I gave the horses a Christmas Eve treat – a brief graze:
There is no video of Lance running around because he never lifted his head until I haltered him and dragged him away from that jewel tone grass; ha! (His grass must be limited because of his metabolic condition.)
It was clouding up again, but I saddled Stella to hopefully squeeze in a ride. We got in about ten minutes before the rain drove us back to the barn. But hey, any time in the saddle is a gift for me.
I waited for another break in the rain to go into the garden and grab some kale and parsley. The kale might survive the coming cold spell, but the parsley is likely doomed. I froze most of the kale, and oven-dried most of the parsley. I should have harvested a whole bushel of the parsley, but only had so much time; there were holiday meals to prep.
I asked Brian to clean the hen house, so they got clean shavings for Christmas:
Poppy in the aftermath of our cozy family Christmas Eve (she's extra-cozy in her new puffy coat):
And Christmas morning? Well, it tried. 😉 We had a brief dusting.
After a lovely church service that included our annual Giving Tree that benefits a selected charity, the pastor and his wife joined us for Sabbath/Christmas dinner (their children and grands live overseas):
Since they left it's been a quiet day. After hanging out in his room, Brian took off to be with a friend. Rick had to go treat a patient, and came back with some gifted Christmas goodies. I talked to my parents on the phone. Snow has fallen off and on but hasn't stuck – yet.
Yesterday was DRY, at least during the limited daylight hours. We have had precious few of those lately, but I'm not really complaining. It's nice to have a NORMAL something (in this case, weather) in these anything-but-normal times. And of course I took advantage of it and rode Stella after letting the horses stretch their legs in the arena first. So thankful that I could. The day before I'd felt a wee tinge of vertigo here and there, then was hit by a full-on, room-swirling, stomach-turning attack after I went to bed. I laid there praying I wouldn't be incapacitated for Christmas, or the dry day ahead, or even that night, and the dizziness gradually faded mostly away, and was completely gone by morning. Whew, and praise the Lord!
I've been doing some more Christmas baking recently, both for us to enjoy (sparingly) and to share. Four kinds of cookies post-biscotti: Snickerdoodles (made festive with some red sugar), Frosted Rocks (a molasses spice cookie), Chocolate-covered Cherry Cookies, and Krumkake. I made a second batch of Krumkake today; very few people make those so they are a unique treat to give. I am in the process of planning my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day menus; it may just be the three of us this year but the meals can still be special.
It's a good thing I got that little tree, because it is indeed our only tannenbaum. It sports one additional ornament I received this year (the silver one on the lower right side), and its base is now bolstered by a few presents.
I've also sent two knitted Christmas gifts on their way. Last week when talking to my sister on the phone, she mentioned that my nephew appreciates hand-knits and bright colors. Since I hadn't thought of anything better for him, I dug around in deep stash and found some REALLY bright, bulky yarn – perfect for another Strata Hat like the gray one in my last post. So I whipped one up in two days and got it off in the mail, forgetting to take a photo. (Hopefully Sis will send one of it in use.) In the meantime, I've started a scarf (I had two skeins) that I will send to him for his January birthday. I also pulled out a Fair Isle cap I knitted awhile back, wove all the ends in, and washed it so I could give it to the neighbor who did chores for us as a Christmas/thank you present.
My Christmas gift from Rick this year came early, and couldn't be put under the tree anyway. He got tickets for two to the Beyond Van Gogh experience in Portland for last Sunday, and took me out to eat at Pastini's beforehand. It was a magical date night, and I took a LOT of photos, which really deserve a separate post. Soon!
We've had an interesting week re COVID. We found out a week ago today that a man who was at our Christian trail-riding club Christmas party had gone to the VA hospital with a serious cough and tested positive for COVID. I was tasked with contact tracing. In calling everyone else who had been there, I learned that the initial case(s) were a couple who haven't gotten vaccinated because they chose to believe lies instead of science. (I. CAN'T. EVEN.) Since then, the wife and their adult son living on their property in an RV have also gotten sick and tested positive, the man has been hospitalized, and two other attendees (one of them the hostess) have come down with symptomatic COVID. Both of the latter cases are in vaccinated people who had not yet gotten their booster shots; none of us who have gotten the booster have contracted it. (So a word to the wise: get your booster – and wear a mask. No one at that in-house gathering wore a mask; I won't do that again.)
With all that going on, Rick's mom started coughing and then spiked a fever, days before flying to CO to see her daughter and family (she wasn't with us at the party). Rick scrambled to get her tested, which thankfully came back negative. Then my dad down in Texas went through a very similar thing before driving up to see my sister and family; again, thankfully, his test was negative. Yeah, we may be a little jumpy, but not without cause.
I am perfectly happy staying home with my guys and critters, celebrating a quiet little Christmas here.
It started out clear, then fogged in, then cleared again
So it has been raining every day since we got back from Tennessee (except yesterday; see above). Sometimes off and on, sometimes heavy, sometimes sideways (read strong wind). I have small towels at all entrances to dry off a small dog, and go through a lot of them. Poppy cleans up easily (unless she's been digging), but I have to rub down not just her feet, but all four legs and her undercarriage, too – that's what happens when you go full tilt in the slop!
We are told Poppy and her sister had a wonderful time together while we were gone. When we dropped her off, she tried to follow us out the door, but when we returned to pick her up, I really don't think she wanted to leave. I've taken her over to the neighbor's to play once since, but those dogs won't race and wrestle like she longs to do. We need another Decker....
Just look at these two peas on a pod; they are actually resting!
Before we left for Tennessee, we picked up a new dishwasher but Rick didn't have time to install it. He did that Sunday, pulling out the old, failing one and getting the new one all hooked up. Then I loaded it up (the old one was full of dirty dishes because Rick didn't give me a heads-up on his timing) to try it out. Water started pooling out from under the island cabinet – grab the towels! Cancel, drain, pull it out, start it again to figure out the source, cancel, drain, start (THERE it is!), cancel, drain – and mop up. Time to do a BIG load of old towels! (The unit has been returned and a replacement is ordered.)
But I also need towels for around the washing machine. The rubber gasket around the front-loading door has several holes and tears (thanks to the stuff men leave in their clothing), so it leaks. I've asked Rick to order a new gasket several times (he's replaced it before); last night I asked him to please do it NOW. He decided to order two. 😏
I know, first world problems.
How about some fiber content. I took some Dorset roving with me for travel spinning and finished it the night before we flew home. No worries; I also packed a hat kit my mom gave me. She planned to knit this herself but passed it on to me after having it for years. The kit supposedly contained everything needed, but when I pulled out the circular needle, it looked too long for a hat. Hmmm. I cast on anyway. The pattern said to cast on 40 stitches and join to knit in the round, but there was no way 40 stitches could stretch that far. I was finally able to spread them all out and join 60 stitches; I decided to see how that worked. Before the end of our first long flight, I was running out of yarn well before I had a hat; it was more like a giant's headband, or a puny cowl. I KNEW that needle was all wrong! I shoved the whole thing back in my bag, and somehow endured the rest of the trip without anything to keep my hands busy. When I got home I frogged it and started over with a 16" needle, and soon had this:
Last weekend was party time. Our church's women's ministries Christmas party was Saturday night, and I was lucky enough to end up with a beautiful scarf (and ornament, not shown) in the cut-throat gift exchange:
The second party, for our Christian trail-riding club, was on Sunday. I finished plying my Dorset singles there while visiting:
Now I have nothing on the needles or spindles. I'm waffling between remedying that and doing some Christmas baking. It's been kind of hard to get 'in the mood' when we don't have a tree or a plan that I've heard of to get one. We could go cut a big one at the place we got one last year, but that's a two-person job, and the weather isn't any more conducive than Rick's schedule. So yesterday I decided to take the initiative after my neighbor told me about a place on our hill with $5 Noble firs. They were little things and I figured my guys wouldn't be happy, but I chose one and brought it home. Sure enough, both Rick and Brian declared it too small and ugly to grace our home. Not one to waste a tree, I offered it to a friend (no tree for her due to dogs) before deciding to bring it in anyway. Since Rick is now talking about getting a BIG one, I put it beside the fireplace instead of in front of the deck doors and trimmed it before anyone else got home. Lo and behold, no one has griped about it yet – it's a Christmas miracle!
In honor of starting to get "in the mood," I give you this (which also happens to be the ring tone on my phone!):
On the morning of December 4 we dropped Poppy off at her sister's house and headed to the airport bound for Nashville, TN. It's a fun time of year to travel – this huge tree with the walk-through base was in the DFW airport:
Rick had reserved a hotel within walking distance of the convention center, foregoing a rental car because of the cost of parking at the hotel and downtown. So we took an Uber from the airport . . . to the wrong hotel (discovered after the driver left, of course). We had to walk eight blocks through wild 'party central' in downtown Nashville with our luggage at night to get to the correct one – which was very nice, BTW, and a welcome sight for weary travelers.
of COURSE I took spinning along
This is the first time in years that Brian and I have gone with Rick to his annual 'horse vet convention.' Last year, of course, was held online; the four years before that we didn't want Brian to miss high school classes so Rick went alone. Brian remembers going during his grade school years (which we homeschooled), walking through the trade show collecting free pens and candy; we enjoying going again.
a cute little trade show attraction
Taking Brian on this trip was our birthday gift to him. On his actual birthday, we all went to the Country Music Hall of Fame,
handsome lad of 20
followed by dinner at the restaurant of his choosing, Cracker Barrel. There aren't a lot of options for vegetarians there, but I was perfectly happy with the "four sides" menu selection, and got two of broccoli and two of fried okra.
The next day Brian didn't want to do much, so I spun and watched Christmas movies, then went in search of the Goo Goo Chocolate Co. store which my cousin told me I had to do. I picked up a small box of her favorite variety and some for us to try, then walked around downtown in the waning light. City life. It can be a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.
That night we went to a convention event for which Rick had been given tickets by a vendor at the trade show. "Storytelling Nashville Style" was a fundraiser for The Foundation for the Horse, held in a posh hotel downtown. The only photos I took were of some of the expensive light fixtures (ha), but the program featuring veterinarians telling funny stories and three uber-talented Nashville singer/songwriters (Rory Feek, Wynn Varble, and Brice Long) telling stories and singing some of their hits was wonderful.
Rick was done with his meetings at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, so we went in search of a place to eat lunch together. Someone at the hotel had highly recommended Pinewood Social, so we walked several blocks to where it sits on the bank of the Cumberland River. Why didn't we find this place earlier??? There were several tempting vegetarian options; Rick and I both had the Roasted Sweet Potato with Lime Yogurt, Brussels Sprouts, Radishes, Arugula, and Pumpkin Seeds. I remembered to take a photo mid-inhalation; it was fabulous. Brian said the gourmet burger he got was the best one he's ever had.
Rick had contacted an old friend of ours who lives outside of Nashville now; he was off work on Wednesday so drove in to meet us. I think Greg was planning on driving us to his home to meet his wife, but when Brian mentioned something he really wanted to see, Greg said he'd be glad to drive us there if it wasn't too far. It took a bit of searching to pin down its location, then off we went.
While I had no desire to make a pilgrimage to a place important to country rapper (seriously???) Ryan Upchurch, it was nice to leave the big city and have a chance to see the Tennessee countryside, all rolling hills and deciduous woods.
Our destination was the 'concrete bridge,' and visiting it and getting photos there was the highlight of the trip for Brian. His hoodie is Upchurch merch. 🙄 😖
our gracious friend
By the time we were done with Brian's pilgrimage, there wasn't enough time to go to Greg's house, so we headed back to Nashville. We had tickets for the Grand Ole Opry that night but had time to kill, so we all walked through the neighboring Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. What a destination! Christmas decorations everywhere, a tubing hill, nine acres of indoor garden atriums, even a gondola plying a canal and blooming orchids. As we were leaving we even caught the end of an ice-skating performance!
I recognized this behomoth as one of my houseplants!
That feast for the senses would have been highlight enough to end our day, but the big event was yet to come. We walked a short distance to that bastion of country music, the Grand Ole Opry, for a country Christmas special:
The acts varied in style, instrumentation, and renown, but all were good. We thought the highlight would be Josh Turner and he didn't disappoint. In fact he had his whole fam-damily up there with him; that's his wife on the piano (she also sang with him), his oldest son with a guitar and his three youngest sons clustered around a mic! But the thrill of the night, not just for me but clearly for the whole audience based on the reaction, were the surprise guests of Jake Hoot (2017 winner of The Voice) – The Tenors!!! I caught the final minutes of their collaboration on video, and have listened to it numerous times:
The next morning we got up early and flew back to Oregon, back to our familiar environs and responsibilities, with Christmas rapidly approaching – too rapidly to feel prepared. On the way, an earworm sprang to mind and has stayed there, even though I hadn't heard this song in years, decades, maybe. So I looked it up, to follow in the footsteps of blogpal A, who includes a music video at the end of each post. Here you go:
I'm a homeschooling, horse training, animal loving, garden growing, part-time business running, spinning and knitting shepherd who loves the Great Shepherd.
