More Christmas

We had a great Christmas, quieter than a lot of years but I like that.  My Mom made a sign/announcement for us all.

So I was worried it would be all desert which I love of course but I need real food sometimes so I brought a round loaf of bread with spinach dip and another one baked into a ham/cheese loaf both were delicious.  I love the recipe I found for round loaves its so easy and only 2 hours from start to finish, quicker than my breadmaker.   And no kneading its great I have made it a few times since even.

Also made a sleigh out of rice krispies and some cookies and date squares.  I do like baking when its for something like this.

We opened stockings on Christmas Eve and a few presesnts.  My sister and family were not coming out on Christmas Day so we didn't want to miss them.  The rest we opened the next day with my Aunt Cindy and Jerry and Misty.  Was good to see them I don't see them that often anymore and even though all are on Facebook its nice to get in touch for real.

(dollar store nails they were fun

 I had to trim them quite a bit though this was more than long enough)

Oh and this happened!  I guess he called my Mom a few days before and it was even a surprise to her cause she didn't think it would happen there.  How  exciting for my sister.  I'm so happy for them.

I got spoiled by my family this year again.  I cant even say what my favorite present is.  I am so loving the heated coat it works so well.  And those bathroom pictures my sister made I have been bugging her for years to make me some and she finally did :)  And who can go wrong with a horse toque or puzzle or coloring book or ranch cook book.  And I never knew I wanted a mermaid tail till I got one, I love it use it every day!

My moms dog Cheyenne was so cute begging for beef jerky I had to laugh cause she was sitting on my spatula.  And Bonnie's dog Rupert in his gopher pose and Cindy's dog Angel enjoying my mermaid tail (she was sitting on me all night then I left and she stayed lol.

And we had brought some games to play and we didn't use them all so me and Neil entertained ourselves for a couple hours making 3d puzzles.  He made the Huey Helicopter and I made the CN Tower.  It was so much fun for $3 from the dollar store lol

All in all a fun Christmas season.  Only thing I missed out on was riding on Christmas Eve again but it was cold and windy so I skipped, maybe next year.

Berry Picking

A couple weeks ago I went down to Neil's sisters house cause she offered her Nanking cherries to me if I wanna pick them.  So I headed down there and picked about 4 pails.  She helped me pick a few but then had to go to work so it was just me and the dog and cats there.  It has been so hot that I just boiled them up and then strained the juice off and got a ice cream pail of juice that I froze, I will make jelly/syrup or cordial out of.

(I know I need to defrost, lol hopefully this fall when its less full)

The dog, Bailey, she is just hilarious, in the house all she does is sleep on the couch or chew her toys on her bed, but then outside she doesn't stop!  She just runs and runs and runs. silly dog!.  Then the cat came out and she wanted to chase/play with him but the cat was more hissing at her and chasing her than the other way around, but boy was it funny!  I think the cat liked it too, cause he never did leave and he coulda.

Afterwards I stopped in at Neil's Mom and Dads house for a visit and they gave me 2 pails of raspberries and a pail of beans, carrots, and onion and a tomato from the garden!  Wow were they ever good.... And the leftovers I made 3 jars pickled beans and 2 jars pickled carrots.

And then my Mom came out and she brought me a box of peaches from BC and boy oh boy do I feel spoiled this year!  But after she left, I spent the day peeling, pitting and slicing peaches.  Gonna make peach salsa, peach jam, canned peaches, and freeze some for smoothies or just eating.

And then a couple days ago I went down to the creek and picked 2 pails of chokecherries and cooked them into juice and froze it, gonna hopefully make syrup unless is jells too much then it will be jelly.

(also picked a bunch of rosehips, was gonna make tea 

but done even know how, 

oh well Google will help they know everything!)

I love fruit from summer :)

Wednesday on Friday

Well we had a change of plans, which worked out well for me since I wasn't sure I wanted to show yet anyways.  Char headed to Regina this weekend and so we aren't working buffalo's this week or going to the show.

(Dude)

But she did ask me to ride Dude a couple times since she wont be riding for at least 6 days and thinks he needs to be kept in shape cause we do want to do lessons next week.  That should be kinda fun even though I never rode him before it will be neat to see how different he is from Jessie.

Hehe there are a couple dogs hanging around the barn too, one is a border collie and she is really friendly and more of a pet than anything which works there cause she has no desire to chase horses.  And then there is this other dog there not sure what kind he is, I think a jack russell mix of some sort.  He is really cute and makes me laugh everytime I go out there.

And on Saturday I am gonna ride with Lu so that will be kinda fun too, been a long time since I got to ride with her so I'm kinda excited to see how her horse is.  He is a nice looking bay and seems pretty quiet.

I took a couple short videos of the colt playing and he is quite athletic in the second video he is doing pretty cool moves, but the neatest part is the color of the hills behind him, it was so orange, I think it must have been the sun was setting on the other side and reflecting.

Cute Christmas

There was sooo many cute things that happened over Christmas I had to so a seperate post on them.  Like Rupert sleeping on the couch with the stockings.

And Rupert hanging in a stocking, lol.

And the cat playing with a catnip ball.

And Cheyenne in a stocking.

And Cheyenne playing with her new toy.

And Rupert sleeping on Heidis lap.

And Diamond trying my boots on.

And actually standing up in them, even though they are about as tall as her legs.

So much cuteness occuring, I had to share :)

Weird Sky

Yesterday as I was driving over to ride my ponies, the weather was weird.  It was warm, about -1C at my house and hardly windy and about +3C at Jardis and horribly windy.  On my way I looked at the clouds and they are really weird.

At one spot there was like clouds underneath and clouds over top the sky.  And at other spots there was layers and layers of clouds, not sure what was causing this, a Chinook, or just weird wind, but it was pretty odd looking.

Oh and I never got an xray on my arm, that was why I went to the doctor Monday for till he was stupid.  I should have gone again, but I just don't want to sit in the clinic all day again.  I have a brace on it now and it seems to help, although I may look for the lemongrass oil too.

I rode both ponies on the flag today and Razz first followed Twister (who has 18 months cutting training, so wasn't afraid of the flag at all)  and Razz was really good at it, way better than I have sen her before.  The Gypsy, I'm not sure about her, she gets obnoxious and will not move it really frustrates me, but we eventually got her to follow a little and quit when she relaxed around it moving.

Sounds like on Saturday we may go and work buffalo, that sounds like it should be fun, I have never done anything with buffalo before, so it should be interesting.

Oh and Corvette is my favorite dog.  I tried to talk Neil into buying her for me for Christmas but he says he already has something else planned but didn't like the first one so maybe got it today, makes me a little worried that its something he wants, not something I want, but we will see.