First Post of the Day
I love the holiday season; it's my favorite time of year. I start feeling it in October, and then after Halloween, I am in full-on Thanksgiving and Christmas mode.
Over the years, Breyer has become a part of my holiday fun. It used to be I would look through the JC Penneys, Sears, and Montgomery Wards toy catalogs, looking at the special run Breyers and circling the ones I wanted. Then it became holiday horses and advent calendars.
Now, it's holiday blind bags, Christmas blankets to order, the annual Pony for Christmas that I always add to my collection, and finally waiting for the Christmas Day surprise.
Wednesday, Breyer announced the Short and Sweet blind bags. Ordered! Already here and waiting to be opened is the Twelve Days of Breyer advent calendar (I am carefully avoiding any reveals; so far so good. I want to be surprised when I open those doors.)
All these things add to the fun of the holidays for me and let me express my horseyness along with my Christmassy side. But other things are being released by Breyer, too.
Killington & his mini me, Little Killington, the winter decorator, for example.
My set arrived earlier than tracking said it would; no complaints from me.
Killington is on the Fighting Stallion mold, one of Breyer's oldest, most iconic molds, and a favorite of mine.
Overall, mine looks very nice. I really like silver filigree and the mold looks good in it.
There is a discoloration on his off hind foot, but it's minor and not enough to bother me or to cause me to return Killington and ask for a replacement.
Little Killington is awesome, too.
The mold was resized beautifully with the hooves in proportion to his body, just as they are on the Traditional sized Fighting Stallion. (One of my biggest dislikes about the new Stablemate molds is how so many of them have hooves that are too big for them proportionately.)
Thanks to Shannon Rodgers, I came home from the Happy Trails V/Dan Patch Fun Show with her bobblehead Dan Patch!
As she was packing up, she brought him over and handed him to me, saying he was a gift.
What a nice thing to do! I've put him up on a top shelf with my Hartland and Breyer clocks. Thank you, Shannon! (That painting of Abby behind the clocks was also a gift from Shannon - she painted that and gave it to me at an earlier Happy Trails show.)
The Happy TrailsV/Dan Patch Fun Show signing horse is now on my shelf, too.
As I looked at all the autographs, I realized that my sister, Leslie, had forgotten to sign him. She's gonna show up here on Thanksgiving Day and discover that there's no food for her until she signs him! LOL
When the show finished, Kelsey asked if I had time to meet her for dinner this week. Craig was going to be in Indy on Tuesday, so we arranged to meet at Mountain Jacks that night.
Kelsey and me at Indy Blooms. I love how her shirt reflects the theme of the show!
Mountain Jacks has the best prime rib in town. There was so much food, I took home a box of leftovers and invited Craig to eat when he got home. He took me up on that offer, but there was still prime rib and green beans left for me to have for lunch the next day!
Kelsey surprised me with some gifts - a postcard of Black Jack in John F. Kennedy's funeral procession. I have the Breyer resin Black Jack model and Kelsey knew that.
My Black Jack won the Breyer Resin/China class at the Clover Classic in 2023. I have no plans to show him again - I have no wish to risk breakage.
Kelsey had been in Europe on vacation in October and visited the Spanish Riding School in Austria.
To my surprise, she brought me back some souvenirs! (Yep, I'm saving the bag, too!)
A horseshoe nail taped to a card with the school's logo on it.
And, a Stablemate sized china rearing horse with the school's name on it!
Wow! What thoughtful gifts!
There is some sort of maker's mark on the base but I don't know what it means.
It was hard to photograph, too. I am sure it was put there intentionally, but what it says is a mystery. (If you recognize this maker's mark, please put it in the comments!)
The nail and the china horse are both on display with my picture of Abby and me that Trinity enhanced with silver thread.
Next post, I will announce the November Give Away. (Hint: think Oxford.) Stay 'tooned!
