We made it through our first full “normal” post-holiday week! Alright I admit it isn’t exactly normal that my brother, Angel Chuck Billy, is using the 1980s sitcom Alf to talk to my family! But in light of everything, I take comfort that my family and I are muddling our way towards a new normal routine.

Sure things are different in my home. I’ve instituted a new squeaky toys allowed in the office policy, with surprisingly little resistance. Dad even laughed when I accidentally interrupted him talking in a meeting with a poorly timed loud squeak. Also fetch inside the house is apparently acceptable now too. Although that could simply be due to the subfreezing temperatures making it too cold for me to take Mom outside to play. I’m please to add that I’m getting use to my new sleeping arrangement in Mom and Dad’s room. I now have a routine where I begin the evening on Dad’s side of the bed, and then slowly make my way around the room during the night, ending up on Mom’s side in time to wake her for our old early morning routine. And in case anyone is wondering, when we head downstairs together, the first thing I do is herd my sheep from the Nativity set.

Are there things that need improvement? Absolutely! I still haven’t quite figured out the timing for dinner, so it has been served anywhere between 4:45 to 5:30 PM. But they’ve yet to forget to feed me, so I take that as a win. Also I’m still working out what day of the week it is, that I missed posting pictures for Tongue Out Tuesday and Won’t Look Wednesday. But I promise I’ll do better! I feel like the biggest complaint Chuck Billy would have, besides my mismanagement of dinner, is I failed to alert Mom and Dad when visitors came to the door. Our neighbors dropped by to give me a belated Christmas present, and it was Mom who heard them first at the door, not me. In fact, next it was Dad who joined her greeting them. After exchanging pleasantries, they were in the process of leaving when I finally came to the door, while forgetting entirely to bark a friendly “hello.” I forgot to bark too when the UPS delivery man dropped off a package. I promise to be more attentive to visitors in the future.

So as I sum up my family’s first full post-holiday week towards a new normal routine without Chuck Billy, the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson come to mind, “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”