Well, Eric and I are staying home this Christmas.  I'm glad to avoid the
stress and expense of travel, but sad that I won't be with my family.  Well,
Eric's my family, too, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, a little anecdote from before I met Eric:

Several years ago, my brother K bought a townhouse.  I moved in with him
to help both of us with expenses.  K's dog Bear, a german shepherd/
labrador mix, was then a huge, rambunctious bundle of love and energy.

On this particular Christmas, mom and dad came to stay with us over the
holidays.  We were all sitting on a big L-shaped couch.  Bear had one of those
rope dog-bones, really just a thick piece of rope with a knot on each end.  He
would bring it to a human, who would of course dutifully throw it.  Rinse,
repeat, until that particular human lost interest, at which point he'd move to
the next person on the couch.

Well, eventually, Bear ran out of willing humans.  Oscar, however, was still
perched on the back of the couch, observing the proceedings.  Bear picked up
his bone, which weighed about half as much as the cat, carried it to the
couch, and plopped the bone down in front of her.  His expression clearly
read, "Throw the bone for me!"  Her expression clearly read, "FOAD."*

She never did throw the bone for him, and I doubt he could ever figure out
why.

* "Go forth, reproduce, and return to the earth whence you came," in polite
language.