The good and the not so good

It's Christmas.  Not one of the more memorable ones for me.  Pardon me if I go on a bit of a self pity party here, but it's really hard when your family is really far away.  It's three days drive for me to visit my parents in Canada, which we did last year, but the usual 33 hour drive turned into 48 on account of the weather.  The only other family I have are my 3 first cousins in England, which I can't drive to in any event.  So I stayed here, because we had things to get done. 

It snowed all night and all day too.  We couldn't have driven anywhere even if we wanted to.  This morning we went out to find two chickens had died in the night, likely due to the cold.  Then, the tractor got stuck.  It was high centered on some ice and snow.  Unfortunately, Kelly hadn't found time to take off the mowing deck in the fall, so it got stuck on that, which shouldn't even have been an issue at this time of year.  It took him about 3 hours to get it unstuck.  After which, he promptly got it stuck again.  Sigh.

I cleaned out the office closet, which had been terribly messy and disorganized. I also began some sorting in the basement.  I am pleased with what I accomplished.  It still needs work though.  I made cheese and herb biscuits for lunch, and opened some wax-covered cheese that I had been saving for a special day, but it was moldy, so I had to throw it away.  For supper, I am having leftover macaroni and cheese and a half a pork chop.  Not very festive, is it.  Maybe we'll go out for supper tomorrow.

We have been taking care of a friend's two greyhounds (one of whom is a litter mate to ours) for the last 9 days.  One of them has peed on the floor every single day since we've had her, and sometimes she has done more than that, the record being 2 poops and 4 pees in one day.  She has not been like this before and it's making us a little crazy.  However, she likes to lay down next to my spinning wheel.  Poor girl, maybe she is stressed like me.

The high point of the day was this morning when we opened the gifts my parents sent.  Last year, I was just learning about needle felting when I went home for Christmas, and I brought some wool and felting needles to my Mom.  She has outdone herself with her skills - she has such an artistic talent.  She made me a beautiful needle felted sculpture of a ewe and her lamb!  Look at that!!  It's gorgeous!

They also sent a beautiful matted photograph from a sheep farm in Nova Scotia.  I can't wait to get it framed and hang it in a special place.  Those cute sheep ornaments in the front include a knitted one my mother sent me, and two from our friend Corinne at Crosswind Farm.  We love our sheep!

My mother also sent me a beautiful beaded evening purse which will see a lot of use when we go to wine tastings and the gourmet dinner series offered by our local culinary school.   It's so elegant!

My parents and I are long-time fans of Lee Valley Tools, and they sent Kelly and I an assortment of wonderful things, including the nylon nail brushes (they are the best nail brushes ever!), some small tools for Kelly, a woodworking calendar for Kelly, and a mini microscope with 20x and 40x magnification for us to use to do fecal worm egg counts on our sheep.  I know, it doesn't sound glamorous, but I tell you, it's worth more than its weight in gold for us!

I managed to find a tie with sheep on it for Kelly (along with a wolf in sheep's clothing).  I thought it was pretty funny and he doesn't have a tie in this colour scheme, so he was really pleased with it.  

Kelly's mom gave me a really neat set of glass coasters that you can insert your own pictures into, and she also gave us both gift cards earlier this month, which are wonderful and which we shall both use soon on much needed purchases.  We also had some great cookies from their family celebration. 

Oh, and to end on a humorous note, Kelly found me a very appropriate Christmas card.  Love it!