Manger Scene Sing

Ben and Taunya pulled out about 2:30 am for their long trip home to Dallas Texas. We are sure going to miss them.  I have to tell you a story about Addyson this summer.  On their first week back to school they were asked what they did over the summer and one little girl in Addyson's class said, "My grandma took me to Paris!"  Addyson chimed in, "well MY grandma has a golf cart AND lets ME DRIVE IT!" Yep, Addyson wins. This last week while they were here the weather just wasn't nice for taking golf cart rides and my golf cart needs new batteries but I don't want to buy them until spring.  We had a beautiful sunny 54 degree day, perfect for getting all that outside work done before the storm hits. The weather is predicted to turn to rain tomorrow morning then snow and then of course bitterly cold after the wet heavy snow arrives. We are in the 3 to 5 inch range for this storm now named Bruce.
The first job on my list today was to move in bales while it was still nice. Valiant and Galena were let out in the field and their paddock locked off so I could move the bale in without them interfering. They both chose a muddy spot and rolled. They grazed a bit then rolled some more until both sides were filthy.  Karin arrived and helped tease Rosalie. She kind of showed but then did not want to stand so we will mark her out.  The next job was to move a bale in for the weanlings. At that point we quit and came in for lunch. Karin took off for Ruth's house. Ruth was hosting the Davidovic Christmas today so Karin stopped in to say hello to everyone and take them some of her special spinach dip and crackers.  When she got back to the barn some of Spark's grandchildren were there so she gave Eden and Dafna (Molly and Gabe's daughters) rides on the horses once she was done working them. No pictures I was in the house cooking.
Mark split wood for a while then put in a new outlet at the barn by the people door and lined all the trucks, tractors and skid steer up putting trickle chargers on everything. Even Karin's 4 wheeler has a trickle charger on it.
I made a huge pot of turkey soup which was put in give-away-containers and refrigerated. A dozen eggs were hard boiled to make deviled eggs for Rachel's manger scene party tonight.
We took Mark's golf cart over to mom's to give her, Karin and Sarah a ride over to Rachel's on the golf cart. Mine would have been more comfortable and would probably make it to Rachel's but for sure wouldn't make it back.  Braelyn and Taegan arrived just before we did and were admiring all of Rachel's decorations.

Rachel started the singing pretty close to 6:30 pm and everyone joined in singing praises to the new born King. Singing around the manger scene is a tradition Rachel has continued from when we were children living at Pleasant Home. This is the start of Christmas for us.  After the singing of course there are lots of good treats to share and lots of fun. Below are a few videos. Ryan tried to teach Braelyn a trick. Watch poor Lily Pug get splattered with cool whip when Braelyn tries.
 And the next video is Taegan trying the same trick and getting cool whip on Rachel's floor.

Rachel took her revenge though on the dog and floor getting splattered with cool whip by feeding it to Sarah and Nolan's daughter Zion.

The sad news today was the tiny puppy died. It just wasn't developed enough to live.  Sarah and Nolan got up every 2 hours to feed her but couldn't get her to latch on or keep her body temperature up.  They are thankful for 3 big fat healthy puppies and Arrie is a very good mom.  I had another airbnb booking come in for December and this one is pretty special. It is our very first REPEAT! That means they believe staying here IS a good value. We all had a good time tonight after a beautiful day.