Homer's Happy Christmas

It’s Christmas day everybody! I’ve had a great day and I just wanted to share some of my festive photos with you.

I’ve received a few more cards since I last blogged (Thanks again!) Here’s the final display above the fireplace. On the bottom are my humans’ cards. (Tsk! Pathetic!)

Whilst preparing the Christmas lunch, we came across some weird looking vegetables. Look at this carrot!

Look at the booti-ful turkey which Missus cooked for us.




Man, I couldn’t wait to get my fangs into that bird. Droooooool... I spent the whole morning in the kitchen worshipping the ‘Turkey God’.





Here’s a snap of our Christmas lunch. It was booti-ful...

... and here’s my helping. (It doesn’t look much, but I had four servings!)

After lunch, we opened our presents. Here’s a photo of me with all of the gifts under the Christmas tree.

I got Dad a new hat. I should have known that Missus would make me wear it for a photo–opportunity.

Look at all my presents. They were great and I was so happy!

I even got some special doggy Christmas bonbons.

Merry Christmas everybody. Lots of love and waggy tails from Homer!

My Christmas Cards

Wow, I feel so popular. For the past couple of weeks, I have been receiving Christmas cards from my doggie friends all over the world.

Here’s a sample from my post bag.

Missus has put my cards on display above the fireplace. They look so booti-ful!

Here’s a close-up. So far, I have received about 50 cards and I love every one of them.

I just want to say a big thank you to all the doggies who have been kind enough to remember me in their Christmas thoughts. It’s been a pleasure to receive every one of your cards.

Lemonade Anyone?

Hi folks.

Paco and Milo have given me a ‘Lemonade Award’...

Just wanted to say thanks to you guys. Recognition is always appreciated! Heh... heh... heh...

My Christmas Card 2008 Photo Shoot

For a few weeks, I had been busy racking my brains on designs for this year’s “Homer’s Christmas Card”. I had toyed with a number of ideas, but none of them seem appropriate.

You can imagine my joy, therefore, when we experienced a recent downfall of snow. The backdrop was perfect and my humans and I were soon outside and into a full blown photo shoot. Here are the results...

At first, we thought that a ‘regal’ sitting pose would be ideal. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite paying attention for this shot.

I was even worse in this one. D-oh!

When it became obvious that a sitting pose was not my forte, Missus suggested that I tried a seductive lying down pose. Unfortunately, my frosty face looked anything but seductive.

Finally, we snapped a picture which we all thought was ideal. My pose was enchanting; the props (i.e. my hat and scarf) were perfectly aligned; the backdrop was stunning: and we even had a fresh snowfall to complete the picturesque scene.

Soon, I got to work on turning my masterpiece into this season’s festive card. Here’s how it ended up...

Don’t you think it’s booti-ful? Hopefully, some of you will have already received a paw-written original in the post. For those of you who I accidentally missed out, this one is especially for you!

Merry Christmas and Happy Howlidays Folks!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Aroo woo woo!

We recently had our first snowfall since arriving in Holland. I’ve only ever experienced snow once before, but this was only for a short time while I was living in South Korea. Apart from that, the weather in Australia, Singapore and Southern China was sun, sun and more sun.

As you can imagine, I immediately took the opportunity to get out into this winter wonderland...

As you can see, I was fully wrapped up in all of my winter clothing.





Why is my nose so cold???

And my belly???

Needless to say, Missus took the opportunity for a photo shoot. She wanted the perfect picture for this year’s Christmas card. More on this later...

After I returned to the house, Missus took some lovely photos of the neighbourhood. Here are a few:

Our house.

Our neighbours.

My walkway up to the park. I think I will be skating there tonight.

The park where I normally take my daily walks.

I think this is a very picturesque photo of my park.

Unfortunately, the snow has all melted now. I really loved it and I can't wait for it to come back!

Going Ga-Ga in My Garden

You’ve already seen some pictures of me posing nicely in my garden. Of course I’m not always so mild mannered. To prove my point, here’s a video of me going loopy in the garden...

My Garden of Eden

One of the favourite things about our new home is that, for the first time, I have a garden to play in. Here are a few photos of me messing around.

‘Booti-ful’ me in my ‘booti-ful’ garden!

I had to censor this one to spare my blushes.

Making myself comfortable.

Chilling out while Dad slaves away in the background.

I thought I’d go and give him a paw.

More of me frolicking in my garden later...

Conquering 'The Stairs'

As I mentioned in my last posting, I’ve been having some difficulties with the stairs in my new home. Originally, the steps were bare wood and they were so slippery that I was scared to use them. Then, my humans put some carpeting down especially for me. This was a great help as my big paws could actually get some grip.

Eventually, I picked up the courage to try and climb the stairs. Here’s a video clip showing the ‘ups and downs’ during my learning process.

My New Home in the Netherlands

When I was first told that we were coming to live in the Netherlands, I had visions that we would be living in a windmill. I loved the idea of watching the rotating sails spinning around all day and hypnotising me.

My dream Dutch residence.

However, after spending the first few months in Holland moving from place to place, I was just happy to finally find a place that we could call ‘home’. As it turned out, the place that we eventually settled in is even more ‘pawsome’ than a windmill. I call it my ‘Dutch Castle’.

This is my new home. I reckon that if I can get someone to install some sails, I can make it look just like a windmill.

This is my new study room. As you can see, I am just taking a well-deserved rest from the blogging. Blog! Blog! Blog!

I won’t bore you with a guided tour of the whole house. However, there are two things which I really wanted to show you...

Firstly, I finally have a garden to call my own. I know that I will have hours of endless fun here, frolicking around and trampling the flowers like ‘Dogzilla’.

Secondly, this is also the first place that I’ve lived in which has stairs. As you can see from the photo, I’m not too comfortable negotiating them. More about this in the future...

Some More Awards for Me

I would like to thank Dino, a golden retriever from Taiwan and Pipa, also a golden retriever from Portugal who has kindly presented me with the following awards:

How cool is that!

My Halloween Costume

I’m sure you’ll recall my Halloween costume which I showed you in a recent blog. Well, unbeknown to me, Missus sent one of my photos to the ‘Dogs With Blogs’ website. Would you believe it, I actually won (joint) first prize in the Halloween Scariest Costume competition. Yippee!

Here’s the winning shot:

I would like to thank all those who voted for me. Woof!

Central Rotterdam

As you know, I’ve spent the past few weeks in the Golden Tulip Hotel in the centre of Rotterdam. Staying in a hotel can be boring, especially when you’re confined to a tiny room. Other than sleeping, all there is to do is watch endless re-runs of the news from BBC and CNN. To relieve the boredom, I got my humans to take me on a whistle-stop tour of the hotel surroundings. Here are a few pics from our outing:

Me and Missus just outside of the hotel.

The Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge) is in the background. Our hotel is right next to the bridge.

Me and Missus (again).

This is a view of the old buildings across the River Maas .

Look at the boat in the background. I wonder if I am going to get one?

During our walk, we passed by a quaint little street called Koningin Emmaplein. The houses there are booti-ful!

Then, we took a stroll through De Heuvel Park. There was plenty of space there for me to sniff around.

Behind the hotel, there are a number of quays of historical significance. These also provide a great setting for my night time walks.

There are even maritime museums to be explored...

...and a ‘Walk of Fame’ where celebrities leave their marks. How come no one has asked me to leave my paw prints? I am a celebrity after all!

Finally, we made it back to the hotel. As you can see, I was ‘dog-tired’ after my excursion. It was great fun and very interesting though!