Christmas at the Abbey

It snowed last night and everything is white -- the transformation is amazing. The trees are covered with glass crystals so they seem to be transparent. I have been busy making cookies and candies for the holidays. Lots of goodies, which none of us need, but “it’s tradition,” so I make them and regret the aftermath. Most turn out wonderful, but this year I tried a Martha Stewart recipe (first mistake) I saw on television. It called for making little chocolate bowls for fruit. Wow, I thought what a great dessert, envisioning raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc., all combined in a chocolate bowl with whip cream on top. I flew to the store and bought chocolate and balloons to make the bowls. At home I began heating the chocolate and blew up the balloons to just the right size (second mistake), everything was ready. Dipping the balloons in the chocolate, working quickly so that the concoction didn’t harden, I filled a tray with six balloon-dipped bowls. Turning around to clean up, I heard the first of several pops and felt something hit me in the back of my head. When I spun back around, I saw two more balloons explode throwing chocolate in all directions … the fourth, fifth and six only sprung leaks. The fourth suddenly shot skyward and stuck to the ceiling. The remaining two flew from the tray and headed out into the living room. “Fourth of July” right there in my kitchen. This all happened in a blink of an eye. There I stood chocolate dripping from my hair. I just stood there shaking my head and thinking OMG! Just as my senses began to clear, gravity took over, removing the celestial balloon from the ceiling and splattering it on the kitchen floor. Somewhere a gong rang!

The clean up took two days. I am still finding bits of chocolate here and there. I had lots to say about Martha too, but we won’t go into that. Christmas was getting a little less Merry.

Preparing for Christmas Eve, I placed stockings holding a candy cane and some horse cookies on each stall door for the horses. The alpaca received their treats and the birds feeders were filled even though I had to tramp through two feet of snow.

Christmas came and went so fast. This year Sarah and Jess gave me the most wonderful present a mom could have, the announcement of a grandchild arriving in July … I cried. Oh, how I wish I could hang on to that moment longer … how very much I love my family and this time of year. But time moves on, and it is now approaching the New Year. I really don’t have plans for New Year Eve, as I have celebrated a great many and no longer stay awake for the big event. Not that I haven’t tried. I have slipped into sleep just before the ball drops and woke up shortly after it’s all over. That’s so disappointing after trying so hard to stay awake. So now I just give up the ghost and fall asleep assured that the New Year will come and with it all the joys of a little new life.

I have been toying with the idea of a sleigh. The Currier and Ives picture type. Actually, I brought all the tack and saddles in the house to be cleaned over the winter and readied for spring. Although a sleigh would be really nice, I would have to drag all the stuff back up from the basement. In reality, I truly hate going out into the cold. Second, I would feel bad for the horse. Third, there is all that cold metal, so unless we decide to heat the tack room, the sleigh is out. Actually, we would need to heat some of the barn too, or better yet move to warmer climate, which would eliminate the need for a sleigh, basically the whole thing just won’t work………now that’s the working of my mind. Scary, huh!!

So, it’s New Years Eve, the coming year will be filled with so much. The birth of a grandchild, several new baby alpacas, the joy of spring and green and flowers, life is moving on, but then it always does, doesn’t it? But here, it’s just another day at The Abbey