Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas day today. Today is the day where all that hustle and bustle over the last few weeks finally comes to a peak- and now we will be able to glide through January with the next bit of excitement being Valentines Day. Okay, so New Year's might give us a bit more excitement, but I am ready for some quiet days- how about you?

This year, my husband and I are doing a minimalist Christmas out of necessity and I am realizing that I kind of like it anyway. Sure, I adore opening presents. Yup! Presents are lots of fun! But without the stress of trying to find that "perfect" gift for the guy that has everything...well, my December was much nicer for it!

Nora and I went out to the ranch yesterday. (http://www.rockinheart.com/) We got to play with the horses a little bit. Sweet Talla decided she likes Nora. It is always interesting to see the horse's reaction to a baby. Of course, I have to keep a close eye on their behavior and keep a good personal bubble around Nora because I don't want a loving horse to accidentally bump her to hard, or a curious weanling to think she smells good enough to nibble on.

Actually, the horses at the Ranch are very well trained. None of the adult horses would even dream of putting their mouths on you and even the weanlings are very good about it. But it is always good to stay alert and aware when you are handling animals that outweigh you by about 875 pounds!

Nora and I also helped make some Christmas cookies yesterday. They are called Candy Cane cookies. Oh Yum! White cookie dough and pink cookie dough are rolled into ropes and then twined together to look like candy canes. Then they are frosted with a peppermint frosting. Yum! I could probably eat...oh I don't know... at least 100? :D

After we played with horses and dogs, and made Christmas cookies, we went to another friend's house and had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner of Tamales. Very yummy. Then we exchanged a few lovely gifts. I would have loved to have stayed longer, but Nora started to fuss a lot so we decided it was time to head home.

Oh! I forgot to mention! On the way to the Christmas Eve party I slowed down and stopped the car because I saw a large shape next to the road. When my headlight hit it, we realized that it was a beautiful bull Elk! He jumped the fence he was standing by and then we saw a second bull and about three cows running across a pasture. Such a beautiful sight to see!

Today we are going to bake cookies as a family, and have a really nice Christmas dinner. I am going to make a tie blanket for the family so there will be a family present under the tree, and of course Nora has a present to open.

Luzy from the MaryJanesFarm chat Forum is a wonderful doll maker. I asked her to make Nora a traditional looking Raggety Ann doll. She did a fantastic job! I will take pictures as Nora is opening her present!

So have a wonderfully Merry Christmas everyone!