Merry Christmas!

We all awoke this morning to open our Christmas stockings. They were really full!

Jadon worked through the presents methodically and quickly, reaching in, opening, announcing, and setting aside.

Joe worked through slowly. He would open a present, show it to Phil, show it to me, set it down carefully, and then look down. "Open more?!" he would ask each time.

Here Phil is hamming it up, pretending to be enthusiastic about a box of Ziploc bags (actually much-needed new muck boots).

I read one of the books I got for Christmas, A Dirty Life, which my Dad reviewed on his blog here. (For the record: I did not like it quite as much as he did. I took exception to her claim that they were "starting a farm from scratch," when they had experience, free land, excellent soil, a house and farm buildings—even electricity and water. We're REALLY starting from scratch by comparison! And I would love to have $25K in free hay the first year, and over $50K in income, but I have been working on not envying, and am trying to get past that.) I really appreciated the author's farm idea: provide all the food a person would need for a well-rounded diet for a year. All the milk, cheese, butter, lard, pork, beef, chicken, eggs, vegetables, and maple syrup.

This is so elegant, so diverse! How could we make it work here? I don't know if we could, but it might be fun to try.

In other news: Phil went to roll a hay bale in to Bianca's dry lot the other day. She came out to meet the bale, and then, as it rolled, she charged into the dry lot so fast that she spooked the three Vermont cows, who then bolted out the open gate. Phil called for help then. We have certainly done our share of animal chasing this year (though, from the sounds of the book above, we're not alone in that. Farming, apparently, is a series of animal escapes).

One of the benefits of a small town: at 11:15 yesterday morning, the Postmistress called me. "We have a package for you here still; if you need it before Christmas, come on up. We're closing at noon today, but I'll probably be here until 12:15."

I cannot imagine such service in the city. She had to hunt for our number, too: unlisted cell phone with a Colorado area code. So nice!