Christmas Morning with Ginny - 2024
Just me and a great bunch of dogs
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Here's the big change this year: I shifted the format of my annual Christmas letter to a webpage to make it easier to view no matter what device you're using -- phone, tablet or laptop. This letter has evolved greatly over the decades -- here's its history in a nutshell...
It all starts with Star Trek. :)
When the original TV series debuted in 1966 my brain nearly exploded with possibilities. My mind stretched far and wide with new concepts and an instant love for high-tech stuff. I was impatient for that kind of tech to become available in my everyday life. I had to wait 17 more years before I got my first computer in 1983 -- a Commodore-64 that had less memory and power than the programmable thermostat on my wall today. But at the time? OMG! It was so exciting!!
Up until then I'd been doing my annual letter on an old Smith Corona typewriter as I sat at the top of Canyon Creek Road in northern Idaho surrounded by big timber, bigger mountains and the glories of Nature as far as my eye could see. That ridiculously wimpy Commodore-64 and a dot matrix printer changed everything for me. The next year I moved up to an XT, then an AT. Most of you today won't even know what those things were, but at the time they were the pinnacle of personal computers. As the years passed I kept upgrading my knowledge, software and hardware. Those were exhilarating times!
When I shifted to digital communications for my annual letter a new tradition was born. I could email it as an attachment on Christmas morning!! No longer held captive by the snail's pace of the US Mail, I could now reach friends and family across the globe instantly! Today, after decades of using all my skills in a faster paced business world, I have settled down into my comfortable little dog biz and I can share my annual Christmas missive using such massive, modern computer power it just blows my mind.
This year my Christmas letter has shifted once again into more pictures, less text, but ending, as usual, on a very positive note with hope and much food for thought. I hope you enjoy this year's letter.
Christmas morning! It's usually Leo who wakes me up. Leo still likes to be "first" no matter what we do. Kevin is content to stay in our warm bed for a while longer.
The house is amazingly quiet this early and I have not yet heard the other dogs in residence begin moving around. No matter how quiet I am, the silence doesn't last long. I get the coffee going and then the house is filled with snuffles and grunts and toenails clickity-clacking on the wood floors as the group scrambles to get outside for first-call.
Leo is now 10 and Kevin is 3 -- I don't know how the years have flown by so fast! I take about 100-200 pix a day of the dogs in residence here. Of the few worth sharing, they mostly go to the moms and dads of the dogs who visit us. Still, I end up with a lot of pix of my own dogs... and I love today's opportunity to be a dog-mom myself and share them with you. :)
Leo continues to be an amazing dog. A true Border Collie, he's super attentive, watching me almost every moment of the day, alert for for any sign that I might need him to do a task.
With as many photos as I take on a daily basis you'd think I'd capture him in all sorts of situations -- but Leo STILL has only two poses: "I LOVE MY BALL!" and "I'M READY!!".
Kevin retains his title as Mr. Photogenic. He's funny, playful and constantly entertaining me every single day...
Kevin is a great player with visitors and quite the active and engaging little guy. He's also known for his gigantic leaping strides while running...
Typical Dog-Mom...
Kevin plays hard...
...and rests thoroughly...
If I only had one word to describe Kevin...
...it would be "HAPPY!"...
There's an adorable side to Kevin that touches my heart...
...I mean, really...
Kevin knows how to find just the right spot...
If you're a Dog-Mom you understand how cute this is...
He knows exactly how to find bliss -- for both of us...
Outdoors is action time...
And my guys take advantage of it...
Bros...
Every day of the week...
I'm enchanted with this little face...
And enchanted in another way entirely by this guy...
Once in a while I just catch a lucky shot...
Merry Christmas Everybody!!...
Each year I like to wind up this letter on a very positive note looking forward -- my tradition. The choices we make today determine how our tomorrows come to be.
By now you all know I am very fond of Pearls-of-Wisdom. I think about them daily, repeat them often, and they become my words to live by.
Ralph Waldo Emerson provided the most powerful quote of all for me:
"You become what you think about all day long."
Halfway through another decade of my life my experience tells me this is oh-so-true. I'm grateful for everything that's happened in my past -- both the good and bad have shaped me into the person I am today. I'm pretty happy with that. I have meaningful work I absolutely love and I'm surrounded by love and joy on a daily basis. I wake up every morning, gaze out my windows and think I am soooo lucky to have ended up in my wooded world at the end of Seminole Drive. I have found my paradise.
Even so, there are more things I want to do in my life, new goals I want to reach. Some seem daunting, but I always remind myself that as long as I keep taking little steps in the right direction I can get anywhere I want to go.
It's worth repeating another amazingly powerful quote from Henry Ford (or the Buddha, depending on how you lean).
"Whether you think you can or think you can't -- you're right."
Truer words were never spoken.
As 2025 approaches, I want to put my energy towards goals that will help me and those around me to live better, happier, and more fulfilling lives. If there's one concept that really needs to go viral in this world it is this:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
I'll finish this today with my absolutely ALL TIME FAVORITE words-to-live by. This one has turned into my annual closer -- the words of Maya Angelou...
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
Merry Christmas!
Love to you all,
Ginny, Leo & Kevin
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