Sick

 Sorry to be missing. I've been very sick and ended up in the emergency room Thursday at 2:00 AM. I was there 7 hours and am home now. Just been too sick to write. (Not Covid; it's pancreas issues.)

I'll be back to writing in a day or so. I'm starting to feel human again.

Blanket Bonanza!

I will never know who filled my order for the three Breyer holiday blankets, but whoever did, gave me one of each!

I'd ordered three although I really only wanted the one with the strands of Christmas lights.

Now that they're here, I've found that I like all of them!

Was it an accident? Or was it intentional from someone who realized that, since there were three choices and someone had ordered three blankets, then they most likely wanted to receive all three?

Thinking I was sure to get a duplicate, I ordered two more during the Collectors Appreciation Event. I won't need those now, but they will make nice gifts, prizes, or donations. And thank you to whoever in the warehouse filled my order!

Christmas Card of the Day

Every horse lovin' girl's dream, right there on this card!

All Aboard the Breyer Train!

Did you know that Breyer dabbled in the model railroad hobby and made a cattle car for Lionel in 1996? I didn't. 

But I found one and bought it to add to my collection. 

Lionel seems to have its own model railroad scale - this is (I think) their 1:24 g-gauge train. 

The blue sign on the right says "Stablemate" but Stablemates are 1:32 scale, so I need to do more research before I can say for sure just what the scale of this car is.

The model horses' heads inside move in and out of the windows as the cattle car moves. 

My family has a history with trains, both real and model, and I still have a few pieces from my childhood train set. They are a lot smaller than the Lionel Breyer cattle car.

My Grandpa Martin was a railroad conductor for the railways between St. Louis, Effingham, and Indianapolis from the 1920s through the 1960s.

I have two of his old railroad lanterns. Train engineers depended on the conductor to let them know when the train was ready to start moving and this was done by the conductor waving the lantern a few times from the caboose. 

One night while in St. Louis and preparing to head east across the Mississippi over the Merchant's Bridge,  there was a miscommunication between my grandfather and the engineer up at the front of the train. The train began its journey but my grandfather was not yet aboard.

According to family lore, my grandfather grabbed the caboose's railing as it passed him, attempting to swing up and onto the steps of the car. But he slipped and fell, and then while still holding onto the railing for dear life, was dragged all the way across the bridge and the Mississippi River. Grandpa was terrified to let go because the spaces between the railroad ties were wide enough for him to fall through, plunge into the river, and drown.

My grandfather carving the Thanksgiving turkey in the 1940s.

The engineer knew there was a problem but was afraid to stop the train for the same reason - he didn't want my grandfather to slip off the tracks and into the water if they stopped over the river. So, he kept the train moving until the caboose was off the bridge and they could get my grandfather help. 

Here's another of my grandfather's lanterns. I don't know a lot about this one but we have been told by a railroad memorabilia collector that it is very unusual. (It's kind of ugly, too, haha!)

I am not sure if I am going to display the Breyer cattle car with my other model trains or if I will put it back in its box for safekeeping. Regardless, it was fun to find one, and I've been thinking of my grandfather ever since!

Christmas Card of the Day

Cole's 2021 Christmas Village

Music City Son Cole is a Lego lover and he and his family have a fun holiday tradition - they make a Lego Christmas village!

They set villages up for Easter, Thanksgiving, and other holidays, too. When the holiday is over, each piece is dismantled and put into individual plastic bags for storage. 

Cole uses these books for patterns. Bricks are bought at garage sales, on eBay, and from other sources. He resells what he doesn't need.

Here's another video (this one has sound) with Emily and Susie briefly sharing what they worked on and then Cole speeds up the train to Susie's delight. (Did you know that there is a robot in Santa's village? Neither did I, until Susie made one. Reminds me of the unicorn that showed up in our Nativity re-enactment last Christmas Eve.)

Christmas Card of the Day

This card is popular - I bought a set and sent them out to a few friends, and I have now received two from other folks that I know! I send and receive a lot of cards, but that's a first!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

In honor of the holiday song, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, today we are looking at rocking horses!

I have a lot of rocking horses in my holiday tubs, many of which are from my dad. He loved Christmas and he loved gifting his family members with things he thought they'd enjoy.

Me, Dad, and Leslie playing a game on Christmas morning, 1965.

This is the first rocking horse that Dad bought me, and my favorite. He was so excited - I remember him telling me that he'd come across this big Christmas store while traveling and he'd brought back a huge box of Christmas decorations for us.

A stained glass ornament and a resin rocking horse that imitates carved wood, both from my father in the early 1980s.

A gift from Illinois friends in the late 1980s. 

Another gift, this large wooden rocking horse came from my friend, Dena, in the 1980s. 

Hallmark did a rocking horse series that ran from 1981 to 1996 and I have four of them.  

A mini series also ran from 1988 - 1997.

One of those minis looks nice under Little Lynn and Circus Girl's Christmas tree, doesn't it?

A blog entry about rocking horses would not be complete without a photo of my own rocking horse, Buttermilk.

That's Leslie riding her. We spent hours and hours on Buttermilk.

If you are wondering why the rocking horse is a Christmas symbol, I found an explanation on the Dutch site Ambiente.

Traditionally, the rocking horse was a symbol of unfulfilled Christmas wishes, as the first rocking horses in the 18th century had a metal base and were therefore very expensive and 'unattainable' for the poorer families. From the moment these horses were made of wood, they became an affordable Christmas present.

Christmas Card of the Day

Naturally, it's one with a rocking horse on it!

 

Disappearing or Not Appearing Orders

If you are like me, you check your Breyer account periodically, especially when you have placed an order.

Recently I have noticed something odd - my Snickerdoodle/Holiday Play Set set does not show up anywhere on my order list even though I received it over a month ago.

And Brunhilde is still showing as unfulfilled even though she arrived a few weeks ago. (Sorry for the poor quality screen shot.)

When I saw those discrepancies, I went over to PayPal to check the payment status on the two orders.

Both show as having been paid for.

Clearly, something is wrong, but is a missing order on the list, one that was fulfilled, important? Or an order that was received but still listed as not having been sent a reason to worry?

Yes and no. I got my models, true, but what about the next time this happens? What if an order that I make never appears on my order list and Breyer says they have no record of it and I am out of luck? (PayPal will be proof, but still...)

I feel uncomfortable about the situation and will be monitoring my orders far more closely from now on.

Christmas Card Picture of the Day

Mountain Mama Jessica sent me this photo of her backyard after a snowfall last week. I just had to share - that snowy yard and mountain are so lovely!

Queen Elizabeth, the Sultan of Oman, and Sultanna

When this photo popped up in my Instagram feed yesterday, my thought was, "So THAT'S what the Sultan of Oman looks like!" For several years I've wondered - ever since the barn ended up with a horse named after him.

In 2014 the Sultan flew Tim to Oman so he could inspect the turf on the Sultan's golf course and advise him on pest management. (I call Tim the Canadian Cowboy but he is a highly accomplished entomologist and professor here at Purdue University.)

While Tim was overseas, Dolly, Tim's mare, surprised us all by foaling a month early.

Tim named her Sultanna in honor of his trip abroad and as a nod to the Sultan. Go here to read a little about that.

Tim has bred three foals during the ten years I've been boarding Abby with him, and he has yet to see one foaled.

He was gone when Sultanna's foal, sweet Little Feller, was born (and sadly never saw the foal before he passed away the day after birth.)

And when Snickerdoodle, Sultanna's full brother, was foaled in 2015, he was born at the stable where his dam had been bred, not with us.

Sultanna was bred again last spring. Her second breeding did not take, and we think it may not have taken again - I've witnessed her raising her tail and turning her hips and squealing at Hokey, signs of a mare in heat, not one who is in foal.

At this time, she's not telling if she is or isn't going to present us with a foal this spring. If she does, I hope Tim come up with another great name like hers. And, that he's in town and able to see the newborn foal.

Christmas Card of the Day