Let me tell you about my first Christmas. My gift was a great toy - my people named him Mr. Potatoe, it is a cute soft and cuddly plush toy that takes my handling, chewing and throwing around without any problems! I immediately found it when it was time for checking out the gifts under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve (as is the tradition here in Austria). It had been placed a bit further away from the tree, more in front of it rather than underneath it, I guess so that I would leave the other presents alone. Whatever - I was not interested in any of the other gifts anyway!
But then I had to listen to her for three days in a row, telling everybody and their brothers how I had ignored the tree. Strange - had I missed something? Was she disappointed? Oh well, I would not want her to be sad, so I started looking around while she was taking a shower - I wanted to surprise her, you know.
Somehow I must have been too ambitious in my search - the tree suddenly fell over. She did not praise me for my efforts when she put the tree back up - I guess she must have forgotten.
But I had been successful and found the surprise she must have referred to!!!! A whole bunch of silver goodies had been put on the tree - I am sure they were there just for me. I immediately started chewing on one of them until it was completely gone - well, not completely, to be honest: there was a strange looking thread in the center of it which I just 'freed' of all the yummy silver stuff around it. My owner later found it - together with other crumbs - on my blanket. And again she did not praise me - later I heard her mentioning 'wax crumbs' when she was telling her friends about it. Ok, I don't want to blame her too much for not praising me - the Christmas season is a busy time for all of us.......