HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!!!

Yes, yes it's New years eve once more and I couldn't be happier. I can hardly believe another year has come and gone. 2007 went by in a flash. I notice that the older I get the faster they go. Next year I'll be turning three, which means I had better not blink or I'm liable to miss something.

Christmas was a lot of fun. I got a lot of cool stuff this year. Zoe and I each got our own new bumpy ball, and we all got really neat chew toys. I also got a few new stuffed toys as well, some of which I'm not quite sure how to describe, one of which looks like a baseball with legs, another looks like a pig with the body of a donut. Who knows what they were thinking when they made this stuff.

I didn't however get that Hillary Clinton chew toy I was hoping for because it was all sold out, but I'm not complaining, from what I hear, those rubber Hillarys are kind of bitter tasting, and a little hard to chew. Besides, I don't need to be biting into something that's going to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

As for New Years, like last year I won't be making any of those silly resolutions. I just decided there's nothing about me that really needed changing, so I'm just going to sit this one out this year and have a good time.

So let me just say: Happy New Year! to all my friends and family.
2007 was a very good year, and with any luck at all 2008 will be even better.
It's good being Reilly...

So.. Party On dudes.

Reilly's Happy Christmas...

The following letter was sent to the editor of the New York Sun by 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, regarding the existence of Santa Claus.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Dear Editor,
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

The editor, Francis P Church published his response on
September 21, 1897
This is what he wrote.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world, which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Marley's on the mend...

Glad to report Marley is feeling much better. Today we got the results back from all her tests and thankfully it was all good news. Her blood work showed no sign of serious illness and her biopsies came back negative. It looks like old Marley will be just fine. She goes back to the doctors next week to have a couple of stitches removed and by then she should be done with all her medications. I would guess that by the end of next week, she should be good as new.
Good going Marley, you dodged another one!

Marley's not feeling well...

Poor Marly had a bad week. Mom & Dad had to take her to the the dog hospital on Thursday to have a lump on her rump removed. She also had a boo-boo on her foot which the doctors thought might in some way be related, but as of now that doesn't appear to be the case. Thankfully.

They gave her a whole bunch of tests and made her spend two nights at the hospital where she was givin all kinds of special medicines made just for dogs. I'm sure it must have been terrible for her, I myself hate taking medicine, even when they try to hide it in a big hunk of liverwurst.

They brought her home this afternoon wearing some funny looking thing on her back leg; she also has to wear one of those crazy upside-down lamp shades on her head for about a week until she's all healed up. I know she's got to hate that, and I do feel sorry for her, but I must admit, she sure looks pretty funny.
Hopefully by the end of next week she'll be feeling a whole lot better and so will Mom & Dad.

For now Zoe and I have to try to be extra nice to Marley which means trying not to laugh, even when we see her trying to climb the stairs wearing that silly thing on her head.

I think I'm going to get Dad to take a picture of that..