Buster: Oh boy. It's Christmas card picture time again.

Hello, Diary. We haven’t met. I’m Buster Brown. Sometimes my maw and paw call me Booglebear. I don’t know why. It’s somethin' Paw started when I was just a youngin’. (Paw’s got a thing for givin' out nicknames.) I’ve been with Paw and Maw ever since they found me stranded on the side of a one-lane country road almost ten years ago. I was only eight weeks old and I was tiny.

Now my maw says I weigh 84 pounds! Who da thunk I'd get so big? I can’t help it. I didn’t mean to. Sometimes my size makes the other dogs nervous. Well, not Abby. Nothin’ makes her nervous. She can't boss me around and she hates that, so she'll bark at me - a lot! I try to ignore her. It’s easier for me than it is for Paw and Maw. For some reason I'm just better at tunin' out that irritatin' bark of hers.

Anyway, I was just lookin’ out the window and saw my maw with the camera and somethin’ she calls a tripod. It looked like she was scopin’ out places in our yard to take a picture for this year’s Christmas card. Looks like we’ll be usin’ the self-timer again. Oh, boy. This is not sumthin’ I’m lookin’ forward to. We do this almost every year. Maw and Paw wrangle us dogs up and try to get us to sit still and look at the camera. I’m pretty good at it, at least the sittin’ part. Of course, this will be Abby and Huck’s first family portrait, so there’s no tellin’ how long it'll take this year. The whole thing can be sorta stressful for Paw and Maw. More stressful for Paw. He can be a “glass half-full” kinda guy. He never thinks Maw’s photo sessions are gonna work. I remember the first time Maw had us pose for a picture using the self-timer. Paw kept saying, “This isn’t going to work. This isn’t going to work.” Maw would insist, "Yes, it is!" And, whaddya know, it did! To this day, Paw calls it the “miracle moment.” We’ve posed for a few other family photos over the years and they all turned out purdy nice. I can tell that Maw always gets a little nervous when this time of year comes around. She worries that we won’t behave or the weather will be bad or she'll look fat in the picture. I get tired of hearing that one. So does Paw.  I’ll be happy when Maw gets the picture she wants taken ‘cause then she’ll chill out and be ready to celebrate Christmas. I’ll also be glad 'cause she won't put us through this again for another twelve months. 

I went through Maw’s memory box and found some of our old Christmas cards. You'll see my brother Bogey and sister Annie in some of the pictures. Annie went to heaven in June of 2008, and Bogey in July 2009. Bogey and I were buddies. He used to lick my ears. I loved that; it really relaxed me. Abby is a lot like Annie, but a little rougher around the edges. When I first saw Abby, I did a double-take 'cause she looks so much like Annie. I miss Bogey and Annie. So do Maw and Paw - a lot. Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures. They sure bring back memories.

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2003

2002

1999