A very easy Christmas

Could it be true that dogs, especially calm, undemanding, infallibly house-trained ones, gentle the atmosphere? Yesterday was certainly one of the most chilled out Christmas days I have ever experienced. I felt no stress in any direction, not even to get out of sleep clothes, which I didn't actually do until just before dinner, when my niece and her boyfriend were already here. Before that, my husband, son, daughter and I had awoken, opened gifts, ate a breakfast of waffles and strawberries that our daughter made for us, then everyone dozed or played with their gifts. Later we binge watched a bit of Weeds using the Roku set up our son gave us, cooked a meal with no time pressure, chatted and debated the merits of things, told jokes and laughed uproariously with one another, and through it all, from Christmas Eve night onward, Nina was there.

Nina is the dog that belongs to my upstairs neighbor. My daughter regularly takes care of her, whenever our neighbor, a recent empty nester, gets a notion to travel, which she does often. We have all fallen in love with Nina, and I do believe she contributed greatly to the very laid back atmosphere of our day. It was one of the best Christmases ever, I allowed it be just what it was, and somehow, when my daughter took Nina home at close to midnight, we all missed her big round eyes gazing into our souls. My daughter, who is virtually her co-carer at this point, and who Nina clearly adores, feels somewhat victorious that we all melted at Nina's charms. I know what that's about. My girl is looking for babysitting when she gets her own dog. "It will be your first grandchild," she tries to tell me.