Christmas Day

Christmas Day at Trish and Craig's farm is always a fun and exciting time, and this year was no exception. Besides Emily and I trying to conquer a cold, we
enjoyed Christms weekend with John, Cushla, Trish, Craig and the kids Sammy and Henry, and Craig's mother Gladys. Christmas morning was fun; especially watching Emily soak in all the chaos of present opening. She managed very well, and although had no real idea of what was going on, absorbed enough of the excitement to nap really well all day.

On Boxing Day, we helped draft sheep with Craig and Trish. Drafting is the process of getting all the ewes and lambs into sheep pens and then pushing them through bunch by bunch until you have separated all the lambs from their moms. It is a bit sad to hear all the sheep crying out for their babies or moms but it's the "way of the farm". All of the sheep were being shorn ("sheared?") the next day so the wool needed to be separated between new lambs wool and old ewe wool. I enjoyed helping to move the sheep all around and trying to use my best imitation "dog bark" to assist my canine co-workers, we got the job done pretty smoothly! Emily joined us in her stroller and liked watching all the sheep moving around, but soon was over it and wanted a quiet place to nap. So I decided to take her back to the house for a nap. Craig asked me to go to the 4 wheeler and get the "rattle". I told him not to worry, as Emily didn't need it because she was gonna go back to the house. He looked at me weird, and said again "but if you just grab it, its on the steering wheel". I figured he hadn't heard me so said, "that's alright, I will just take Emily home for a nap". As I moved Emily's stroller out of the yards, Bryce came to help carry Em's stroller over a fence. He then walked over to the 4-wheeler and grabbed a rattle-like thing and I said,"whats that?". He said, "its a sheep rattle to use to move the sheep around the pen!". Oh, so Craig wanted the rattle for the sheep, not Emily......duh.