Dogs of Our Lives: The Holidays are Coming!

 First Post of the Day

Oh, man. The holidays are coming. And you know what that means?

Constant vigilance! 

In this house, you must always be watching during the holidays.

"Bring your dogs!" Lynn and Craig always say. "They're welcome to come!"

But do they ever ask me or Pepper about that?

Sure, we like our friends. But those friends sometimes... well... they overstep.

My comfy spot on the sofa next to Boompa becomes a, "I called shotgun!" when Blue is around.

Nash is okay; he's here often enough that he understands that that is really MY spot and I am LETTING him sleep in it because he is on guard dog duty and guarding the homestead. What better place than in MY spot? At least, that's what Nash tells me.

And look at Mama here! She has her own bed but sometimes she takes Pepper's!

She's even been known to hog BOTH her bed and Pepper's at the same time!

Pssst! Tammo! It was okay! She was feeling ouchy so I said she could play Goldilocks with our beds. Honestly, I didn't mind!

Well, okay, Pep. I guess that was nice of you. But don't go around setting... um... a present because you know she might come over and think she can Golidlocks on my bed.

No, Tammo, I'm not worried about setting a PRECEDENT. It will be fine, buddy.

Constant vigilance means guarding my toys and laying in the best sun puddles when the others are visiting.

I certainly would never take someone else's toy!

(Pepper off in the distance) Has anyone seen my purple octopus? I left it on my bed and it's gone!

Those holiday guest dogs even go upstairs and scope out the best sleeping places. Blue! Get down! That's Pepper and Lynn's favorite napping spot!

Which means Pepper and I get stuck with the downstairs bed and have to SHARE. It is so crowded!

Man, I just wish things were back to normal around here. Wait. What??

You're cooking two turkeys? And you plan to put some turkey in my dish? 

Maybe the holidays and the company are not so bad after all! Count me in!

Don't forget the Give Away! I'm heading out to Oxford this morning and will post what I get later today. Comment to enter! Stay 'tooned!

Pre Holiday New Additions

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!

Holiday Horsiness: Winter's Gift

This week I have been pulling out all my holiday decorations and decorating our home. In one tub were all my Christmas books - I always stack them out on the coffee table so the Pony Pals and Cowpokes can enjoy them. (Many are from my own childhood.)

Winter's Gift by Jane Monroe Donovan is a new addition to that pile of books. If I remember right, I read a review in The Chronicle of the Horse about horse-centered holiday books, and this was one they took a look at.

The first time I read it, I did not like it very much, but after several readings it began to grow on me.

The story takes place on Christmas Eve on a farm at the edge of a small town that has just experienced a heavy snowfall. The main character (who is never named and simply called "the old man" throughout the book) is sad and depressed despite it being Christmas.

Many of the illustrations have a horse in them - see the cross stitch horse sampler framed on the wall?

Life no longer holds any meaning for him as his wife had died the past spring and he is still grieving her loss.

One of their Christmas Eve traditions was to go out into the woods and cut a tree, then bring it back to the house and decorate it together. An old and very beautiful star that was kept in a wooden box was aways the last thing they would put on their tree.

But now his wife is gone and he has no interest in celebrating the holiday.

That night, a wild horse trudges from the woods and into a clearing behind the old man's house. She has become separated from her herd and is lost. 

Tired, cold, and hungry, she finally gives up and with a loud groan, falls onto her side in the snow.

The old man is washing his supper dishes and hears the groan. Curious, he puts his coat on and heads out into the night. (See the brass horse in the window?)

He encourages the mare to her feet and takes her into the barn where he gives her feed, water and a dry stall.

Tired himself, he then ends up falling asleep on the hay that is stacked in a corner.

During the night, the mare gives birth, and to the old man's surprise, the foal has a perfect star on its forehead, just like the star in the wooden box that he and his wife hung every year on their tree.

The mare and foal give purpose and meaning to the old man's life and while the story doesn't give any details, the illustrations show him contentedly patting the mare in the springtime.

Winston Churchill said, "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man," and no doubt that is why this story grew on me. 

Advent calendar - December 3

Two bales of hay.