What a special and positively magical Christmas we had here at Crow Farm! It was full of so much love, fun and surprises. This Christmas will forever be in my heart as one of the most special Christmas’s of all time. My eyes are welling up just thinking about it!
My sister and her husband had planned to visit us for Christmas which was so very special. We hadn’t spent a Christmas with her since our oldest was a baby which was 8 years ago. Way too long ago. It felt like a scary thing to have people over with COVID as it was but we made sure our extended family was fully vaccinated and all our sweet family was as well. It also felt like it was long overdue to finally have family come stay with us on the farm. The girls were just overjoyed to have Aunt Gracie Lynn here!!
The girls prepared for Santa with a special barn set up for the animals. They weren’t sure he would know to leave all the animals goodies in the house and thought it might be messy. The barn made more sense. Abigail also had the tooth fairy make a Christmas season appearance as she lost her second tooth!
On Christmas morning when we were all sitting around a toasty fire in the living room a car drove into our driveway that I had never seen before. My first thought was, “Oh my goodness! Did we have a guest staying in our Airbnb that I forgot was coming??!” Then the profile of the driver came into view and I thought I saw a bun on the top of the person’s head. “That’s Mom!” I thought. And then my logical brain said, “No it’s not you fool! You just talked to her on the phone and she said she was making Christmas deliveries. You just want her to be here so bad you are imagining it.” I stood all the while getting closer to a window to get a better view. Yes, yes, YES!! That was definitely Mom’s bun!!!!! We all started screaming and running outside toward her. The girls who had just been roasting next to the fire ran outside without half of their clothes on to meet her. My Mom was at Crow Farm for Christmas!!! This was unbelievable!! We were all crying and hugging, crying and hugging more. It was amazing!! She had flown all the way across the country and kept it a secret from everyone! Even Gracie Lynn, who lives near my Mom, didn’t know she planned on coming. What a surprise!
It was pure joy to have my sister and Mom at Crow Farm with us to cook, chat, hug, snuggle, laugh and so much more! My Mom took over feeding the animals some days which was so nice and the two of us got some alone time going over to our neighbor’s farm and tending to their animals while they were away. We would all just love it if we could talk my Mom into living on Crow Farm with us! We just love family so much! We wish they all were here!!
On top of all the magic that was brought to Crow Farm from my sister and my Mom, it snowed the morning after Christmas which isn’t the norm around here. We usually get a little slushy snow once or maybe twice per winter but this time it really snowed!! Everyone had fun sledding down our hills, making snow people and all the other joy that snow brings on. The big piggies were confused but not too phased by the snow. The ducks, however, were trapped in their Quack Shack because the weight of the snow had brought down their protective net. Amazingly, it didn’t break!
We got super lucky…because of the chaos around holiday travel and COVID all flights were delayed a couple days which meant we got to keep family for longer!! We went on our special Horchata Hike as we call it. It’s actually called Skinner Butte but we call it the Horchata Hike because at the base of the city “hike” we go to Wildcraft Cider Works and get a horchata to split. Their cider is really good as well.
On New Year’s Eve my family stayed with the girls so Justin and I could have a date. We haven’t had a date in years so naturally we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We scheduled an Arcimoto rental (which is a really neat tiny electric car/motorcycle) but as we were driving to the company called us and said there was a mistake. Their website had messed up and told people they were open that day when they really weren’t. So, we walked around downtown and did a wine tasting. It was nice to be out and about and not rushed.
Meanwhile back at Crow Farm Gracie Lynn had a ton of fun things planned for the girls. They would open a piece of paper each hour, or maybe even every half hour, which revealed a fun craft or activity to do. I’m sure it will go down in the girl’s books as one of their most special NYE celebrations. I so wish family lived closer to us.
