We may not wish for a white Christmas, and we may not want one, but it does make for some pretty pictures.

Monday was cold, but looking at the weather forecast, NOT the coldest day of the week. Or even close. Ben checked cows, broke ice, tagged calves, etc. Toni went down to get the trailer to take Cross in to Sagehill Vet and helped Ben pull a calf. Mom helped Toni go down to the corral and get Cross. They took Tank in with them too, Cross loves Tank, they are across the fence from each other. Cross is a very sensitive soul, so it was quite an experience for him. They got the new vet at Sagehill that is the large animal vet. Cross did very well considering. Mom made the boys hot coco after chores, so they had some hot coco with their whipped cream. Xia (one of Kaine’s cows) looked like she was calving, so Ben and Anna locked her in the barn, since the wind was so bitterly cold. When I went out to check at 9 she had just calved, and of course has it on the edge of the barn. So I brought in some fresh straw and moved it over onto the straw. Andee, Murtaugh and I went back out to check it at 9:45 to make sure it had nursed. Andee and Murtaugh go out to make sure the coyotes don’t eat me, since they are dogs they are concerned with coyotes. When Anna, Riggs and Lynn went out at midnight Gary, one of mom’s cows, had just calved. So she woke Ben up and they took it into the saddle shed to warm it up and put Gary in the barn.

We woke up to fresh snow on Tuesday. It was a dry snow, because on the highway it was swirling around like dust and made it very hard to see. Ben put Gary and her calf back together. Marlo brought a coffee into me Tuesday morning, she must have heard I was tired. Toni and Ben went to the dairy and got another jersey/char heifer for Dark Knight, one of Kade’s cows, Ben and Anna pulled a dead calf during the night. Victor did not think Toni looked very lawyer like when she picked up the heifer. I am slightly worried we are going to end up with two nurse cows. But you know, if you have one you might as well have two. Ben got Chocolate Oreo in, who is actually an Angus but she was always with Oreo so mom changed her name to Chocolate Oreo, because Chocolate Oreo’s calf did not want to be out in the alfalfa field so she came back to the barn, without her mom. Everyone has been doing their normal chores. When the dogs and I went out to check at 9 Sparkles was calving, so we got her in into the barn and turned Chocolate Oreo and her calf out next to the barn. When Anna checked at midnight, she had not calved yet so she woke Ben up and they pulled it. Ada and 947 both had calved, so they got them into the barn as well.

It was still bitterly cold on Wednesday. The weatherman said the temps are 30 degrees below average. Anna had a dentist appointment, so Ben, Anna and Anna’s friend Brandy went. They brought a coffee to me on their way home. I am doing pretty good on the coffee front. Kaine stayed home to check the cows. The boys and Toni did chores. When Ben and Anna got home they build a new pen for the jersey/char heifers (Ivy and Goldy) since the barn was full.

Thursday was another cold one. Basically, it takes all day on the cold ones just to get ice broke, cattle and horses fed, anything that calves into the barn, cycling out the others, etc.

I had Friday off for the holiday. Toni took the four kids to Connell to help decorate the show barn for Christmas Eve. Ben and I checked cows and took pictures of calves. Two cows had “hid” their calves by the water trough on the ice, so we got the cows to come back to their calves and got them pushed over onto the straw. McCall and McKenna came around to visit everyone, on one of the two days that McKenna was home, and she had gotten in at 3 that morning. I took them out to see the clubby calves,  took pics while we drove around. The girls took pictures too. We passed the camera around. McCall likes my new lens too. The two big boys went sledding after chores, Kade was way more iced up then Kaine when they got back, maybe the sled bucked him of more?? The men came down and put hay out.  Toni rode around on the sled a bit too while the boys were doing chores. I guess it was the sledding day.

Merry Christmas Eve. During the day we did the normal stuff, fed, moved calves out of the barn, moved calves into the barn. Did chores. Then we went to Connell to the show barn for the white elephant gift exchange. We all had a lot of fun. But we missed Traci, Manny and the girls.

We got up Christmas day to see what Santa had brought, which was a very special calf for Anna out of her cow, then went to mom and dads to open presents and eat breakfast. Then the Meachams headed up to Clarkston, or over. We went home and checked cows and got Christmas lunch ready. Joe and grandma came over, Terry and Erinia came down and mom, dad and Skip came over. We had a great lunch of brisket, mashed potatoes, rolls and lots of desserts. Then we played a new Tik Tok came that Kaine got at white elephant and grandma whipped us all. Then we did chores.

We may not wish for a white Christmas, and we may not want one, but it does make for some pretty pictures. We all had a very Merry Christmas full of family, fun, and way too much food. Hopefully your family had a very Merry Christmas as well. There is nothing better than spending time with the ones we love, especially if those ones we love come with 4 legs.