Christmas Day

Didn't get much sleep last night as the 2 dogs that live behind me started barking around 9:30 pm and did not stop until after 3 am. Maybe they were barking at Santa (LOL). I'm guessing the people who live there were not home or else they were deaf and didn't care that the dogs were keeping everyone in the neighborhood awake. I let Hiker outside at 6 am to go potty and when she came back in, I went back to bed while she, or so I thought, was in the front of the house sleeping. Just before 8 am I woke up and I rolled over to find her on the pillow next to my head staring at me. What a surprise that was. Then she started kissing me and jumping all over me, so we got up and had some breakfast. It was warm and windy outside this morning. My brother Ron called me to talk for awhile. He is taking a new medication for his blood pressure and heart and said it was making him feel a little “stuffy”. I was surprised that "The Young And The Restless” was on today. Usually they don't show it on holidays. After lunch, Hiker and I drove over to Whitney Canyon to take a hike, but instead of turning left from the parking lot to head up into Whitney Canyon, we went right and headed into Elsmere Canyon. I'd only gone into this canyon once so thought I'd try it again. We started to head of the Loop Trail but it became too steep and too narrow for my liking. Hiker likes to walk near the edge of the trail and I'm always afraid that she might slip and pull both of us off the trail and down into the canyon. We headed back down the Loop Trail and decided to take the Creek Trail instead. The Loop Trail has good views of Santa Clarita, but the Creek Trail is nice because it has a lot of oak groves and some awesome views of the steep canyon walls. The creek bed was bone dry since we have not had a good rainfall. It was still very windy while we were out hiking.