Merry Christmas everyone!  Did you get a stocking?
Here is Hamish

Here is a link to last year's stocking story.

Hamish got a tartan bandana, a pig's ear, couple of smoked bones, busy bone chewnola.  It's not what I would want in my stocking but that's what Hamish wanted in his. 

Sometimes we don't get what we want but all our stocking's are different just like in life.  God fills our stocking with good things, as we saw last year James 1:17.  We have to be careful to not be children who sometimes eyes other people's gifts and wants it for themselves without being satisfied what they have actually got.  We may not like to admit it, but sometimes that is what we are like.  God may have given someone else a more beautiful voice, or trust someone with more money than you and it's so easy to not look at our own gifts and be satisfied with the blessings God has given us, but have an eye on others.

So count your own blessings, say thank you for what God has given and bestown on you.  What greater gift could God have given you and shown His love to you but his own son?  You are loved, so what are you going to do with the gift God has given - Jesus?  Accept and open the gift into your life?

Don't forget to look over at the non dog area, for new posts (it's food related at the moment!)

Last time we focused on how important God is (obviously as it is His birthday!) and how we need to spend time with God over the Christmas holidays.  I also want to remind you as well as me, to be careful around our dogs.  With many visitors and the house can be just so busy, don't forget to tell them as well as children to not put chocolate, within reach of dogs.  This includes bags on the floor and even on trees.  Chocolate is highly toxic to dogs and can kill or leave permanent liver damage.

Here is a list of dangerous items and food that you may not be aware of at Christmas time.

This is Hamish's 3rd Christmas and due to my own ineffectiveness of training him and showing him who is top dog, he has to be kept in the family room; away from the tree and Christmas ornaments as he can't be trusted.  I had him on a leash while putting up the tree as leash correcting does work but I dropped a glass bauble and it broke.  Within a second he was on it and had two small broken pieces of glass in his mouth.  I did get both, and glad I went back a second time to double check as got the second piece!   So be careful.

I know you are tired but please don't forget to give your dog the only present or thing he wants (daily) and that's a walk.  It's not only good for him but good for you as well.  It also tires them out and are more likely to lie down and not be hyper so you can enjoy the rest of your day in peace.

I've said this before but it also ties in with spending time with God, even if this is the only time you have alone what a great time you can have with God walking your dog.  If you go with your children then use it to show them God's creation and the seasons and apply it to seasons in their life.

So have a safe season with your dog and also remember whose birthday it is and who then needs to be center of Christmas.  So celebrate and spend time with the "birthday boy."

If video isn't showing it may be firefox/flash problems try chrome.

Just in case you were wondering about Hamish, as it has been a while, here is a video of him trying to figure out what is going on with my singing snowmen.  Sorry about the quality, it was dark when I shot it.

The snowmen are singing about all the food they are going to consume over Christmas, and I think Hamish was jealous as he wanted some!  He didn't know what was going on or what to make of it.

Every Christmas I feel the same.  There are the new gadgets, toys and it's just overwhelming.  I just heard in a news story that stores deliberately want to overwhelm you with piped in smells, noise/music, loads of eye stimulation with lights.  As if they over stimulate you, apparently you are then a bit disorientated and more likely to impulse buy.  Although it doesn't work with me as I just want to stay home and not go into those shops and just buy online!

But with crowds and the season being so busy, it's not just children that get overstimulated and overwhelmed.  So by the time you slip into church for a carol service you are exhausted and it's hard to wind down and concentrate on the one true meaning of Christmas - our redeemer was born.

Satan and his minions does the exact same thing as stores.  Distract us, overwhelm us through busyness or trying to make us believe it's all about family or whatever will work for you. So we concentrate on getting the right presents for children and everything else so we don't have time to spend quality time with God.

We might not even realise it, as what's wrong with cooking, spending time with family or shopping?  Nothing on it's own but we have to strike a balance and realise who is priority number 1 and not just on paper but actually doing it - spending time with God and putting His wishes for you first.  Then, as He loves you and wants the best for you, you won't feel as frazzled or tired.  Also you can be more ready with your family and friends to bring the true meaning of Christmas into conversations, applying it to each situation.

When we talk about the Christmas story - how God loves us so much he gave us the biggest gift of all - His son as He would save us from our sins.  We realise what our priorities should be and what is and isn't important.  So don't stress out and take time with God.

It seems a few people missed my new post in the new area - "non dog posts." 

So I wanted to answer a few questions and let you know about it.

I haven't posted anything for ages, and I apologise for that.  Even before my Aunt died I realised that sometimes I wanted to say something but it wasn't related to the dog.   So do I create a new webpage as well as this?  For now, and we'll see how it works out, I decided to keep it all here but just separate out 'thought for the day' - the dog related posts from the non dog posts.

By doing this, I hope it will keep dog lovers happy, and this after all is called "myGodandmydog."   But a few people don't have dogs and I hope by having a different section it will be relevant to them.  Of course I'd love it if people read both!

I did plan on taking all of the posts here that were not dog related out and put them over in the new area, but because of how I named them (day 1 etc) I can't as it would mess this section up.

I'm still planning on doing my dog posts and that won't change.   So don't forget to read both areas and if you have RSS feed for this area you do need to separately subscribe to the new area if you want updates from that.  See sidebar area for more info and a link to what RSS is.   You may have to redo the RSS for this area, as it seems to not be updating.  This could be due to accidentally having let this webpage domain run out.

Please feel free to give me feedback or comments or questions about all this.