Happy holidays!

Nathan and I are spending the holidays sorta kinda ranch sitting.  All others from the ranch are out of town from anywhere between 3 days and over 3 weeks, depending.  One usual ranch worker is around to take care of cattle needs.  Everything else falls to Nathan and I:  four empty houses (keeping wood stoves burning, and preventing pipes from freezing), four dogs (two uber friendly, one friendly to people but basically aloof, and one nervous wreck), two cats (one gives literal hugs while cleaning your face for you, the other is a bountiful kitten), eight chickens (stinky and quick little buggers), and innumerable plants. 

Our Christmas looked something like this:

Chicken coop.  Stinky.

Chicken frenzy.

Nathan with chicken feed.

The runaway.  "They don't walk on snow, so they don't go far."  Took ten minutes of chasing it around to get it back in.  It walked all over the snow.  Oh the taste of freedom...

Playing fetch with Luna and Nina after a Christmas Eve afternoon walk.

Blue bird Christmas Eve.

Mushroom bolognese, our Christmas Eve dinner.

Bad Cat pretending to be Good Cat on Christmas morning.

Nina, eagerly awaiting anything on our stoop.

Surviving the 5 minute car trip to Lookout Mountain in town for an hour's trudge through the snow and hills.  (They did much better on the return trip once tired from chasing a dozen deer, *grumble*)

Post-run second breakfast on Christmas - huevos rancheros, made with eggs laid the day before.  They were satisfying enough that we didn't even want real dinner later one.  (I also blame all the chocolate we ate.  Mom sent the whole bag of Reese's.  You know that will get eaten all at once.)

It has to happen at some point in order to qualify as a true holiday.

Sunset on a Christmas late afternoon walk with the dog dogs.  Before this, I accidentally threw Luna's ball atop one of he sheds and had to climb up to retrieve.  Then I accidentally threw the ball into the stream bank and lost it for real.  Luckily Luna is easily distractable.