Rightsizing: Oops!

 Second Post of the Day

Oops, I forgot to add something that was inside the box. Honestly, I did. 

And I have to admit, it may be a unicorn, but it is kinda cute, too!

Another Unicorn - Stardust

I bought another unicorn. I really, really, REALLY dislike unicorns but when a Pony Pal loves them with all her heart, I will buy her a unicorn.

The occasion was a very late Christmas celebration with Local Son Curt and his family. Despite being vaccinated and boosted, his family had had two go-rounds with the Omicron variant so we only just were able to gather last weekend. 

Pony Pal Mila was very excited to open Stardust, Breyer's unicorn styling head. You can see she has already bejeweled Stardust's face.

Sparkly jewels, pink coloring, long hair to play with, all on a unicorn are guaranteed to make Mila happy. (Here she is, sparkly herself, for a dance recital just before we opened gifts.)

As long as Mila and the other Pony Pals love unicorns, I will keep buying them. Because seeing the joy on their faces when they open that new unicorn makes me happy, too.

A Horse & Two Unicorns

Yesterday I sat down on a bench and found myself suddenly surrounded by unicorns.

They were cute, but still.... unicorns?? I don't like unicorns!

For my part, I was repping horses with my shoes, purse, and necklace, and the unicorns didn't seem to mind, so we sat together for a while. And while we sat, we had a debate.

Were we sitting in a giant horseshoe? Or was it an oversized Christmas ornament? 

We all were in agreement - our bench was under a giant horseshoe. (With me are Pony Pals Whitney and Corinne up from Florida for a Christmas visit.)

I've got more family with me this week so blog entries may be a little erratic the next couple of days.

Christmas Card of the Day

NaMoPaiMo: Unicorn Lovers

Unicorns have been trending for quite some time and Breyer has been on top of that trend. They have been releasing unicorn after unicorn for the past couple of years in all their lines even down to Mini Whinnies! (Go here to see what is currently available.) I am not a unicorn lover, but I can appreciate a good paint job and some of those paint jobs are stunning.

NaMoPaiMo has developed a couple of "teams" as time has gone on (team Minis Painting Minis is SO funny and creative!) and this year Jennifer winnowed out some of those who had painted a unicorn and made a collage from their "I Did It" photos. (Photo posted with permission.)

I count 49 freshly painted unicorns, 9 of them with kids in the photo. And, we know there are more since Jennifer says this collage is of some of the winners, not all of them.

A few days ago I wrote about how much I liked that NaMoPaiMo reached hobbyists across the globe (27 countries represented this year!) and that it was especially encouraging to children. That gave me an idea. I'm going to think about it a bit more, but stay 'tooned.

 

An Isenbarger Family Christmas

 (A little background - those in our family who were coming for Christmas self quarantined for two weeks and then had COVID tests to ensure they were negative. This let us feel comfortable in getting together.)

Every other year, our family gets together for Christmas at our home here in Indiana. It's a monumental task coordinating the schedules of 28 people, but usually most of us make it. And while this year we were missing Mountain Mama Jessica and her family as well as Beach Son Kyle and crew, we were grateful to have four of our kids and their families with us for Christmas.

Back row left to right: Todd, Denver Daughter Sarah, JC, Emily holding Pony Pal Susie, Music City Son Cole, Local Son Curt holding Pony Pal Mila, Vanessa. Seated left to right: Horse Buddy Trinity holding Cowpoke Ian, me holding Pony Pal Kate (who insisted on wrapping up in the 10' pink python we gave her for Christmas), Craig holding Cowpoke Lukie, and Teacher Daughter Lisa holding Pony Pal Julie.

Of course, we went out to visit the horses. Julie, Mila, Lukie, Kate, and Vanessa with Abby. (A longer blog post on that barn visit is coming.)

On Christmas Eve we always reenact the Nativity. I got to be a horse in the stable. (Typecasting? Haha!)

I was also asked to read The Night Before Christmas to everyone. The unicorn who was in our Nativity reenactment hung around to hear the story. (What?? You didn't know that a unicorn came to see Baby Jesus? Well, she did in the Isenbarger family version!)

Speaking of unicorns, Pony Pal Mila loved her new Breyer Aurora. I took it out of its Breyer box, wrapped it in bubble wrap, and put it in a Breyer mailing box before wrapping it. She was SO excited and liked the box so much we had to save it for her. 

Craig and I got at least one gift wrapped in unicorn paper.

Guess who got new cowgirl boots for Christmas?? I am hoping to ride some more this spring.

Craig also surprised me by having a blanket made with a picture of Abby and me on it.

The Not Mares in Black, Music City Son Cole, Todd (Sarah's hubby), Craig, and Local Son Curt, chat around the kitchen island.

JC (Denver Daughter's oldest and a college student at BYU Idaho) was a patient cousin and let Julie, Lukie, Mila, and Ian tackle him on the trampoline.

Since we had told everyone that their dogs were welcome to come to our home, we had five dogs among the chaos.

Horse Buddy Trinity (JC's sister) stretched out with her dog, Blue and our Pepper.

Pony Pal Julie with Millie and Molly, Teacher Daughter Lisa's dogs.

Music City Son Cole took a nap cuddled up with with Rhett, Denver Daughter Sarah's Australian Goldendoodle puppy.

And while we only had a little dusting of snow on Christmas Day,

it was still a magical day. (Must've been the unicorn.)

Pony Pal Mila's Unicorn/Birthday/Tea Party

Pony Pal Mila celebrated her fourth birthday with a tea party that morphed into a unicorn bash. She was all dressed up in a beautiful navy dress, pearls, and had had her hair put up. (That bright pink hand is from an art project earlier in the day.)

She and her mama have near-daily tea parties (although they drink hot chocolate - my kind of drink!) and they use teacups and teapots that I gave them that belonged to my mother and Grandmother Honeywell. (I come from a long line of collectors; on the female end, it was teacups and teapots. I have boxes and boxes of them that I inherited.) 

 I'd found this Happy Birthday teacup while out antiquing and Pony Pal Mila was thrilled to use it.

 One of my mother's cups with apple blossoms on it. This is Mila's favorite teacup.

 One of Mila's Great Great Grandma's teapots, and probably my favorite of them all.

It was during the gift opening that the party switched into a unicorn bash. It wasn't on purpose; it was just that we all knew that Mila wanted unicorns for her birthday! (Last year it was My Little Ponies. She is definitely a horsey girl.)

 The first gift opened was a large stuffed pink unicorn that could be ridden by hopping. 

Pearls, fancy dress, and hair notwithstanding, Pony Pal Mila was off! (Sorry for the poor quality picture. I used it because I love the joy on Mila's face.)

 A Breyer Jasmine plushie from us along with a unicorn nightlight!

It didn't take long before the unicorns were starting to stack up - Mila has two sets of grandparents and five aunts and uncles in town.

 Soon some Disney princess dolls soon were roped into becoming unicorn riders.

A pile of unicorns waiting to go into the Barbie house - their new home. (I wonder how Barbie feels about that?)

These two were a bit too big to be stabled with the other new unicorns.

My Little Ponies were Mila's wish last year, and unicorns were it for this year. Dare I hope that for her fifth birthday she chooses horses?

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future

While I was taking this photo of the kids' table for Thanksgiving dinner,

I noticed something next to Pony Pal Mila's plate that made me smile and took me right back to my own childhood.

I give all my grandchildren, whether they are near or far, a new Christmas ornament at Thanksgiving. Pony Pal Mila liked her new unicorn ornament so much that she had brought it to the dinner table.

It also made an appearance in the photos I took of the Pony Pals and Cow Pokes playing upstairs with the Fisher Price Little People Christmas Village and Nativity. Mila is so like me in that she always has a horse to hand.

Julie, Mila (with her hand on her unicorn ornament), Lukas, Kate, Ian, and Susan.

I felt the shade of Dickens and all three of his Ghosts yesterday. Mila's horse loving activities in the here and now connected back to my own past. They also foreshadowed the future.

Me? Buying Unicorns?

Me? Buying unicorns?? Believe it or not, I did.

Not only did I buy two boxed sets of Breyer's Unicorn Gift Collection, I also bought three of Breyer's unicorn Christmas ornaments.

Every Thanksgiving, I give each one of my grandchildren a Christmas ornament to hang on their Christmas trees. My mother did this for our kids, and I love to visit them in their homes and see all those old, treasured ornaments hanging up. Clearly, they have a lot of meaning to my children and are a fond memory of their grandmother. I chose to carry on the tradition with my own grandchildren.

The unicorn ornament is much nicer in hand than it is in photos - even Breyer's promotional pictures do not show how pretty the ornament is. Pony Pals Cambria, Mila, and Julie will all get one of these.

And in light of Pony Pal Mila's recent Pandora's box moment, I thought she would like the boxed set of unicorns.  (Look closely and you can see her playing with four of my brightly colored Horse Crazy Stablemates in the video.) The other will go to either Pony Pal Cambria (although she REALLY wants cowboy boots, a hat, or a belt buckle for mutton busting) or to Julie, maybe even Corinne or Whitney, although those two are more into ballet than they are unicorns at the moment.

Who'd ever have thought that, of all people, I would actually be buying unicorns?? The things you do for your family...

Not Again!

I spent yesterday afternoon in a classroom at a middle school. I am mentoring a new teacher there, and she had texted and asked me to come in and observe how things were going.

No problem, happy to come! But I didn't expect to hear this from a girl who walked into class and sat close to where I was perched.

"Hey, nice unicorn!"

I knew she was talking to me, but I had no idea as to what she was referring. I smiled and said, "Thanks, but I don't know what you mean."

"That unicorn! On your computer!" she smiled back. "I love unicorns."

I would never, EVER have a unicorn on my computer, but I do have two Breyer stickers, one of the Clydesdale and the other of the 5 Gaiter. I checked the lid, still wondering what she meant. And then I saw it.

 This is the view that she saw of my laptop.

I guess those ears DO look a bit like a unicorn horn when they're upside down!

Unicorns are Everywhere!

It is no secret that I dislike unicorns. But, when your grandchildren love them, you learn to smile and put up with them.

So, when I am spending time with Mila, I have learned to expect to see them everywhere.

 Like on her pajamas.

 Or having her color a unicorn picture for me to take home and hang on my fridge.

 I did NOT expect to discover that she eats a cereal by Kellogg called Unicorn (which looks suspiciously like a rebranding of Froot Loops.)

But that's not the only place I find them. Unicorns are extremely popular right now and pop up everywhere. For example, I was volunteering for a teacher friend by checking some sentences her students had written using new vocabulary words.

 The word" exist" provided a unicorn springboard for most of those kiddos!

I lost count of how many of them coupled "exist" and "unicorn" together!

Then there was my dentist. Seriously, my dentist?!

My usual after-visit goodie bag with a new toothbrush and floss had a unicorn on it, too! (I guess if you eat enough of that sugary Unicorn cereal you will need to go to the dentist, right?)

I am not sure why unicorns are so wildly popular right now, but they are and so I expect that I will continue to come across them despite my best efforts to avoid them. I'll tolerate them, but I will never learn to like them!