It’s only January 9 yet December seems so far away.

The children’s grandfather has returned to Toronto to get their condo ready to sell. Their grandmother and 14yr old cousin have stayed. It’s been lovely to have the company and help around the place.

December 4, Raine’s biggest dream came true. She got her own horse. She’s been saving up for a few years to purchase one. We were going to wait until the spring but this one was too good to pass up. It’s a Fjord and Welsh mixed mare who remains nameless. Raine can’t decide what to call her, so the rest of us are calling her Frieda for now. The horse is incredibly friendly and getting along great with the sheep and alpacas. In fact the sheep have really taken to her. When Frieda races around the pasture they all run along behind her.

The children were in a Christmas play at church – The Not So Silent Night. Raine and Branch were witnesses in the court case against the shepherds who disturbed the peace of Bethlehem after being visited by the angels, Cora playing one of them. Adley was a police officer who escorted the witnesses to and from the witness stand. They all did a marvelous job, though Cora was so excited she could hardly get out her solitary line, “Glory to God in the highest.”

After the service that day, the congregation shared a turkey lunch with an incredible amount of delectable deserts. We’re finding the new church to be very welcoming.

December 14, Raine was in Camrose, Alberta with her cousin and grandmother. They picked up a male standard poodle. One of our goals is to breed poodles in hopes of returning the dogs to their original place as an all around farm dog. Yes, that is what poodles were designed to be – farm dogs. It’s hard to believe given their current status was snobbish show dogs. With the advent of doodles, standard poodles are becoming increasingly rare. When we spotted this one, an expedition was undertaken to retrieve him.

On December 21, we celebrated the Winter Solstice. It was so mild, Cora, Adley, and I had  little picnic outside with pizza and spice cakes topped with butter cream icing and coconut. The others ate at the dinning room table inside. After eating, everyone got a gift to help keep them warm in this season – mostly socks. For some reason, this really didn’t sit well with Branch. After watching Raine and Adley open their socks, he burst into tears when his package revealed the same. We all tried to console him but without effect. Branch decided to go to his room where he wept for nearly five minutes. I don’t know what was going on in his nine year old heart. When calmed, he returned to the table to finish his dessert. Later at bed time, Branch assured me he was grateful for the socks but had been expecting something else. He couldn’t think of what he’d wanted but knew it wasn’t socks. Funnily enough, Branch was the whole reason I got them socks. He’d been saying his feet were getting cold during morning chores at the barn. I thought some good thick socks would help. Not the smoothest time in our first commemoration of the changing season.

On Christmas Eve the children always open their gifts from their cousins after breakfast. This brought about tears for Branch once more. Amazon mixed up his and Cora’s gifts. The bag with his name contained a very lovely wooden tea set. The bag with Cora’s name had a race car Lego set. “Why would my cousin send me a stupid tea set?” Branch said between sobs. “I told him I wanted Lego.” The mix up was clear so the gifts were quickly switched. Once he recovered from the ordeal, Branch spent the morning assembling the race car while I prepared dishes for dinner and the next day.

The weather was so very mild. For lunch we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows around the fire outside. Then had a leg of lamb for dinner with sticky toffee pudding for dessert.

There wasn’t a flake of snow on Christmas morning or any time leading up to it. Though it wasn’t a green Christmas but a brown one. The landscape has been a golden brown since we arrived and remained so on December 25. We had a pleasant day. There were no more upsets for Branch. He was even happy with his new Saskatchewan shirt. The children played with their new Lego sets. Raine and her cousin helped me with the jigsaw puzzle I bought for myself.

The day passed without much excitement for Athena in Calgary. She’d snooped through my room long before Christmas to find all the gifts. I wrapped everything of hers and sent it with her when she left for Calgary in November. She opened all the gifts at the beginning of December and ate all the goodies from her stocking. My mom did provide her with a few additional items on Christmas Day. Athena was quite happy to sleep in and go without the fanfare that normally accompanies the holiday.

In the evening, I got a distressed call from Lynne, the children’s grandma. When she returned to her place, there was water all over the entrance. I headed over to investigate. A hose on the hot water tank had sprung a small leak. We tried taping it but that didn’t work. We were on a video call with the kids’ grandfather back in Toronto. He walked us through finding the water shut off. Unfortunately there wasn’t  a separate one for the tank. There was only one for the entire mobile home. So we shut it off and they were without water on Christmas night.

The next day, after morning chores were done, I called the plumber who has been so helpful to us since we’ve arrived. Unfortunately, he was away for a week celebrating the holidays with family elsewhere. Raine and I took a wrench to the hose. I figured if we could get it off, we might be able to find a replacement and solve the problem ourselves. It didn’t take much to remove the ancient copper hose. We all piled into the minivan and headed to town. At the co-op agricultural shop, we found the right size hose. Though is said it was for a washing machine, we got it. The kids all got slushies and we headed home. The hose fit perfectly. After a bit of tightening, everything was working as it should. What a relief.

The ordeal reminded me of the first Christmas we spent on Wolfe Island, six years ago. My mom came to visit. The massive old house we were renting was heated by two pellet stoves with a backup oil furnace. The one pellet stove in the living room which heated the bedrooms above broke. The oil furnace worked for a day then quit. We were all huddled around the pellet stove in the kitchen like old fashioned pioneers. Always an adventure. Thankfully the leaking pipe wasn’t too much of one.

December 29 we got our first egg from our chickens. The wait has been so long, I’d pretty much given up. We got them late in the season when we moved in July. At this point, I thought we might have to wait until spring when daylight increased. But Raine found a solitary light green egg after lunch.

For me, New Year’s Eve passed quietly without much excitement. Athena, however, was out at a gathering with my sister-in-law’s family. She was hanging out with a small lizard and playing games well into the night.  We had a bison roast for dinner and some tasty desserts including mini pavlovas with lemon curd, blueberries, and a drizzle of chokecherry syrup. I was in bed long before midnight, resting up for the usual day ahead of taking care children and animals.