Lederhaus' Family Blog: Merry Christmas from the Lederhaus' House

~Salem, MA.

December 21, 2013

This has been a fairly quiet year for the Lederhaus family. As you can see from this photo our pack of dogs has grown from two, back to the standard four with the addition of two more “shelter” dogs.

Left to right: JayJay, Dewey, Dexter and Bella. It was amazing to get them all pretty much facing the camera all at the same time. You may need to click on the photo to see the entire width of it.

We think Dexter, who was two when we adopted him on St. Patrick’s Day, is part Jack Russell Terrier and part Chihuahua. To “round out” the family, we adopted Bella, 7 months old, on Halloween morning. We think she is part Shi-tzu and part Havanese, but as with most shelter dogs, there is really no way to know. More about the dogs later.

Our travel this year consisted of a visit to Walt’s cousin, MaryAnn Lederhaus and her friend Sally in New Smyrna Beach, and St. Augustine, Florida, and a visit to St. Simon’s Island, Georgia in late February, early March, that was extended by two days because of a major blizzard here in the Northeast. Whoa is unto us, who had to stay down south golfing and touring Savannah, Georgia by Segway while Salem dealt with multiple feet of snow. The photo below shows us on the balcony of our lovely hotel accommodations at the historic King & Prince Resort on St. Simon's Island.

Our next vacation was in the summer, when my daughter, Diana, flew out from California to visit for a week. While she was here we also had Bertrand, from Belgium, who was our exchange student several years ago, visiting, so we all went on vacation together.

That trip was to Vermont, Montreal, Quebec City, Canada, and Kennebunkport, Maine. It was a whirlwind visit that we all enjoyed. We especially enjoyed the Mosaicultures Topiary Gardens in Montreal.

Before, really dark green (almost black) with no outlining color.

This year saw the finishing up of all the work on the exterior of our antique house. When you own a building that dates back to 1795 you spend a lot on keeping it up, and it was time for that to be done. Last year you may remember we were in camouflage, so it was really nice to get this big project finished.

After, a medium sage green with ivory trim.

Dexter who was two years old, and who was a handful when we got him, needed some manners, so we enrolled him in training classes at Petsmart. He was the star of each of the three six-week sessions (beginner, intermediate and advanced) he attended. Walt said he graduated "summa cum bark-ay."

Walt loves his "girl" Bella (except when she bounds onto him in bed)

Bella is now attending dog training classes. She is so smart! We love having trained dogs. It makes life so much nicer.

In early December Walt and I had a houseguest visiting for three weeks. She offered to dogsit if we wanted to do a little getaway, so we took advantage and went to New Hampshire for three nights. We stayed at the Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa, and had a lovely time. We also went to lunch at the Mt. Washington Resort which was only 20 minutes away, and we went to a Christmas Tree Farm and got a tree.

In the library at the Mountain View Grand

We are getting ready for our next two vacations as I write this. In early January we are going to Aruba for 8 nights, and in late March/early April we are going to Paris and Madrid to stay with friends. With the lovely weather in New England in the summer it seems silly to take vacations abroad then, so we would rather break up the cold weather seasons by planning vacations with travel then.