Rhonda's Ramblings

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,

Last night as my husband and I “settled our brains” for a very short night of sleep, I was wishing we were settling in for a long winter’s nap. I was reminded of this line from The Night Before Christmas
because Jason wore his winter hat to bed last night. Why was this necessary? Because it’s freezing cold!

I’m not used to temperatures in the negative numbers. I’ve lived here for a couple of years, but this is much colder than the last couple of winters. Cold enough that there is ice inside our kitchen windows. Brrr.

Frozen Window

But at least the view outside our windows is beautiful!

View from window

As a side note….Somehow I don’t remember the word “brains” in the poem. I always thought it just said “settled down”.

At first glance, the wild turkeys may impress you. And I will admit, they are quite impressive animals. Gorgeous, really.

We call these turkeys “wild”, but we use the term loosely. A couple of years ago, there were some wild turkeys who made friends with our domestic turkeys. I really think they were just using them for the free food, but whatever the case, they became pals. Well, our domestic turkeys ended up running off with the wild turkeys. Such bad influences.

We have never seen our domestic turkeys again. But this past year, a wild turkey momma showed up with her four little babies. I guess she wanted to give them the same type of childhood that she had.

We love them and are protective of them. We don’t want them to end up on someone’s table for Thanksgiving dinner.

But at the same time, they drive us crazy. They are not as impressive when they are scratching and climbing around on your roof at 6:30 am.

(See the little turkey head sticking up?)

And they are not impressive when they poop all along your front walk.

They are not impressive when they tear apart the bale of straw that is for your chickens.

But they are impressive when they fly high into the trees.

And super impressive when they strut their stuff.

So, I guess we’ll keep them around. We’ll have to raise our own thanksgiving turkey.

I am so blessed to live in such a beautiful place. Just tonight, driving home from work, I got excited when I saw the rugged mountains covered with snow. Nevermind that I saw the same mountain last night and the night before. It still creates a feeling of awe.

Here are a few pictures I took while walking around our property. Pictures never capture the true feeling of standing on top of our hill where you have almost a full 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. But they are still beautiful.

I would like to introduce you to Annie, Penelope and Harriet, though I’m not really sure which one is which.

They are delightful and easy to fall in love with. I love the way they do the “chicken scratch dance”. They scratch…jump back…then investigate. Scratch…jump back…then investigate. I also love watching my friend Vanessa imitate the “chicken scratch dance”.

(If you would like to know which name belongs to which chicken, you will have to ask Vanessa [she named Harriet and Penelope] or my Mom and Sister [who named Annie].)

If you know me at all, or have read this blog once or twice before, you may be aware of my obsession with daffodils. They make me giddy.

And my sweet husband bought me some today. I jumped for joy! It will be months before they will even think about blooming here in the high desert. Isn’t it nice that Safeway brings us spring a bit early? And isn’t it nice that my husband is so awesome?

I would show you pictures of the happy flowers from today, but my camera is broken. But I’m sure I can find 923,000 pictures of daffodils on my hard drive.

My wonderful husband got me Photoshop as a very thoughtful Christmas gift. He’s really good at giving gifts.

My in-laws got me this gorillapod for Christmas.

There is one problem. My beloved camera, that I have had for years and have taken all over the country with me, decided to give up the ghost this week. I may have cried.

I’m not one to name my belongings, but it was like a friend to me. I know that’s cheesy, but I was pretty attached to my camera. It was small and compact and could fit in my pocket or purse. I could and did take it everywhere with me…hiking, sledding, roadtripping, to the river, around the farm, on our honeymoon, when we took the canoe out on the lake….you get the idea.

Let’s have a moment of silence for my camera.

Right now, our budget doesn’t really allow for a new camera. And someday, I really want a digital SLR. But our budget really doesn’t allow for that. (And I couldn’t take an SLR down the sledding hill with me.) So, I’d settle for another great point and shoot, but know that it will be a while before I can get one.

But today, as I was mourning the loss of my camera, and noticing so many picture-worthy moments, a flash went off. I have these “reward points” from a credit card that I need to use. I had thought about getting an i-pod with them, but just never have been sure. And thanks to my procrastination, I can now get a camera, which I would like much more than an i-pod, I’m sure. Now I just have to decide which one in my point range is the best for me. I think I’ll probably stick with a Canon SD. Mine was so good to me, and I don’t love change.

We pretty much had the perfect Christmas Day. It’s true.

My family came up for a couple of days. (My brother, my sister and her hubby, and my mom)

At 2:00 am on Christmas day, it was pouring rain, so imagine our surprise when we woke up to a winter wonderland.

My mom and sister were enamored with my chickens, which I thought was so cute. So, they collected the eggs while I put the french toast casserole (with homemade bread) in the oven. (Actually, while they collected the eggs, I took pictures, and then put the casserole in the oven.)

Then we opened presents. My sister is a bit of an overachiever when it comes to wrapping gifts. She wrapped them all with pages out of old magazines such as Real Simple. Aren’t they awesome?

After gift opening, I put the prime rib in the oven and we set off to enjoy the amazing sledding hills. Seriously, what could be more fun on a Christmas afternoon?

Isn’t my mom adorable in her hat with her red sled?

We came back to a lovely dinner with my strawberry tablecloth and napkins and my red dishes. (I highly recommend getting married, you get lots of cool stuff. Including an a husband.)

After dinner, we sat around the table and read some verses and reflected on our many blessings, especially Christ. And then we sang Christmas carols around the table and we had so much fun that we decided to go caroling. (To my in-laws house about a minute away.)

And to top it all off, we made snow ice cream with eggnog. Yum! And played Strawberryland. What? You’ve never played Strawberryland? You’re missing out on some berry fun times.

It was such a fantastic day, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it all! I am so blessed.