Thanks to all of you for providing me a place to vent, to feel support and to land when things have challenged me this past year. We are like famiy, we do not always agree but when push comes to shove we all want what is best for the country we love. We are blessed to live in a place where we can disagree with our leaders and each other without fear.

It can get ugly here sometimes but in the end we care more than we curse fellow DUers.

May 2014 give us a Democratic Congress who will move this country forward, never lookimg back!

Happy Holidays!

I don't know if anyone else experiences this but every year we go through a rolling drama with my husband's family that we affectionately call "the Christmas Guilts".

It begins with the gifts, we decided to approach the family a few years ago about how expensive the gift giving had become and asked if we could draw names. Of course they threw a fit, made us feel the Scrooge and insisted their teenage children should get gifts from the entire family. They said we could draw names as adults with a $100 limit, please! The lists are made and sent to us (we do not have children), long story short it continues to be an issue.

The Christmas visits. We prefer to visit the family in the summer, we spend a week with each side (they live in close proximity). It works for mine, his never. The guilt about not being "a family" began yesterday in earnest.

I actually like Christmas, I love the colors, the music, the smells, the happy faces. I HATE the commercialization of it, and the forced family stuff. Families who are not close are expected to become the Waltons for a week every year....never works well.

Thanks for letting me vent !

In the past year we have lost three dogs. All three were 14 years or older, all three were put down in the final stages of their illnesses.

With Henry he could not longer walk from severe back arthritis, he quit eating and we felt the most humane thing was to put him down. With Daisy, she went into complete renal failure right at Christmas last year and the vet told us nothing could be done. We made the decision to euthanize her.

With the third one, Jasmine, Daisy's sister (we rescued them together because they were a bonded pair when we got them at age 2) it was heartbreaking. She had a tumor in her mouth, she had a severe heart murmur that required daily medication and she was going downhill rapidly. The hard part with Jasmine is, she was still eating a bit, not her full meals but some. The tumor was bleeding heavily and the pain medication we gave her was no longer working, she cried when the meds were wearing off. I began to dose her more frequently per the vets wishes.

Her eyes were still bright, when she had the pain meds she would seem very well. I have agonized over the decision we made on Friday to put her down. I have always grieved the loss of my furbabies, and I am glad we have the option of putting them out of their pain. But with this one I find myself thinking I should have waited.....it is very hard for me, had anyone else experienced this? How do you get past it? I loved her so much I would do anything to ease her pain, did I do it too soon?