Clean dog and pretty stairs

My son has cooked (mostly his doing, but with family help) a turkey, but look here, another animal in his arms!  After a muddy walk, Cody really needed a bath...and so Russ turned into a dog-washer. Here he is drying the little Pomeranian.

 Where did the breed Pomeranian develop? I'm glad you asked, because I asked a few days ago, and now I found out.
 Wikipedia says:

The Pomeranian is a breed of dog of the Spitz type that is named for the Pomerania region in north-west Poland and north-east Germany in Central Europe. Classed as a toy dog breed because of its small size, the Pomeranian is descended from the larger Spitz-type dogs, specifically the German Spitz.

And this was another skill that the man-of-the-house showed me...twining swags of greenery along the banister - which had some golden shiny bows added after I went to bed last night.  Here it is in the morning light!

I'll probably be joining all the other people on the highway Mon...am at least waiting till some of them go back to work/school. I've heard many of us have traipsed from city to city this year, and there's snow predicted tonight some places on my way home.