HO, HO, HO

Christmas was celebrated today, the day after Christmas, at our house. The kids have other families and it just seemed to be stress free for everyone to wait until today. Dinner was served at 1:00 and I think I had my head on straight this year as I remembered things I had forgotten I even owned for a number of years. Everything was ready on time and the menu turned out great. We used real dishes, and clean up took only about 15 minutes as all the girls jumped in and got the job done. As usual, we ate too much at dinner so pies had to wait for later in the afternoon.

The kids had decided a number of years ago that they would not exchange gifts, only giving gifts to the children as they came into the family. John and I give to the kids and they to us. I love hunting for the perfect gift and I think I payed attention throughout the year to little suggestions and there were a few perfect gifts that weren't expected.

Our oldest son and his wife visited her doctor earlier in the day and gave us the good news, their baby is a boy. Little Oscar Andrew is expected to arrive on May 23rd and the ultrasound showed a healthy baby who apparently likes to suck his thumb. Everyone is excited about the baby and there was even an early gift for little baby Rinderer.

Peyton likes the idea of new toys and helped to open the packages. She tried to eat the tissue paper but found the new toys were fun to play with. She even had to check out her new clothes.

Peyton enjoys her first Christmas

Daddy and mommy (Chad and daughter Erin) help Peyton open her gifts

Peyton is so excited to get new toys

Our oldest son, Dan

Our youngest son, Jeff

New Calf

Patsy had her 9th calf on Saturday. She is half Charlet half Hereford and sometimes her calves are a bit unusual in color. The new arrival is a strange dark red/gray color with a white face and red/gray around the eyes. The calf's hair is curly. Baby is very different from the other typical Hereford red with a white face calves that we have. Patsy usually has a big calf and this one may be one of her biggest. She is a good cow, and shows no signs of problems at her age. Patsy's sister, Daisy had a gray calf with a white face and another related cow had a black with white faced calf (Bruno). All the others have the famous Hereford look. Another baby is due soon and we expect the usual red and white. Things are going well at the farm. Cross my fingers we don't have any problems this year.

Kitties

Bubbie has been such a help with the decorations. It seems I don't get them exactly right and he takes it upon himself to redo them. Now all of the decorations are on the high cabinets. Poor Bubbie has to look only and not play. Bobbie is a little more reserved and leaves most things alone. But if Bubbie is playing, Bobbie is there to join in. They are so cute!

Bubbie just being Bubbie

The golden-eyed cat, Sweetie Pie, with Bobbie

Pinkie with his arms around Bobbie

Christmas Fun!

I have gotten into the Christmas spirit this year. The last few years I have not gotten excited over decorating and the house didn't look very festive. This year, though, I have a new grandbaby and consider it a practice year for the big excitement to come next year when she realizes what is going on. Cookies are bakes, packages purchased and wrapped, and tomorrow decorating will begin. I have to be somewhat conservative though, I have Bubbie and Bobbie. Bubbie thinks whatever I put out is his to play with. I bought a small 3 ft tree with lights already on it. I put it on one of the side tables and added a few small ornaments. One was destroyed and four more have been knocked off. I think it will be transferred to a higher location. I will have to pay attention to what goes where this year. Hope he is past the destructive stage next year. Cleaning and decorating are scheduled for tomorrow!

Last week when the weather was nice I finished putting the bulbs in. Hope the moles, voles and mice stay away. Then I purchased an electric leaf blower. The gas ones are too heavy for me and Sears had this one on half price. What a buy! It is the most fun, I cleared the deck and the patio and then looked for more things to blow. On Sunday I showed it to my son and he had some fun with it. It is amazing what enjoyment I had with a silly leaf blower.

Bruno is in the weaning process. I have cut his milk down 1/3rd. My husband feels sorry for the little calf and thinks he needs milk for a while yet. I have to make a trip to the farm from our house each morning and night and I am getting a little tired of doing it. He is just over 2 months and it is high time for him to be weaned. On icy or snowy mornings I will not be going over - Bruno must be weaned.

The little kitten, Bobbie, had a bout with worms and at first it didn't know what the problem was. She was wormed earlier but I guess they came back. This time she threw up many dead worms and is feel much better. I changed their food to an indoor variety and I think that will improve things also.

I finished a memory quilt for a baby to be. The clothes used was from her great grandma. The pink hearts and border is from pajamas. The light lavender is from a suit jacket. The materials aren't perfect for quilting, but they worked up better than I had imagined.



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