Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Saturday, December 26, 2020

A Merry Millie Mae Christmas Surprise


Once we were done opening our gifts, we cleaned up the Family room and then I went upstairs with the kids to hang out for a little while and distract them while Andrea setup our Christmas surprise. 


It's been the hardest secret that Andrea and I have ever had to keep. We have been planning to get the family a puppy dog for Christmas this year and the excitement has almost killed me. It's been almost two years now since Chloe passed away and for a long time I couldn't bear the thought of another dog in our home. We've seen quite a few cute puppies recently and the kids have been asking us for a while now whether we'd ever get another dog. I've been busy with work and haven't even seriously been considering it, however Andrea started doing a little research and came across a puppy breeder in our area that is fairly nearby. We realized that a few of our friends and neighbors have gotten puppies through the same breeder and on the way for my birthday trip to Sea Island in November we asked if we could stop by to just have a look. We were so impressed with the breeder and her setup that we briefly talked it over after our visit and we put down a deposit on a Havapoo (half Havanese and half Poodle) puppy as soon as we were able to. We were unfortunately #11 on the list for Havapoos, and it was a tough wait for us.

On December 1st, 2020, a litter of puppies was delivered and luckily for us some of the other people on the Havapoo list had gone with other puppy breeds or had decided to pass on the litter. We were given a few options and decided to go with the puppy that was initially named Macy by the breeder. As the mother was named Maggie, all of her puppies were randomly given "M" names which was a bit of a coincidence since Andrea and I had both already decided that we liked Millie as a puppy name.  We picked Millie based on her coloring and the cute white stripe down her nose which is fairly unique, most of her siblings were darker and a solid shade of reddish brown. Millie was the lightest and we thought the white stripe gave her face some extra character. 

Andrea and I visited Millie twice in secret under the guise of "shopping". It was fun to see her grow and already how much she's changed since she was born. On our visit before Christmas, on December 19th, I snapped a few pics with my Nikon, we printed a few of them and put our favorite pic in a dog bone shaped frame that Andrea found while shopping. 





Andrea staged our puppy stuff in front of the tree along with the framed photo and then she called the kids down and told them that we had one small gift left that we "forgot" to wrap. Paige has been dying for, and hinting about, a puppy for months and it was pretty prescient that she asked Andrea "Is it a puppy?" before she was led in to the Family room. Andrea covered their eyes so they wouldn't see and then we had them open their eyes for the puppy surprise. Their reactions were cute and although Paige was hoping for a puppy I really don't think she actually expected she'd get one. The video is private since I'm not sure the kids would want everyone to see their happy tears.



After the big reveal, Andrea surprised me with a special custom Christmas ornament that she'd ordered to commemorate the occasion. 


Andrea and the kids had fun calling family members to finally tell everyone our fun news and share our excitement for our new family member. It is a relief for us that we don't have to be so careful about everything we say any more, I was so worried that I'd spoil the surprise somehow!

Merry Christmas! We can't wait to bring home our new puppy!

1 comment:

Richard said...

A special moment for the kiddos. Loved the video.
And what a cute pup!