kitty, and he is fluffy, full of personality, and quite a character. We originally chose him to model most of the holiday attire this year. You may need to cover one eye to deal with the adorable here – seriously, how cute is this:
And we think this should be the cover of a magazine – we’re not sure *what* magazine, but we’re sure there’s a market for this somewhere:
However, sibling rivalry is always a factor, and Boo decided he needed to step up the cuteness factor to keep up with Jackson.
I think it’s clear that Boo is still in the running for most adorable holiday cat, even if it is a close race. Mitten is pretty horrified by Jackson, and refused to participate at all this year.
Bah, humbug to Mitten, right? The ultimate title of Most Adorable Christmas Cat 2013 is yet to be decided. Here is the head-to-head competition:
We certainly aren’t able to choose the winner. Safe to say, everyone is getting salmon on Christmas morning. Can you blame us? Happy holidays to everyone!!
Love, Dan & Robyn and all the 4-legged critters
For this new blog, I thought I'd go back and post a couple holiday emails that we did prior to the blog. This was our Christmas card for 2012:
Merry Christmas!
We had our annual pet abuse session tonight, with Rowdy as the star this year. First, he models his fetching plaid ensemble, complete with bells:
Then we added the classic red cable-knit sweater, a garment NO self-respecting Labrador should omit from his wardrobe:
He explored a new look in a striped hoodie, and we decided it made him look a bit “wrong side of the tracks” so we cut that short:
which was fine with Rowdy as hoods aren’t really his thing. For the finale, we debuted the Rudolf look, and had more wardrobe malfunctions than your average starlet – in our case, ears were the issue, along with flaccid antlers. Not the most manly look, I think we can all agree.
Dan volunteered for antler support:
And then we just let him shake his head and catch some cookies for being such a great model!!
The cats were EXTREMELY happy to let the dog have the honors this year, so we’ll just bring back a couple classic favorites of holidays past to remind you how dang cute they are:
Merry Christmas to all!!!
Dan & Robyn and the critters
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