The Blogger Gift Exchange, hosted every year by Tracy at The Printable Pony, is quite possibly one of my favorite annual traditions. The equestrian blogger community has yielded me a lot of great friendships over the years, although granted I haven’t met a lot of them in person yet. Being able to do the gift exchange is a really fun, personal, and tangible way to reach out to the people behind the screen. I have not always known my recipient or my gift-giver very well in the past, but this year I was well-acquainted with both! My recipient was Stacie at Amateur at Large (we constantly enable each other to buy things, so it was quite apropos), and I possibly went a little overboard getting stuff for her. I couldn’t help it. Things just kept popping up that screamed Stacie. Like a cheese balls shirt.

I always do feel a bit bad for whoever is unlucky enough to get me though, because I’m very aware of how hard I am to shop for, but I actually knew my gift-giver this year too – Rhiannon over at The Horse is Not Black. Granted, I’m not sure if knowing me actually makes it more or less difficult to shop for me. Either way, she did great!

First of all, you people that are organized and put-together enough to individually wrap things – hats off to you. I literally just toss shit in a box. If I remember to do that before actual Christmas, get all the right things in the right boxes, and address it to the right person, it’s a win for me. Rhiannon totally gets extra points for presentation though, with all the nice wrapping. And Stewie, my JRT mix, absolutely loves to rip the paper off of presents, so he quite enjoyed that part.

Inside all the packages was a treasure trove of treats – for cats, dogs, horses, and humans. Nicker Makers are probably Henry’s favorite treats aside from the ultra-sugary Stud Muffins or German Horse Muffins (which are reserved only for special occasions lest he get The ‘Beetus), so he was delighted. He seriously raked in the treats this year, across the board. Stewie and Quinn both loved theirs too, and the kitten (who SO has named Orlock and I still call Hades, we are a house divided so this cat will probably have 2 names forever) gobbled his up as well. Grem likes to sniff treats, reject them, and then get mad about not getting a treat (it’s kind of her thing), so… Hades ate hers. Serves her right.

For me there was hot chocolate – an excellent choice because while I am one of the rare humans on this planet who doesn’t like coffee, beer, or wine, I do love me some hot chocolate. She also included a nice black Ariat merino wool headband, which will definitely come in handy doing barn chores this winter.

Stewie’s favorite part though?

The toys. He had seen me take them out of the box and set them on the table, so he was already whining and prancing while I was trying to take the first picture. As soon as I snapped it I handed him the reindeer and he took off around the living room. He might be 14 but destroying toys is still his favorite activity in the world. He’s very systematic about it… gnaw off an appendage, remove all the guts, find the squeaker, and then roll around in the gore. Within 15 minutes the reindeer was an amputee.

You don’t even want to see what he looks like now, a few days later. It’s gruesome. You wouldn’t be able to ID the body anymore. RIP reindeer, sorry you ended up in a house of horrors.

Aside from perhaps unwittingly becoming an accessory to reindeer murder, Rhiannon did a great job. Thank you! Another fun and successful Blogger Gift Exchange in the books. Hope everyone had a great holiday.