Sunday, December 30, 2012

Gifts from Friends

The last seven days have been action packed.  Too busy to even think of blogging!

Christmas Eve's Eve  was an enjoyable day.   I had chores done by 9am and made breakfast while listening to a new Andre Rieu CD I picked up at Target- almost as good as my favorites- the Chili Peppers  and Rage Against the Machine- and somewhat more "early morning friendly".

We did a little last minute shopping during the day then later we met up with Roger and Amber for a short visit and Amber gave me an awesome Christmas gift- a little fitting so that I can use my  favorite coffee in my Kuerig! And also some of my favorite coffee- Zojo's, yummm.

We then stopped by for a little visit with Glen and Flo on Christmas Eve's Eve and ended up hanging out in Glen's cozy downstairs "man cave" in front of a warm fire.  Very festive.

They guys had a few drinks and the next thing you know we were  making plans for a Christmas Eve ride!  Flo's been trying to get Todd to ride with us for, oh, at least the last two years and she finally did it!  The Blackberry (?) Whiskey might have helped a little, snicker, snicker!

Christmas Eve was clear and cold.  Gift number two!

Which lead to another awesome Christmas Gift- a Christmas Eve ride with friends and Todd too. Thanks so much to Glen and Flo for bringing an extra horse for Todd to ride! 

I had spent about two hours fitting Dazzby's Renegade boots to Cartman and I was excited at the prospect of being able to take him out on gravel even if we could only do a lot of walking.  Unfortunately as I was helping Todd bridle Auggie and get his stirrups adjusted Cartman decided to step on his own foot and rip the cables out of the front Renegade.  Agh. 

I decided to pull all the boots and I would try to stay on the edge of the sand while everyone else rode the jogging path.

We ended up riding the whole path and Cartman did pretty well barefoot. 
Todd got a new respect for the distance rider's obsession with proper fitting clothes and tack as he ended up with a nice little "saddle sore" from a big seam in his jeans.  Ooops. 

He had a good time though and wanted to "go fast" the whole time:)  Auggie was a real sweetheart and took good care of him.  Todd really liked the running walk!











I was so busy taking pictures and messing with the camera that I didn't notice my phone was gone until we got home. 

So, we spent the better part of Christmas Eve walking and jogging on foot, the same path we'd ridden on horse back earlier.  I paged and paged but sadly the phone was not to be found.  After about four miles my lungs were burning and I gave up looking.

But I'm counting this as another gift.  I got to experience the sand first hand and realized what a "gift" my horse gives me every time he carries me through it. Thanks Cartman!

I was a little sad to lose EVERY PHONE NUMBER I've collected for the last 10 years!  So, if I don't call you, please call me- I'm going to start from scratch (same phone number).

We raced home, I did chores and then we headed over to Erik and Michelle's for Christmas Eve Dinner and a game of Train Dominoes.

Dinner was yummy (New York Roast), so good, I decided to forgo my Primal Diet for two days and I gorged on any and all sweets and grains I wanted. I Finished it off with some delicious Pumpkin Cheesecake that Michelle made. mmmmmmm.

We gave the boys their Christmas Gifts (each a Lego kit) and they seemed to really like them.  Unfortunately Mason already had the kit we picked out for him (a truck trailer and dirt bike set), but he was really appreciative and mature about it- didn't act disappointed at all.  I think that Target will let him exchange for another set and they have a bunch of cool ones!

Michelle made me the most awesome framed picture collage for Christmas.  A  great shot of Cartman and I from our ride up at Kalama Horse Camp in Oct.  The big picture of us, and then two smaller pictures- Mt St Helens behind the lava flow and the beautiful river in the third spot.  I love it.





 

Ooops, almost forgot to mention our last little Chrismas gift.  A fiasco involving our septic tank.  It ended up being a plugged pipe and not a septic failure.  This was of course discovered after Todd spent the better part of Christmas morning digging up the tank.


 
The rest of Christmas Day was spent resting, feeding the horses treats, and cooking a big ham dinner. All in all it was a wonderful holiday and a good day to be thankful for all of our friends and family.





2 comments:

Unknown said...

I hope you've had good luck using your filter kit so you can enjoy the ZoJo at home!! What are ya'll doing on New Year's Day?? I'll give ya a call - glad to hear you got a new phone, finally!! HA! :D

HHmstead said...

Looks like Fun to me! All but Todd digging up the septic! At least it wasn't as expensive a fix as it could have been! We're up for a camping trip to Kalama!