Thursday, November 30, 2006

Celebrating like crazy - or is that GOING crazy?

The older I get, the faster the holidays come -- and go! We chug along to Rick's birthday in October, then to mine in November. Then Thanksgiving arrives, with Brian's birthday and Christmas hot on its heels, and before I know it, we're into another year already. I'd enjoy it all more if it would just move S-L-O-W-E-R. But it doesn't....

Rick's mother and step-dad flew in on Thanksgiving Day; I had dinner ready when everyone walked in the door. What do vegetarians eat for Thanksgiving dinner? LOTS! Let's see, there was a stuffing casserole, oven roasted potatoes and carrots, butterhorn rolls, cranberry jello salad, steamed broccoli, sweet pickles, and white concord/lemon-lime punch, all homemade. Then came the country apple pie and pecan pie, with butter pecan ice cream. We didn't miss the turkey....

The day after Thanksgiving we cut our Christmas tree, a 15-foot Noble fir. (No, we aren't ridiculously wealthy; we have friends who have a small plot of overgrown Christmas trees.) Saturday night we invited our easterly neighbors up, ate various holiday goodies, and decorated our tree. Then our neighbors went home to enjoy the lights on our tree from their house, since they don't "do" a Christmas tree. It IS a handsome sight from inside and out!
I put this garland up on our fireplace for the first time this year, and think it looks nice there. Rosie just likes the heat....

Sunday night we rolled four occasions into one, with Rick opening a late birthday gift, Brian and Grandma opening early birthday gifts, and everyone exchanging early Christmas gifts. Whew –- that made FIVE holidays celebrated in one visit! But that wasn't all. We woke up Monday morning to SNOW, so the grandparents from Mesa, AZ got to celebrate winter, as well!

I took some photos of the girls in the snow, but there wasn't enough of the white stuff under the trees in their pasture to make for any great shots. Guess I'll have to leave those to the Midwestern breeders like Nancy Krohn. :-) Did get a neat shot of the birdfeeder on our deck during a sun break....

By Tuesday morning we'd gotten more snow and some ice on the road from refreezing during the night. I had to chain up to get down our hill to take the grandparents to the airport. No problems from there on, or getting back up the hill later.

Tomorrow we leave for San Antonio for a week. Rick will attend a conference for equine veterinarians, while Brian and I have fun with my folks (from Amarillo, TX) and sister (from MD), who are flying in to join us. We'll celebrate Christmas early with them, too. When we get back, we have several Christmas functions to attend. By the time Christmas itself rolls around, I'll be too pooped to party! A quiet evening at Boulderneigh with the men in my life and the animals that enrich it, giving thanks for our many blessings, sounds good to me.

That's it for now at . . .

3 comments:

Kathy said...

Glad to hear that you made it through all the Hub-Bub and are still standin'! :)
We did get a bit of snow here in Flagstaff but it's all but gone now. With it came the below zero wind chills and even Skittles went into the barn.
Hugs from the mountains...and have a great Texican meal on the Riverwalk for me, will you? ;-)

shepherdchik said...

Nice pictures. Are you breeding your ewes this year? I am anxious to start seeing lamb pictures on everyone's blogs! Our lambs won't be coming until April.

Michelle said...

Hello from San Antonio! Just got in late last night and went to church this morning, but the Riverwalk is definitely on the list. So is SeaWorld -- tomorrow!

No, I'm not breeding Dinah and Rechel this year; they get the year off. I'm buying Valentine bred, and will hopefully get twins from her, including a ram to use on my current three.