Christmas Eve Eve

Wishing each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas. May your day be filled with peach and love and God's blessing in all that you do.

This tree is in Riverpark Square downtown Spokane, Washington.It is a beautiful tree and the Christmas music playing was wonderful. Bob and I had a "date night" this evening. We went down town and looked at store windows, Christmas trees, listened to music, held hands and walked along the sidewalk until we looked at each other and said "its cold out here" and went back to the car. All that was missing was snowflakes falling. But it was fun and we had a good time.

Ole Santa here is in front of O'Dougherty's bar. We didn't go in, just took his picture as kept walking. After we shivered back to the car, we drove around looking at the Christmas lights. Then we went back to the edge of downtown to Frank's Diner and had breakfast for supper. It is a railroad car made into a diner. They serve really good food at a reasonable price. Bob had his all time favorite, biscuits and gravy and I had bacon, eggs and hash browns. We were both stuffed but it was fun.

Now we are home, Bob is watching his usual old western movie on TV and me and my book are headed for bed. The kids will start arriving by 10 or 11 I would imagine. No snow for a sleigh ride as in some years. (I have a sleigh and a pony that pulls it) but we will find something fun to do. We are having lasagna, salad, garlic bread and cookies for dessert. No big stressing out over a fancy dinner.

Your gift to me is being my blogger friends. Thank you each of you.

Thankful Tuesday

Have you ever been hugged by a donkey. I have ,today. I went out to take some pictures this afternoon and Chemmy came up to me. He wanted me to to love on him. I petted and put my arm over his neck and Chemmy turned his head around and just hugged me. He let me rub his ears, his nose and just hug him back. He is so sweet. Aren't those wonderful ears.

And isn't this a sweet nose? I tried to take his picture and he kept trying to touch the camera so that is all I got That sweet soft nose. This wonderful little donkey is my Thankful Tuesday. I really needed a hug today and he gave it to me.

And this is Yuma. I think he was a little jealous but he wouldn't let me hug him. I did pet his face and that was OK. He just was a little stand offish today. He is a sweet boy too, just not in a huggy mood today.

My two donks. They were glad to get out of that mud pit. I did not blame them a single little bit.

These two guys in the mud pit. They were getting ready to go in to eat. This is Cody and Rusty. I love Rusty' mane.

This was our view on the way to church last Sunday. We had just come out from being in the fog to under it Usually there are deer or turkeys in the field but not that morning. I thought it was kind of an austere picture.

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Monday

It rain all day. I mean rain like out of a bucket. The round pen is flooded, the arena is flooded, the donkeys pen is flooded. Cody and Rusty are standing in water. I will let them all out into a pasture first thing in the morning. This is terrible.

I could not go to sleep last night until sometime after 3 this morning and then had to get up at 7 so I am really sleepy and tired. I am going to bed in just a few minutes and no one had better wake me up until I feel like waking up tomorrow.

Had good news first thing this AM. My grand nephew came through his surgery fine this morning. He has a seizure disorder so even a tonsillectomy is difficult on top of his CP and all that is with that. This was good, he seems to never be able to get a good good report on anything and this was a good report.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Foggy Sunday

We went to church this morning in pea soup fog. It was ugly. Glad I didn't have to drive. When we did get down more towards town, we got under it and then it just looked grey but clear. We live in an area that gets fog when no where else in the state does. And guess what. We are 15 minutes from the airport. Right in the middle of the fog plain.

Bob cleaned the stalls good and bedded one. We are out of bedding. We can not seem to find any shavings other than buying it by the bale and that is pretty expensive. We need to get some straw. Bob has a couple of ideas of where to get it. Amelia went in for him this evening. That was a surprise.

I was really lazy. I curled up on the sofa and with my polar fleece blanket and read the better part of a book. That makes me sleepy but I do have things to accomplish this evening.

Kind of boring reading today huh?

A Nice Saturday

My sweet friend Kim and her husband came through this morning on their way to Seattle for Christmas. We sat and talked a long time. Paul and she took us to breakfast at a restaurant in Airway Heights called The Rusty Moose. They have lots of cute things around their restaurant both outside and inside.

Kim and the bear, It was so good to see her so soon again.

The old Rusty Moose. He is about half the size of a real moose. Maybe not even half the size.

Kind of cute laying there in the snow. If it had not been raining I would have sat on him and had my picture taken.

Father Christmas by the fireplace all dressed in fur. I would have loved to have had his boots. They look so warm and snugly.

The inside moose. They also have a large life size head on the wall above the door that talks to you when you come in. He tells you welcome.

Just more decorations. It is a good place to eat. Not the cheapest but really good food and you get huge portions. They could charge less and smaller portions and most people would be happy. Bob just got biscuits and gravy because he knew I could not eat all my Denver Omelet and hash browns and biscuit. So I ate half the hash browns, 1/3 of the omelet and the biscuit and Bob ate the rest of it for me. Paul ate the last half of Kim's too.

Tonight I helped Bob with the chores. It is so funny. I have no problem putting the horses in the barn in the evenings. Bob on the other hand can not get Amelia to go in. She just snubs her nose at him and won't come out, nor will she get caught. I just open the gate and call her and out she comes. He just grumbles at her when she does that. We have got to do stalls tomorrow. Its not so bad when its frozen and they don't get done but when its warm like it is now, they get gross. I guess Amelia likes me best. Hahahahahahahaha.

Another day of rain and now fog. You can not even see the road in front of our house. Hope it leaves by morning. I hate driving in the fog.I won't be driving but Bob hates it worse than I.

My Merry Christmas today to you all. I love this Santa. He used to be motion censored and say MERRY CHRISTMAS very loud. I have never replaced the battery. It used to make Bob jump and I would laugh. Ugly aren't I? LOL

Friday

This is what happens when you have 4" of snow and it melts off in a day when it turns 45 degrees. This is a corner of my arena. Won't be riding in there any time soon. I was practicing with my new long lens. I need more practice but this was viewable anyway. That is Henry in the background. He was born last March.

Speaking of new lenses, Bob had promised me one for Christmas and I went downtown to Huppins to pick it out. It isn't really really long, but way more than I had. I was standing by our porch where I took the tree in the snow picture. There will probably be some funny pictures here while I am learning. I think I messed up the automatic focus. At least I hope that works. I don't focus so good.

I am watching the RFD channel on TV and they are driving draft horses. It is fun to watch. I love to drive a horse and buggy but those big guys might be a handful. I have never driven a team either. Just a single. I would love an opportunity to try it though.

Finished my shopping today, baked 6 loaves of applesauce spice cake and got them frosted. Some things wrapped and a soaky hot bath. So now its time for crawl in bed with my book and settle down for the night. Have a date for breakfast with friends in the morning so will have to get up and get at the day. Have a Sunny Saturday.

Thinking Thursday

Every night when we go to bed, this is what we find. Some times more. Skeeter puts his toys up there so the other dog nor the cat will bother his stuff. Now Maggie would not play with a toy at all. She is an old dignified lady. And Trouble, well he doesn't do toys either. He is an old pest. But Skeeter just wants to make sure I guess. We put them off the bed and the next morning when I make the bed, it starts all over again. He lays on out bed and looks out the window so I guess he wants his things close at hand. On Thanksgiving our DIL's tiny poodle Star was playing with one of his toys and when she dropped it for a minute he grabbed it and took it and put it up on our bed. She only weighs 3 pounds, teeny and can not jump that high. I told him he was selfish and gave it back to Star but he took it away and put it on our bed again. He gives us a lot of laughs.

In our barn sits a little red wagon. It is a Radio Flyer 90. It has an orange and a blue hay string tied to the handle. I don't remember where we got it but I remember all of our grandchildren and great grandchildren playing with it. The have pulled each other around the place. They have "helped" feed horses and cos and fill the wagon with hay and followed us to each horse. They have hitched it behind a bicycle and pulled each other around. It have seen it hooked directly behind a four wheeler tearing around. One it was hooked behind the riding lawn mower. One time it was tied to the four wheeler wagon and the four wheeler. It was full of laughing children. I have seen our adult grandchildren pulling their toddlers behind them.

It is getting battered and worn but every time I look at it, I think of all the memories.......In our barn sits a little red wagon ------------------