You know what, I'm just going to put this here. Maybe it doesn't belong in this thread. It's not quite "good news" so to speak, but it's a thing to warm my heart and make me smile, so here it is.
This time of year, like many people, I miss my family who has already gone. Just last night I was thinking about my aunt, who I didn't realize until far after the fact, but she had a border collie mix and had some homemade agility equipment she built to play with him (I think it was a him. It's been a long time and she had lots of dogs, some of them I loved and some were not my faves so I don't remember them as much.) I think she would love my dogs and love what I do with them. She would totally understand. Her animals were her family, just like mine are.
Every year when we went down to my grandparent's for Christmas Eve, my grandpa would be in the basement wrapping presents. So we couldn't see my grandpa for a while after arriving because he was wrapping our presents last minute, haha. So it was like double anticipation. When he was done he brought up our presents, AND we got to see him and give him hugs and stuff, haha.
After we were all done unwrapping presents (crap, I'm tearing up now) we would get a big trash bag to put all the wrapping paper in. There was always SO much wrapping paper it wouldn't quite fit in the bag. I don't know how it started but we did it every year. He would pick me up and set me down in the bag and I would jump up and down and smash all the wrapping paper down so we could fit more in, and then he would pick me up to lift me out.
One of my favourite Christmas memories. I really miss him. ugh crying, haha.