So much left to do before Christmas!!

I don't think we'll be doing another holiday right before Christmas again, it just seems to make everything an absolute rush! I'm still not done my Christmas shopping, baking, wrapping or decorating.

We *almost* broke down yesterday and bought a tree because we were running out of time. We did end up going and getting a tree from the forest though, so much better than bought trees! It reminded me a lot of the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.... We found this really nice tree but it was rather enormous. When we got it home we ended up chopping several feet off of it so it fit (BTW we have vaulted ceilings....). It looks really nice, now we just have to get it decorated! We started on it last night and got the lights on it but didn't get any further, we were too tuckered out! I did get most of the rest of the decorations up and some baking done.

So much left to do though! Most of my Christmas shopping is done, but not quite all of it. I would really really like to get a bunch more baking done before Christmas, I found a bunch of really neat Christmas recipes that I wanted to try.

I finally got a ride in yesterday since it had warmed up a bit. Not much though! I was sooo cold by the time I was done.

Oh and I found the BEST winter invention ever! It was kind of an early Christmas present from my boyfriend. They're mittens made for riding that have the little finger separated so you can still hold your reins properly! My hands were totally warm yesterday! I highly recommend them!

Viva Las Vegas!

Well we're back from Las Vegas, what an awesome time that was! We did SO much in the four days were were there our feet hurt by the time we got home. We went to the final night of the National Finals Rodeo (and we took a limo over to the Thomas & Mack Center where the rodeo was),

Tournament of Kings,Cirque du Soleil, the M&M factory, Freemont street etc etc We did so much! I got some really neat things at the Cowboy Christmas's. A super pretty horse cameo pendant carved from agate (that was my big splurge), a nice new purse and a new pair fo cowboy boots. I thought things would have been cheaper down there but they sure weren't! Las Vegas is definitely something that everybody should do once though!

We stayed at the Paris hotel...

And we saw the fountains at the Bellagio (amazing!)

(this is the lobby inside the Paris hotel)

Of course, an amazing statue of a horse in the Forum shops at Caesar's palace hotel.

These are the gardens at the Mirage.

Stained glass domed ceiling in the Paris hotel.

And the gondolas at the Venetian.

I have sooooo many other pictures but there's just too many to post! I tried to pick the highlights to share.

Our plane was late and we got back to -27 degrees celcius and a truck that really didn't want to start. Luckily after a little bit of being plugged in the truck started. It was a coooold ride home though!

What a weekend!!

We sure had a big storm over the weekend! It started snowing and blowing on Friday morning and didn't stop until sunday. You should have seen some of the huge snow drifts (I know, I know, I should have pictures! lol) that we woke up to on Saturday morning. They were up and over the neighbor's fences! Our road was completely snowed in. We spent most of the morning helping people who tried to get out, get their vehicles unstuck. Only one or two vehicles actually made it through.

We had a great time over at the neighbor's house making breakfast and enjoying some coffee and bailey's, while watching people attempt to get through the snow again and again. Definitely entertaining!


Finally someone with a bobcat came down and plowed a path so we could get out. We got a LOT of snow!



The temperatures dropped on Saturday afternoon and we woke up to a VERY chilly -30C without the wind chill.... Yuck. It's not supposed to let up until later this week. I definitely put the long underwear on to go to work today! Unfortunately the cold weather and snow meant I had to cancel all my lessons for the week. It's just too darned cold for the little guys to be out there.



I did get a fair bit of house cleaning/organizing done though! I just wish I could put some Christmas stuff up. Not until we get back from Las Vegas though! It doesn't make sense to get a tree yet. Ah well!


We did make it up to the local furniture store and we got an early Christmas present from my parents. We'd been kind of looking for a buffet or sideboard for a while and hadn't been able to find one we liked. We had seen this one in a flyer but it was backordered for several months. It finally came in this past week so we could go look at it. I think it'll match our cupboards perfectly!Our kitchen cupboards are totally full and we didn't really have any place to put our nice wine glasses but now we do! It gets delivered on Thursday morning! Very excited!

3 more days till we go to Las Vegas!!!

Must haves.....

I found these while surfing the internet, aren't they absolutely gorgeous!! I especially like the painting of the chestnut because I happen to think it looks like Brigit (haha)! I think I'm going to have to buy these after Christmas. They are just too gorgeous.

As a side note, yes I think I've officially caught the sidesaddle obsessive compulsive disorder. If it's sidesaddle related, I want it!

Today we're waiting for a big winter storm to move in. They're talking wind and 10-20 cm's of snow. I have a feeling getting home isn't going to be quite as easy as getting to work.

Brrrr!!! Winter is here!!!

I guess we've been lucky up until the past few days with our weather. The temperatures dropped and we're expecting more snow later tonight. Yuck! I can deal with the snow but the cold makes it tough. This morning when I got up the radio was saying it was -20 (celcius) and with the wind chill it was closer to -27. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

I had a lesson last night and everybody just about froze. I'm glad our barn is heated but I sure wish the arena was too, it's like a deep freeze in there! I figured it was a perfect night for a bareback lesson! I had plans to ride after the lesson but after standing in the arena for an hour I thought better of it. I bundled the ponies up and gave them some extra food and decided to head home where it was warm.


Brigit's nose seems to have gotten better (*knock on wood!!!!*), it hasn't been really runny for a couple of weeks (maybe it's frozen?? LOL). I'm hoping it will stay that way. We've finally gotten lots of weight on her and she looks great! It's nice to be able to ride her regularly again.

This pair of moose come back every winter (to the delight of the horses I'm sure!) and hang out fairly close to the barn. I was able to snap a picture of them last year. This is pretty much how things are looking at the barn right now. Cold & snowy.

I guess it's time to break out the winter boots, insulated coveralls, toques, mittens and quarter sheet! Just because it's winter, doesn't mean we don't ride up here!

Details!

Well to start off with, the Brigit situation might not be so bad. Her nose has gone from runny to only slightly wet, maybe things ARE clearing up? Fingers crossed!

I ventured outside for the first time sidesaddle this morning. It was so nice to get outside and have a bit more room to move in. I was so impressed with B, normally she gets a bit spooky at things but not today. She was really moving out and relaxed. It was a really enjoyable ride. I attempted the "posting" trot sidesaddle today. Definitely a little tricky! I have no idea if I'm doing it right but it felt ok. Maybe one of these days I'll have to see if I can get a video to post.

Anyways, I just love looking at all the different sidesaddles. Not one looks the same. They're so unique and have such interesting little details. I thought I'd share some of my favorites. This is a saddle I saw at the clinic I attended this summer. Isn't the tooling just gorgeous?

This is a lovely english saddle. The safe and seat have gorgeous stitching (quilting?) on them. I was so tempted to buy this saddle but I was set on getting one with a doeskin seat and pommels.

Isn't that seat gorgeous?

There are so many neat western saddles out there. This one is really interesting with the light doeskin seat and the leather wrapped cinch rings.

And how about these three? All three have such neat details on them. The one in the middle is a saddle that I found on ebay from Peru. It has some amazing tooling and silver details.

Not so good news.....

Well the antibiotics didn't work. Brigit had her last round of them on Sunday evening and she had a runny nose again 24 hours later. Not *as* bad as it was but I'm pretty sure it will get there. Uuurgh.... I was really hoping the antibiotic would do the trick but the vet had warned me that it might not. I talked to the vet today and we're scheduled to go back on November 28th. We're likely going to scope her again and do another round of xrays (this will be the third time). The vet said that it'll likely result in surgery of some sort or another, he's hoping that we can find something obvious this time. That's been the problem, at first they thought it was a tooth and we were going to have it removed but when we went back, they weren't 100% sure so I opted not to do surgery and try the antibiotics. It could just be a sinus infection or it could be a tooth causing the problem. Our options are to do surgery and treat for a sinus infection, and leave the tooth. Or do surgery and take the tooth out and treat the sinus's. I hate to be taking teeth out without being sure.

So it looks like she's going to be laid up for awhile. I guess that means I can work on my other project horse Shadow or ride some of the school horses. There's definitely no shortage of horses to keep me occupied!

Here's Shadow.... I'll write about her another day, Right now it's time for bed!