Viva La Blue!

Look at me, 2 posts in a row!!  That counts as a blogging streak. 

So we got a puppy for Christmas.  He’s pretty damn cute, although potty training has been painful thus far.  He’s another French Bulldog, and happens to share a bio dad with Henny.  We debated his name: Louis XIII, Napolean, Pepe, Pierre, etc, but we settled on a German name instead (we are in Milwaukee, afterall).  Fritz.  It kinda fits with Hendrick.  And he kinda looks like a Fritz.

When Emilie and Cris were here, Cris (aka the Dog Whisperer) was giving us pointers on training.  He reminded us we should choose a simple phrase we get the puppy used to hearing when he is peeing outside.  Eventually, he begins to associate hearing that phrase with the urge to pee.  The phrase could be something like “hurry up,” or “go potty.”  But of course Travis couldn’t waste that kind of power on a benign command phrase.  Nope.  He decided ours would be “VIVA LA BLUE!”  Apparently that’s the French national soccer team’s chant.  I fought it, and then he threatened to make it “LET THEM EAT CAKE!”  That’s a nerdy European history reference, in case you didn’t recall Marie Antoinette’s famous line.  Since he’s home with the dog 70% more than I am, he knew he’d won this battle.  So, somehow, I find myself outside with the peeing dog, hunching forward and whisper-shouting “Viva La Blue!  Viva La Blue,” in attempt to avoid the neighbors hearing and realizing we’re even weirder than they already think!

Anyway, here are a few cute Christmas-time(ish) videos. This one is from a Christmas festival – kids are jumping on Santa’s big chair:

The next video is of Shane talking about Star Wars and Darth Vader, his favorite topic in the whole galaxy.  We watched the entire original trilogy this week and, shockingly, the kids LOVED every second.  I thought for sure they were too young, but Travis has been talking to them about this story for at least 3 years, so I guess they were mentally prepped.  They each got a little something different out of the story – Shane is ALL ABOUT Darth Vader and the “light savers”, Finley loves Princess Leia, and Jack is interested in the concept of good versus evil.

Griffie kissing the new puppy:

Proof of Finley’s Christmas morning joy: