Friday, December 23, 2011

Hannah’s Happy Holiday Heart

Mom’s not particularly smart. You would have thought that after the yarn incident she would have closed the door to the temporary-Christmas-present-wrapping-room, but no. She left it wide open for the taking, and take did we! Hee, hee! Falalalala lalala la! Lucy and I had a hay day in there with the paper and the ribbon and those wrapping paper tubes (they’re the best to toss around). Mom bought a nice drawing book for her nephew, Andrew. It was sitting on a bench in there waiting for a wrap. I noticed the cat on the cover and couldn’t help but chew the book apart. It didn’t taste very good, but it was fun to put a hole in that cat. Mom was a bit irate when she saw what we had done. She said we were full of badness, but she was giggling, too. Good thing she’s about to have a holiday and Lucy and I are headed to Camp Beth Ryan. (We love hanging out with Beth. She’s a really cool dog sitter and her boyfriend, Steve, is real nice to us, too.)

But the best thing we’ve been doing lately is visiting more Boys and Girls Clubs! Man, oh, man do I love that! I think we’ve been to 14 Clubs in all so far, and five in the past week. We go in and everyone freaks out that I’m such a big dog now (with a puppy cranium). I get to strut around in my edelweiss harness and I pick up every crumb I can find, because I’m a chowhound and useful on clean up patrol. Mom’s been sporting an Austrian jacket that makes her look like she’s about to yodel, and she says she’s been a chowhound, too, celebrating December
in caloric fashion. It’s all very festive. The kids love petting me and laugh at the pictures of me when Mom reads the book. They’re pretty darn cute kids, I must say! One girl that didn’t have a dog said she had a pet hermit crab. I wonder if it likes to play with wrapping paper tubes and ribbon.

Mom says she’s ready for a little holiday break and a week away from my book, “A Snow Day For Hannah.” She thinks book sales might be nearing 1000 in 10 weeks and she’s happy about that, but a little pooped. Alamosa Public Radio interviewed her last week and the Vail Daily and Summit Daily are running articles about us this weekend. We’re in about 70 book & toy stores so far. Baker and Taylor placed a humongo order last week that made Mom skip around for a whole day, and another distributor, BooksWest, is going to carry the book, which made her smile a lot, too.

We're grateful for all the good things that have happened this year and the friends that have helped us along the way!!! Hope you have a bountiful holiday full of bowwows, bows, and boxes!

Love and holiday cheer,
Hannah

Monday, December 12, 2011

Carting & Caroling with the BMDCR

The Bernese Mountain Dog Club of the Rockies had a great gig last weekend called "Carting and Caroling." The decked out dogs were soooo cute and these carts are soooo cool! (We need to get one for book peddling - and maybe a penquin, too. It's the right colors after all.) And these guys had a great sense of humor, too. For example, here are some of the doggie lyrics to the carol, "White Christmas":
I'm dreaming of a dog biscuit
Tall as a house and twice as wide
Little toys that squeak
And kids that shriek
And huge bones made of rawhide.

Then there were tunes using lyrics like "yellow snow, yellow snow, yellow snow!"

Dad, of course, loves to sing songs, especially if the songs have funny lyrics. There were Berners toting
Berners, Berners celebrating in Christmas outfits, Berners hanging in Hanukkah hoopla (or were those Hannah-ka getups?) and lots of holiday cheer to go around. One dog howled through the whole thing. I'm not sure if he was singing or trying to get the people to stop their silly canine santa songs, but everyone was in a happy holiday mood, and very well behaved I must say!

Hope you're starting to get in the holiday spirit, and that you need lots of books for kids, too!

Mom thinks she's at about 600 "A Snow Day For Hannah" books sold in 2 months with more orders coming in, and apparently that ain't all bad!!

Love and cartfuls of holiday cheer!
Hannah

Monday, December 5, 2011

Hannah Spins a Yarn

It was super duper cold out today so Lucy and I were left inside while Mom and Dad went to work. Mom wasn't too happy with me when she got home. Not only was I hangin' real sweet on the couch, but I found her knitting and tore that yarn all apart. Boy was that a blast!! She yelled at me and called me a "feline." That didn't sound too good to me. She said I needed to do 100 hail marys and no bones for a week. She said I could have choked to death and kept ranting and raving on and on, bla, bla, bla.

But that scolding wasn't as bad as last week. We did this whole book thing in northern California - driving around peddling books. Lucy and I were pretty good hanging in the lap of luxury in the back of the Tahoe on our cushion thrones until we picked up Dad at the airport and got to Sacramento. Then I found some great smelling poop on the lawn next to the gas station and rolled in it. (We only had two more days of driving to go!) Boy was Mom on fire then!! Dad tried to squeegy that great poop off of me and Mom kept pouring water on me and saying a lot of bad words I'm not supposed to repeat.

But the trip was worthwhile. "A Snow Day For Hannah" is in about 60 book and toy stores now and we're running out of those cute little stuffed dogs that look like me with the edleweiss collars. And hey, the Follett Company contacted Mom unsolicited and said they want her to set up an account so that their library and school customers can buy the book. She was a lot happier about that than the poop roll. She danced around a lot and so Lucy and I danced with her.

Hope you don't need a sweater!
Love and yarn balls to you!! Hannah