Admittedly Christmas isn’t really my holiday. I’m not religious, there’s none of that “fun in the snow” thing happening in Texas, and aside from Elf and It’s a Wonderful Life, I’m not really into Christmas movies or any of that stuff either. Halloween is my holiday. But I do like parts of Christmas, especially out here on the farm. Like making the horses a special Christmas breakfast.

Which they inhaled, of course. They both went for the cream pie first. Henry is an experienced mint eater but Presto is still trying to figure out if he likes them or not, and how to eat them. He dug them all out and ate them though, albeit very slowly.

Food was kind of my unofficial Christmas theme this year I guess. I always get the dogs a special cookie, which they’re big fans of. I used to get them from a local small pet store that made them in house, but sadly they closed up shop in 2019. When I had the boys at the groomers a couple weeks ago they happened to have a good selection of cookies from another local vendor, so that worked out perfectly. They each got a gingerbread man. Quinn especially was pumped.

The SO and I have one single solitary Christmas tradition too, and naturally it’s food-related: we always go out for either Chinese food or Indian food for Christmas lunch. Originally it was Indian food because we had an AMAZING buffet by our house, but when that one closed we unofficially switched to Chinese. This year we managed to find a place that had very socially distanced tables (like no joke the next closest table was a good 20′ away) and super quick service, plus we got there early enough to where there were only two other tables seated in the whole place, so I got my holiday Sesame Chicken and they got a nice holiday tip.

When it comes to gift-giving I defaulted to food on a lot of them too. Admittedly, when it comes to soothing the 2020 burn, I can’t think of anything better. Plus it’s nice to be able to support small and/or local businesses that I know have been struggling this year. My dad got an box of cajun food shipped from New Orleans, and my brother who moved away to Georgia got a box of tamales and chili from Texas.

Not everyone got food though – I found an artisan on Etsy who does cool metalwork (largely using horseshoes) that had THE BEST horseshoe flamingo. The barnowners have a bit of a flamingo theme, and I figured what better for their Florida farm than a horseshoe flamingo?

Even better, the shop also uses the proceeds from their Etsy store to give back to horse and dog rescues. I was pretty excited to find that store and will definitely be buying from them again. How cute would these wreaths be on a barn?

The SO got a Masterclass subscription as his main gift, plus a couple of books and some spicy snacks from Buc-ees (here we go back to the food). From him I asked for a breaker bar for my trailer (he can get good prices on nice tools through his work) as my practical gift and a pair of sequin vans for my fun gift. They did not disappoint. Inside they just look like regular black sequins, but outside in the sun they’ve got a real rainbow sparkle vibe.

The barnowner played off of our horse doorknocker theme with the tiny house and got us these super cute horsehead hooks. They’ll be perfect to put inside by the door, and they totally look like they were meant to go with the doorknocker. Excellent addition to the tiny home decor.

I also got some cash, which will probably go towards an automatic gate opener. We got news that our expected couch delivery has now been pushed back to MARCH (it was supposed to be January) so I’ve basically totally given up on even thinking about a coffee table or rugs at this point. It’s all dead to me.

Overall it was a super chill, relaxed holiday. It was nice to have a little break from work since this is our busiest time of year, and the weather was super cooperative. It was a gorgeous weekend.

Hope you guys also had a great holiday and received/gave some fun gifts too!