Happy Belated Thanksgiving, dear readers!
Side note…how is it that December will be here by Friday!? It feels like just yesterday I was anxiously awaiting my trip to Ireland. I barely got my grocery shopping done before the crowds descended! This all seems to be just how it is now. Gone are the days of our youth when we had all the time in the world to wait on things to come upon us.
ANYWAY. I digress, as per usual.
I hope you had a wonderful time however you choose to celebrate it if you choose to celebrate it!
We had a week full of family and food at our special place, the farm. We made a lot of new foods and some staples…like pumpkin bread!
We used to have two big family celebrations every year. One in town and one out at the farm. Between families growing exponentially and the results of covid, the new tradition has become a slightly less loud and chaotic one at the farm with only my immediate family (which is a lot). I have mixed feelings about the new tradition, but I will never ever complain about more time at the farm with my horses and my Merley Bob.
I had nine glorious days out there and now I am still doing laundry while I enjoy my morning coffee. I am not allowing myself to get my Christmas tree until the laundry is finished and put away. No small feet, I grant you.
Merle and I got there the Friday before Thanksgiving with all my groceries is tow. We were able to enjoy the calm before the storm with a nice ride Saturday morning. Our time. Just my boys and me. Where is Merle you ask? He was off running somewhere. Probably in the direction that Lito is looking. Lito loves to keep track of the Merle and use him as an extra set of eyes.
We did not do too terribly much, just relaxed and meandered around. We did a little trotting, We did a little loping. We did a little grazing.
I did lose my hat at one point and I blame one of the heifers. She was acting like she wanted to chase us while we were trotting so we turned around to tell her that was not acceptable. Well, the wind caught my hat while we were turning and landed it at the heifer’s hooves. We stood there for a while while I decided if it was worth me dismounting to get my hat to then have to mount back up. 16.3+ hh is a long way up there in a flat meadow. I opted to leave the hat for when we were finished in that pasture. I have a somewhat crooked hat now thanks to that heifer! It could have been worse and there are worse things! The hat still goes on my head and does its job.
We have been listening to a playlist on Spotify called ‘Outdoor Zen’ and it is zenfull.
Look, there is the Merle! Enjoying a mud bath!
I had lots of help feeding the horses through the week. Feeding seems to be the kids’ favorite part.
I normally do not keep the horses in their stalls for anything but feeding, but since they were kept up for the whole week and the kids were always running around, I put them all in their stalls for a few hours morning and night to enjoy their hay and rest alone before feeding. Have their quiet time, if you will. This kept everyone relaxed and made the routine a little easier. It created more work with more mucking and dealing with water buckets, but it was worth it.
We enjoyed many gorgeous sunsets and sunrises that photos do not do justice to.
We had all the traditional Thanksgiving favorites for an early dinner as opposed to lunch, We had most everything prepared by the day before so we could take the whole day to leisurely enjoy a snacking lunch with mimosas and setting the table and doing crafts with the kids.
Y’all know I love to do a special dessert and this year was no different, even if it was a little more simple than in years past. I made a chocolate gingerbread tart. A new type of dessert for me, but it was really really good. There are some changes I would make to improve it (to the crust mainly…you can see it does not look quite right), but it was a good first effort! Very elegant I think. It was a big hit. I used two different recipes as go inspiration go bys to create it (recipe 1 and recipe 2…I can not find…it was a chocolate amaretto tart). Sister A also made a pumpkin tres leches that was amazing. Pops really likes pumpkin desserts so we had to include one!
You can not by any means skip the pomegranate seeds. Gosh. Those really were the finishing touch. These are not the best pics, but trust me, it is worth repeating!
The great thing about giving everyone quiet time in their stalls is I always catch at least someone having a nap. I love to watch them nap!
On Friday I took my Lito to our friend M’s house for a body work session. He felt good and really seemed to be thankful for it! It was cold and windy, but he relaxed into it. I did not catch all the yawning and releasing on the camera, but there were many! We are going to look into getting him set up with the chiro to be adjusted soon. M thinks that will help his two spots of soreness.
I was blessed to have to make a quick run back out to the farm Monday afternoon thanks to Pops leaving a gate open. I got the gate closed, checked all the animals, and did some fence work before I took some time to hang out with the horses a bit. It was cold, but it was a pretty day. Almost as pretty as my queen Cheetah. She will be 20 in May and I am having a hard time that. She is still the spicy four year old I met all those years ago despite the gray hairs and effects of arthritis.
It has been a busy week catching up after Thanksgiving, but I would not have it any other way.
How was your Thanksgiving? What did you do? What did you cook? Check back soon for riding and Santa Fe adventure updates!
Walk in love, dear readers, and continue to give thanks!
Sure sounds like a great Thanksgiving. I loved the mud bath photo.
It was! Any time we go by that spot, you can get Merley is in there! The only good thing to come out of wild hogs…giving Merle messy and cool fun.
What did we cook/eat? Rib roast, close to 40 lbs of black angus beef. Amanda brought over the roast to use our oven. Then, we had the traditional sides – dressing (same as stuffing but not in the bird), mixed veggies, sweet potatoes, wild rice, green chile cornbread. Waiting for dinner – chocolate cake #1 with chocolate frosting and double chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, chips and salsa, veggie relish tray with ranch dressing or thousand island dressing. Dessert – chocolate cake #2, Royal Kona coffee (100% Kona).
Close to a full house. Our friends and family, only those we like.
What did we do? A lot of grazing. Couldn’t do much outside because it was cold, waiting for it to snow. In the barn, we already set up the horses with their hay, oats, some treats (apples and carrots). Barn cats had their kibble; they weren’t particularly keen about going outside.
That is a lot of beef! I saw you post that and had to pause and think about it a little lol. We do dressing too. My mom makes the best! She puts sage in it. Y’all had a lovely spread! I personally like the sides the best. We had turkey (usually do, but sometimes beef or venison), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (prepared savery…no sugar or marshmallows), green beans almandine, squash casserole. dressing of course, cranberry sauce with peppers and apple made by me, and my mom’s homemade rolls. The two desserts you saw in my post. Desserts are always different.
100% Kona! I need to look that up. Does that actually mean grown etc in Hawaii? I was surprised to see when I was there Kona coffee that is actually Californian.
We did a lot of grazing too, but also a lot of outside…blessed to be in Texas! I will say though, having the horses set up with hay and seeing and hearing them munch is one of my favorite things. I was going to turn the horses out on the day so I would not be distracted, but between the kids and fencing projects…I left them in. Merle was happy to be inside with his alone time too.
Cassandra asked if we dress to the nines for dinner or anything. Elizabeth told her we don’t but don’t let us stop you. We dress stay at home casual, walk around in our slippers. I told her don’t worry about a prayer before eating. The closest thing we do to a prayer, is raise our glasses to toast missing friends and family. Tara has wine fridge in her room, and is our closest to a resident sommelier. It’s not like she drinks in her room or anything. Her offering up three bottles doesn’t happen often. The best wine, she says, is one that is shared. The toast, this year, was hard. We just raised our glasses, said nothing. We had our nice linen napkins out on our table setting. We had our paper ones out if anyone got nervous using their linen ones during dinner. I’m glad everyone used their linen ones. We have enough lady manners, lol.
Yes, Kona from Hawaii, grown and processed. To be called Royal Kona, it has to be 100%, not the 10% blend. A little more pricey when it comes to Royal, something insane like $35 for an 8-ounce bag. Royal Kona, the smoothest coffee you will ever drink. Just don’t let it stand too long when it becomes the strongest coffee ever. Californian Kona, haven’t heard that one. Or, even coffee grown in CA.
When you visited, did you ride at Parker Ranch on the Big Island? It’s one the touristy things to do, ride horses there. Push cattle too. I can do those things here at home, help Amanda push cattle too. I know the FEI wants to stage a World Cup Finals anywhere in Hawaii. The only problem, they just don’t have the infrastructure to support equestrian sports. Plus, it would be extremely expensive to stage a two week affair when they would have to build everything from scratch. I believe they do have a couple of single-A shows out there for local riders. I’ve read 3-4 riders have attempted to ride more competitively by coming to the mainland, and ride in CA. Beyond that, I don’t know how well they did.
Now, it’s on to Christmas.
We have not been dressing for it either since it is just us. I prefer to be comfy. Makes it easier for me too because I am always barn dirty. The table on the other hand, I dress the table for a party and make the kids sit at a kid table. The best wine is always shared and I bet the toast was indeed hard. I thought that before I even read it. Hugs to you all.
I was confused about the coffee when I read the bag. If my Aunt still has some at her house I will look again.
I did not do that when I visited! I have heard of it though. I stayed on Maui and did one day trip to the big island for the volcano…absolutely recommend that. I had an inside connection on Maui to ride ;). I would think having a world cup there would be hard for all the reasons you state. I suppose the polo presence there would be of some help in that regard for location maybe. Just off the top of my head. Everything is so expensive there being so ‘remote.’
I think I am ready for Christmas! …but need to get some presents yet.
I hope y’all are enjoying the rest for the holidays. Take care of yourselves and give yourselves time <3
Our Thanksgiving is in October .But we always have pumpkin pie!
I am going to do a jazzed up variation of a pumpkin pie for Christmas I think!
And thanks for sharing those videos Ifelt like Irode along with you💕
<3 I am so glad you liked them! I am missing your goat trail <3