Fourteen

It is what everyone says.  They grow up too fast.

All she wanted was a quiet day.  No fanfare, no party.  

That is what she got...kinda.

Opened presents in the morning.

Then headed to the barn.  Amelia has a bucket washing business.  She washes buckets for boarders who pay $2.50 a bucket.  She does this on Wednesdays and Sundays.  When I asked her if she wanted to go the day before her birthday to do her job, she said "no, I want to be at the barn."  

Her trainer called and said "want to do a trail ride for you birthday?"

Yes. Of course she does.

Little did Amelia know I had already asked her trainer and barn manager to meet us for a birthday dinner at The Saddle Room, a restaurant close by that is both fancy and horse themed!

First a cake with us at home.  Then I said "Hey, I don't have anything planned for dinner for your birthday...let's go out for dinner to a place we never have been."

She had no idea they would be there and was completely surprised.

Presented her with wonderful gifts that she will treasure.  

I can't say enough about Little Creek Farm. Her trainer and people (horses too) have changed her life here in Illinois.  It was tough moving from Alaska, tough changing schools and even tougher when her dad had a stroke when we moved here.  They have provided her an outlet that no value can be placed. 

Happy Birthday Amelia!

Here is the instagram post of the trail ride.

Won't You Be My Valentine?

I made these bags quite a few years ago to extend the Christmas Advent.  Thirteen days of goodies with a valentine joke and a piece of paper telling her each day one thing we loved about her. 

We made the Valentine box from a Build a Bear box way back when too. 

After the advent of little gifts, she gets a basketful of goodies on Valentine's morning. 

The new Jellycat line of "littles" are truly irresistible.  There is a copy of Animal Farm in there as she needed it for school and thought Napoleon the pig would be appropriate. 

She said she loved her lego card most of all.  Made one for my husband too.

Not too much candy as she still has Halloween treats to get thru.

Guitar stand, Taylor Swift Album and Starbucks mug were some of the favorites.

Although I failed on the photo, Amelia did give a few of her close friends a Valentine Pura Vida Bracelet and a Hershey bar wrapped in a festive bag.

Happiest Valentine's Day!

ON TO THE 14th BIRTHDAY!

As a matter of fact, this IS my first rodeo!

 

Her trainer asked if she would like to go to a rodeo...SURE!

Having never been, I had the illusion of wrangling up horses or bulls, but this was primarily a bull riding event.

There was a very brave horse with a rider who wrangled up the bulls after they ditched their own riders. 

Most attention Amelia gave was to the barrel racers who came in as a kind of half time show.

Just as impressive as riding a bull for 15 seconds!

Posted an instagram on the video portion...

Christmas 2023 "Sing a Christmas Carol" from Scrooge

Sing a song of gladness and cheer

for the time of Christmas is here.

Look around about you and see

what a world of wonder 

this world can be.

Sing a Christmas carol.

Sing a Christmas carol.

Sing a Christmas carol, like the children do. 

And enjoy the beauty

all the joy and beauty

that a merry Christmas

can bring to you.

Christmas Traditions of A Gingerbread House and Cookies

 

We are a house of traditions. I have a spreadsheet of everything we do, with dates to be completed, just so we don't miss anything.  Building a Gingerbread House is usually done on a weekend while she is still in school.  

I always buy an extra tube of icing (we have made ours in the past) and add plenty of extra candies to decorate.  The kits are great as it cuts back on some of the stress of making gingerbread. We have done a pretzel log cabin and a little village of graham cracker houses in the past. We usually have a stomach ache after completing...wonder why.

Unlike the gingerbread house, our Christmas cookies are done after Amelia is done with school. Usually we ice them on Christmas Eve Eve or on Christmas Eve. Rob helps too.  He is all about getting the job done and not dilly dallying around with artistic expression.

We made peppermint fudge too early in December, but skipped the pie crust and gingerbread cookies that we have made in the past.  The fudge goes quickly, but we had soooo many sweets that I couldn't bring myself to do more cookies!  

Thanksgiving Is The Gateway To Christmas

Actually, it's Halloween that is the gateway to Christmas. I wait til I see one house decorated and up goes the Halloween decor! This is always in late September. I do this so that a day or so after Halloween it comes down and UP GOES CHRISTMAS! This means Thanksgiving is always decorated for Christmas and not so much Fall.  For the past two years we have been going to Ohio for Thanksgiving, but since we just moved and weather wasn't that great, we thought it would be nice to go back to our old tradition in Alaska ... just the three of us. 

It literally takes a couple weeks to get everything where it is suppose to go.  

and being a new house to us, it took even longer to find a good spot for everything.  

Had to buy clips for the advent stockings, figured we would put up the Christmas stockings Christmas Eve when the advent would be done. 

We put on our favorite movies and music and have a grand time.  Amelia is down by the corner putting out the nativity scene...it is tradition she does that one. 

When everything is out and all the ornaments are put on both the trees, Amelia puts the angel on.  It is only then decorating is officially done. 

Our Christmas card was done by Amelia and doubled as a way to tell everyone we moved :)

Next...more traditions of Christmas.