I just came back from my niece-in-law's graduation dinner from nursing school - a quick trip to KC. (I noticed I've wracked up over 3,000 miles in the past 3 weeks with these "quick trips.") Ashley's already lined up a job as a NICU nurse (neonatal intensive care unit). We tried to talk her into becoming a geriatric nurse (since we're all getting older), but I don't blame her for going the other way. I'd probably do the same thing, though I prefer working with mechanical objects over humans.
Ashley and Michael are getting a new puppy (a Havanese), but when they went to pick it out, they were torn between the male and the female. Michael wanted the male dog, so he could name it Dexter (something about the TV show). Ashley wanted the female dog so she could name it Kali. But they could only afford one dog (puppies are expensive!). Janet ended up settling the debate by buying them the second puppy for Christmas. Ashley got a little tearful when she opened the card telling her to pick up 2 dogs, not 1.
BTW, I had to Google what a Havanese was since I've never heard of it. This is a picture of one - not their new puppy, but close. It's a tiny little dog that only grows to about 10 inches tall and maybe 7 or 8 pounds. Even though they have tons of hair, they aren't supposed to shed much (we'll see).
I give Violet a lot of credit for keeping the secret. She knew about the new puppy and even made some drawings for Ashley and Michael, but she didn't spill the beans about the surprise.
I brought a little toy car for Lincoln that I found at Dollar Tree. It was called a "flip car." When it ran into walls, it flipped itself over and kept going in the opposite direction.
Since it had fresh batteries, the crazy car raced all over the floor. Violet and Lincoln kept chasing it around the room and the only time they were able to catch it was when it ran into the stuffed animals under the Christmas tree. It was one of those loud presents that kids love and moms hate, but great aunts don't have to deal with after they go home.
Luckily Janet bought some coloring masks which helped quiet things down before dinner. Unfortunately Lincoln thought "coloring in the lines" meant coloring inside the eye holes. After he picked up his mask, there were 2 bright blue circles on the tablecloth.
