I had a friend Jonathan say that I like the holidays more than anyone else he’s ever met above the age of 8.  He is right that I do love holidays of all kinds.  I told anther friend Denise that I like the holidays, and I think our ancestors were good at passing along what is good for the mind and soul to go through the seasons with.  So I think this is partially why I embrace these celebrations.

For Christmas it is the lights, music, food, drink, woodsy odors, colors, gatherings, traditions and gifts of love that I try to embrace.  And I believe it all does help with the dark cold month that would otherwise be pretty bleak. But Christmas in particular reminds me of my family, especially my grandparents.  So now I am well into it.

I first set up our living room table with symbols of the season.

Yesterday, my mother and I attended the Seattle Synphony’s Holiday Pops concert.  It was wonderful.

And today Tom set up, and I decorated the Christmas tree with football games playing.(Go Hawks!)

I have also decorated two other tables with Christmas stuff.

Most of my Christmas shopping is done as well.  But there’s a lot of wrapping yet to do.

In farm news, Steve was brought to the vet on Monday for his annual check up, immunizations, and renewal of his arthritis medication.  He was pretty anxious about it but ultimately did settle down.

As of Thursday, Tom is now able to pet Roscoe when he puts out the food.  He thinks Roscoe may be female.  And she seems to have a messed up claw on her left back foot and is also skinny.  He hasn’t been able to pick her up yet.  I would love to get her to the vet and also to try to get her to move into the barn or house for safety.

This morning there was a coyote scoping out her food dish.  Thankfully there was no food in it, and Roscoe stayed safe.

We have had turkey hens laying eggs and setting on them.  Initially there were two separate nests, each with a bird.  Then there was one nest with two birds.  Now there is one nest with three birds. It is behind the steps we use to collect the chicken eggs.   It looks quite awkward, and in this photo, one of the hens is smushed by the other two.  Not sure how this will play out.

Finally after several weeks, I am able to get the alpaca to eat the supplemental food the vet suggested.  He had been ignoring it until now.  Unfortunately the sheep sometimes notice it as well.

After it was quite cold last week with our first hard frost, yesterday it warmed quite a bit and rained like crazy.  It was impressive.

Yesterday I spotted a quince on our tree.  I hadn’t seen it before due to the leaves, but now that they are gone I spotted it.  Fortunately quince last quite a while.  I only got one this year which is sad.

With the rain it was an indoor day for the beagle and the house cat.  They actually shared the couch which they rarely do.

We did have Roasted Orange Chicken for dinner tonight, and it was really good.

So that is my week.  My left ribs are still hurting quite a bit.  I had injured my right ribs in a similar fashion in April of 2021 and it took weeks to heal so assuming this will be the same.  But it is frustrating.