Twas the night before Christmas ...

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the farm, a transformer was blowing and causing alarm. While most of the critters were snuggled and warm, our cold blooded Chloe couldn’t weather the storm. So into the rainy darkness we went to very ungracefully haul her to bed. But where does one stash a cold tortoise, you ask? Well, with 17 chickens clucking, 16 cats meowing, 15 quail cooing, 1 bunny hopping and a possum in a pear tree!

Ok - so Christmas Eve was a tad bit unconventional (and maybe just a little stressful!!) with a 12 hour power outage, torrential rain and gusty winds. Once Chloe was stashed, candles lit and flashlights powered up for the night, everyone scrambled to bed with hopes that Santa would still be able to make a grand entrance despite the heavy rain and winds. Fortunately, before losing power, we were able to track Santa’s progress on the computer - so we were optimistic that the big guy was still on his way! And low and behold, he pulled it off, of course!! ;)

With a successful Christmas in the books, we enjoyed the remaining Christmas break by taking numerous day trips to local State Parks, we took the boat out a time or two for some viewing of the local wildlife and we even fit in a bit of fishing. Yay for no school, flexible work schedules and wonderful “Winter” weather!!