Merry day after Christmas! Joe and I returned on Christmas Eve from a week long visit to friends and family in Va Beach. Many people take vacations to get away from people and just spend some time by themselves. Joe and I take reverse vacations and take some time away from ourselves to spend time with people. :) Joe had every single waking moment we were there booked with a social engagement. It is very important to him to spend some quality time with all his Va Beach family and friends. I didn't have quite as packed a schedule as he did because he likes one-on-one conversations, and that makes me a third-wheel. He did, however, make it a point not to leave me alone for more than 2-4 hours each day. I was never bored or lonely, though, as we were staying with his aunt and uncle and three cousins, ages 4-14. There was always someone around to play with me, and let's just say I got quite proficient at Strawberry Shortcake Memory. All in all, it was a wonderful trip with wonderful people and even a week was not enough time to see everyone we would have liked to see.

We had left the mountains behind with snow on the ground, and came back to find a fair amount of bare ground and many areas of solid, thick ice! We had barely made it home when a snowstorm that I had heard was bringing "less than an inch of possible accumulation" dumped, and is dumping, 5-6 inches and counting of beautiful, fluffy snow. Of course, all of this is landing on top of the patches of ice I just mentioned, and throughout the course of hiking to our car and back, caring for animals, hitting up the outhouse, etc., wipeouts are becoming increasingly common. Tis the season for YakTrax! The irony is that I had my first wipeout while searching for where I had stashed the YakTrax this summer, back when it seemed a preposterous notion that they'd ever be used again. :) Even with YakTrax, extreme caution is needed, as Joe's mom learned first hand when she was hiking down from her cabin to spend Christmas morning with us.

One of our chickens died while we were gone, one of my favorites. :( There was no apparent cause of death, just one of those mysterious poultry die-offs. The chickens are not steeping foot out of the coop these days (the guineas are a little more adventurous), and I'm worrying about how to keep them healthy when they're not getting any green stuff or sunlight in their diet. I sneaked some apple cider vinegar in their water this morning, and I'm thinking about trying a recipe for some garlic infused olive oil coated bird seed as an immune booster.

I'm not sure what to do with the carcass as it's too frozen to dig even a shallow grave. I was too attached to this chicken to be comfortable just tossing her in the woods to be dragged back by Wilson as a Christmas chew toy. Hmmm, maybe the compost pile?? Oh the conundrums winter brings.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas doing whatever it is that brings joy to your heart (within appropriate legal boundaries of course). I've already decided that I'm leaving my decorations up for at least a couple more months. Joe has determined to limit his sugar intake for a little while, which just means more holiday treats for me! Life is good. :)