Well we have survived Christmas, just barely! It seemed to be one of the most chaotic Christmases we have experienced. I don’t know whether it was our lack of planning or everyone’s schedules which are so packed and busy these days. Still I take consolation in the fact that everyone I have spoken to has expressed the same feeling.
Having rushed to do our chores on Christmas morning it seemed as if the time just disappeared and after a short phone call to Laura, Ren and Paul (who were thankfully all having dinner at Laura and Ren’s house enabling us to talk to them all during the same phone call) we just had time to open a couple of presents and then get ready to go over to our friends house for our Christmas lunch.
I was cooking the turkey, gravy, stuffing and a desert and our friend Claire and her family were cooking all of the side dishes plus some more deserts for good measure. We called Claire once we had set off from the house thinking we were running 20 minutes late. Claire was a bit astounded by our phone call as she had been thinking we were due to arrive a good hour to hour and a half later! During all of our planning neither Claire or I had actually discussed what time we were going to serve lunch!
Still apart from Claire being thrown into turmoil for a few minutes (she is a master of managing a crisis) we soon had our lunch all cooked and ready to go thanks to everyone working together including Claire’s parents who are visiting from England.
Lunch was wonderful, we enjoyed our time spent with Claire and her family and then it was time to head home for afternoon chores. As we drove up the driveway we were greeted by some longing stares from the alpacas who were wondering where their evening feed was.
Christmas Day had started out as a beautiful New Mexico day, with blue skies, the sun shining and the temperature pleasant, but to go along with the Christmas chaos theme by the time we started chores a horrific cold front was raging through our area bringing with it high winds, blowing dust, freezing temperatures and snow. Well that soon helped us work off our Christmas dinner. The alpacas ate fast and were soon cushed down inside their shelters out of the wind. We settled in for the evening with a nice cup of tea and watched as the snow blew horizontally past the windows of the house.
So now Christmas has passed perhaps we can get back to our “to-do” list. I still have a studio full of fleece to work on and tax season and show season are rapidly approaching. It is said that keeping active keeps you young so at this rate I should never age. I somehow suspect that theory won’t hold true but I can hope anyway.
A Taste of Life at Windrush Alpacas 
“We settled in for the evening with a nice cup of tea and watched as the snow blew horizontally past the windows of the house” – we feel for you guys. Plenty of cups of tea consumed on Christmas day down here, but a pleasant, reasonably cool day in the mid 20’s – that’s centigrade of course. While you have to cope with blizzards we’re working on how to cope with projected temps of 41 C on new years eve.
Best wishes from Australia to all for the new year, and for a wonderful 2008.
Comment by Russell Dawe — December 29, 2007 @ 8:03 pm