WoF: The Best Gift I Ever Received

I haven't received my Christmas gift yet this year...but if all goes as planned, The Man will arrive sometime around Christmas this year for his R&R! Dates don't mean much to me, so Christmas Day 2009 will be when I pick him up from the airport, whether it's the 25th or not!

Because this Christmas isn't here quite yet...I'll take you back in time...

The best gift I ever received for Christmas was a black lab puppy. My parents gave us Molly for Christmas and I won't forget it! Maybe someday when we have kids, I can surprise them the same way.

That Christmas morning, I woke up and I hopped in the shower before my sisters woke up (four girls in one bathroom, you take the shower when you can get it!). While in the shower, my parents kept banging on the door and saying, "First one up gets to open the first present!" Which, didn't make any sense to me. We always waited for everyone and opened gifts in an orderly fashion.

Out of the shower, I got dressed and headed downstairs. As I was getting a glass of water, my parents were really starting to drive me crazy with their, "First one up gets to open the first present!" mantra...

...and that's when I heard scampering.

It didn't sound like the familiar padding through the kitchen from our dog, Haley. I whipped around and there went a little black thing scuttling across the kitchen floor. A pudgy little black puppy!

We brought the puppy upstairs to wake my sisters up. First Amanda and Jess, and finally Kendra. Side note: Kendra and Haley didn't really get along (baby of the house syndrome maybe?).

We plopped the wiggling puppy onto Kendra's bed and Kendra shouted, "GET HALEY OFF ME!" as she tried to pushed the puppy off her bed. It only took a second for her to realize that this wriggling thing wasn't Haley...the mood changed dramatically :)

Kendra and Molly...


I'll never forget that Christmas! We love our little Molly. Although she's pretty old and her muzzle has greyed, she's still our Christmas Pup. And no one has better Christmas spirit than that dog!

She loves to "hand out" the presents (she usually picks out the presents under the tree that are hers before Christmas arrives!). She helps unwrap the presents. And, she loves to play fetch with wrapping paper balls!

Here's Haley covered in wrapping paper. We'll miss her this Christmas!

Read more great gifts other military wives have received!