It will be different this year - JYC 12

I shan't dwell on this bit too much for obvious reasons (some of you may understand others may not - so be it).  I think I have already mentioned that this will be our first year without our handsome hound (as we called him) Sammy.  He will be greatly missed, we shall smile and laugh about the way he just so wanted to be involved in the whole christmas day thing, from opening presents to helping cook lunch!!!  How he never broke my neck I don't know :).
Mick and I shall always smile though thinking about the first Christmas we had with him.  Bernadette was 4yrs and Amanda 2yrs.  Brenadette had worn us down re a dog, Mick had always wanted an English Bull Terrier so we hunted high and lo for one and found one in Exeter.  Mick and I went to see them without the girls then nearer the time when he was ready to be collected, our neighbour wrote a letter to Bernadette asking her to take her mum, dad and Amanda to an address in Exeter where an extra special christmas present was waiting for her, she needed to take a large cardboard box and a blanket, then signed it father christmas.  So off we all set, we asked Bernadette on the way there if she had any idea what it might be and she said "a barbie horse"  (typical -would have been so much cheaper!!)  We arrived at the house went in and when we were in the lounge the owners let the puppies in six of them came running in and were all over us, Amanda giggling her head off and Bernadette stood there in silence, eyes wide open.  Then we heard a little welp looked at the kitchen door and this bundle fell though the door way, got up and went over to Bernadette!  She couldn't believe it when we told her one was coming home and that is how Sammy arrived.
I guess our other memorable Christmas was 1994, Amanda was due on the 28th Dec, as Mick says it was the driest Christmas he has ever had "laughs"  - she kept him dry until the 4th January, well worth the wait though.  Now she towers over me and can almost look Mick in the eye in bare feet (he is 6'2")!!!