It's my favorite time of the Year!

Hi all, Mabel here. I just got back from tonight's forced march.
I am excited.
EXCITED!
And HAPPY!
I think that now all of my faithful fans are puzzled, because everyone knows that I hate going on forced marches.
Everyone knows I don't like cold weather (anything below 65 degrees).
Everyone knows I don't like marching in the dark --- and sun sets very early now. It's always dark when we go out to march..
And, everyone knows that I walk very s-l-o-w-l-y. I drag my paws  I walk at about 2.3mph. I want to smell every single wonderful smell.
My sisters and Mama #2 want to walk at 3.3 mph.
<Sigh>
We compromise and walk at about 2.5mph.
Anyway, about a week ago, I looked down a street and stopped dead in my tracks. (I wasn't really dead, it's just an expression).
Lights! Bright, colorful lights! I saw a house outlined in lights!
Amazing!
I love lights, so I pick up my paws, pulled on my neck rope, and made Mama #2 walk down the street so I could look at the house outlined in colorful lights.
I slowed down as we passed the house. I looked at it carefully and wanted to remember each detail and every light.

 This is me, Mabel, standing in front of one of my lighted houses

 This my twin sister, Harley, looking at lights

I was so excited, that I jumped on Harley, just to make sure she saw the lights.

At the next corner, I looked all around to see if any other houses had colorful lights.
I didn't see any more lights that night, but a couple of marches later.....
I found 3 more houses with colorful lights!
Lights!
And one even had stuff standing in their yard shaped like (who knows what) that moved and twinkled.
I was in love.
I love the twinkly lights in yards on shapeless things.
My sisters just laugh at me and my love of colorful and twinkly lights.
Mama #2 took a very long time to understand why I was walking faster and why I refused to walk down some street, then pulled my neck rope hard to walk down other streets.
Finally, Mama #2 realized what was going on.....
"Mabel, you like the lights, don't you?"
YES, I shouted. I love the lights!
Now, Mama #2 looks for brightly lit streets and let me stare at houses (and yards!) lit up like daylight with colorful lights.
I have a favorite house. It has lights all around the house, lights all through the big trees in front, and twinkling, brightly lit up shapes on the lawn.
I love this house. I love the twinkling shapes. The shapes even move!
Wonderful!
I could watch it for hours! I make Mama #2 march me there every night.
Maggie, my super smart sister, get impatient with me and usually talks Mama #2 into marching on after a few minutes.
But, every night now, I see more and more brightly lit up houses.
Even the house next door has lights!
Maybe soon, all the houses will be lit up!
I just hope the lights don't suddenly disappear like they did last year.
I was so sad, I could hardly march for weeks.


Note from Mama #2: It took awhile, but I finally realized that Mabel loves Christmas Lights! She loves to look at houses that are outlined in lights, and she especially loves animated, twinkling deer! She could just stand and watch for hours! It's totally amazing!
She walks quickly now, and wants to cover many streets every night. It's my favorite time of the year to take her on walks, because she gets so excited about the lights.
Harley and Maggie don't even seem to notice the lights.