Happy New Year!

We had visitors for Christmas, my sister Jenny, her husband Marc and their daughter, Sofie. My parents were also able to make the trip from the snowed in, frozen Denver in time for Christmas. Everyone was happy to see each other, especially Grandma and Grandpa to see Sofie. Sofie is cute and likes to play in Jenny's makeup. She did a pretty good job, don't you think!


Sincerely,
Julie

My 1st Christmas

I love this thing called Christmas. There were lots of treats, presents, bones and lots of guests. Since I am such an excited dog, I had to try by best to contain myself of all my excitement. I may have knocked a few people over and accidntely opened a present that was not mine, but despite my timeouts, I think I could get used to Christmas.
When Bill came in to take some family photos, I wanted to make sure to get in one, so I went for the softy area-- Marc and Dad. The photo is blurry because I think Bill was laughing at my zeal. My birthday party is next month, and I think I will have fun at that event since my buddy Gunner will be there too. He's also a German Shorthair pointer and is excited like I am a lot of the time.

Energetically yours,

Moses

An Eventful Christmas

Hi, Laz here. I really enjoyed Christmas this year because we had a lot of visitors who brought sniffs from far away places I have not been. I had to teach Mosi how to open presents with help from Dad. I got a can of tennis balls, lots of treats, a few squeek toys, and best of all we played some football with Marc who is really good. I also got to play a little tug with Larry. There was also a little girl who did not like going to bed at night, so I sat outside her room as she cried to let her know I cared. Another fun thing was when my friend Bill came over the day after Christmas to help take photos. He even let me get in the pictures taken outside. I think Moses was off in another yard tracking some bird-- those darn pointers! Another fun thing we did was that Mom, Dad, Mosi and I took some Christmas cookies and candy to the Smithermans over on Apex. They have been under the weather a lot this year and enjoyed our brief visit. I also got to see many of the Muellers on our walk! I just love seeing folks out on our walks. If you see me coming, come out and say Hi.

Your pal,

Lazarus

Christmas 2006

I thought it would be a good idea to have a variety of perspectives on Christmas from the Romig pack. I will start by saying that while it was nice seeing Julie's family, it was a lot of hard work hosting, cooking, and cleaning up for seven people and two eager dogs. For Christmas Eve dinner, I made some steak with baked potatoes, and for Christmas Day, I got the smoker out and cooked a rack of pork ribs and a beef brisket. Julie added some cornbread (thanks to June's egg) and some egg noodles. The boys greatly enjoyed scraps from those meals.
As you can see in the photos, we had a lot of presents, and I received a Nebraska football jersey from the Eureks (Nebraskans) that I will enjoy. This is especially for you Brad!
My final parting thoughts are that while I like the Alamo a lot, I hope to have a respite from touring the site since I have been there four times this month, and I would like to thank all the people who have hosted me for the holidays in the past, especially Verna Juska who was my inspiration this week.

Happy New Year!

Kevin

Painting and the River

Over the weekend, we painted our barn and had some help. When Julie was painting on the low areas and sitting on the ground, Lazie decided that it was a good opportunity to give her some massive kisses. The problem was that he approached her from the front which meant that he rubbed up against the fresh paint. He also came over to me to hang out and stepped in my trim color basket. He may have also had alterior motives. Being that it was latex paint, he got to go to the river to have it washed off of him. Moses was also excited to go, but he was paint free. After some hard swimming, Laz got all the paint off, and was good as new.

Kevin

Mom's visit

My Mom was here over the last week. It was her first time to meet Moses and to see Central and South Texas. It seemed like the highlights for her were seeing the Alamo, meeting Julie's boss, and seeing live music last night at Tavern in the Gruene. The group we heard most was Ded Ringers. It was a special live broadcast of "Roots and Branches" which features Americana bands.
This picture comes from Mission Concepcion in South San Antonio that is part of the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. Moses was so sad to see her go that he rode in the front seat the whole way home from the airport. I think she hooked him up with treats because he's so cute and manipulative.

Kevin

COOKIES!

Lazie loves gooey cookies. Mosi loves gooey cookies.

Kevin made his special Verna Juska chocolate chip cookies this past weekend. The dogs are just mesmerized by these cookies and love to sneak bites. Of course, Kevin makes a batch sans chocolate chips just for them!

Bark Cafe

On Sunday, Mom and Dad took us to a restaurant! We actually got to go in and get a burger! This restaurant was so great because it was right on the San Marcos River and I could swim the whole time we were there. Moses was there too and he got in trouble once for running up and bugging the restaurant manager. We got to meet lots of other dogs and Mom and dad kept saying it was for a good cause...the Humane Society. We even got to get our picture taken with Santa. What a great time!

Laz

Review of FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

This movie is the latest film by Christopher Guest-- the genius behind such films as, "A Mighty Wind" "Dog Show" and "Waiting for Guffman." The premise is following washed-up actors struggling through making a B-grade film about A Jewish family dealing with a sick mother and a homosexual daughter. The storyline is preposterous and the acting/directing is awful, but internew buzz creates hype saying that one or more of the actors is in the running for an Academy Award. The plot follows the Hollywood hype machine through until the Oscar nominations. The pack takes turns reviewing the film.

Julie--- It was good, but it could have been better. Definately not as good as "A Mighty Wind" but I got most of the jokes in this one.

Lazarus-- What are you talking about?

Kevin-- This film was definately worth seeing, but it was not as good as some of the other films by Guest. The perfomances by the actors were very good, but some of the most talented players were given minor roles. As I left the theater if felt unfortunately far removed from Hollywood.

Moses-- The popcorn was fabulous!

Photos with dogs

This Saturday, we got up early and took the dogs to downtown San Anotnio to take a Christmas Card photo. Lazarus and Moses were really excited to find new scents and people to meet. Being that excited, they were not really interested being still and posing for a photo-- especially at the River Walk. All Lazarus could focus on was the water and the River which he ended up going into for a few seconds and Moses found pigeons to be incredibly entertaining.
Most of you who read this blog will get a card with a better photo than this, but we wanted to share this one since it won the "booby prize." Also, in honor of Kelly Ripa who once sent a card with all her kids crying saying have a crappy Christmas, this is our attempt at humor.

Kevin