Gifts

In a continuation of the gift thing, (and it is the last one I will write,) If you give me something I really like I will brag, and talk about it, and thank you for it for years, (if not for ever).
Many thanks to Hubby who gave me an wonderfull necklace. It came from Santa Ana pueblo gift shop. It is blue beads interspaced with turquoise, small pieces of sea shells, other semi precious stones, and little birds. I love it.
And my sister gave me a really nice silver picture frame.
Thank you.

Cards

Next year I intend to do even less.
I sent out 20 Christmas cards, and received only 12 in return. I don't do any letters any more,( just email ), except for the holiday cards. It is my way of keeping in touch. Needless to say I won't reach out and touch someone any more.

RETURNS

I understand that today all of the stores are expecting an extream amount of people coming in to return unwanted gifts. What is this
Unwanted Gifts

I never received an unwanted gift. It didn't matter what it was. Or who gave it to me. I always apprecite the thought that someone liked me well enough to give me a gift. (Or at least I hoped that was the reason they gave me the gift.)

If I don't like you -- well you just won't get a gift from me.

Which brings us to the reason I don't give many gifts anymore. I don't know if anyone returned any of the gifts I have sent over the years, but they sure do seem to complain. One person always make a point of making some sort of degrading remark about what they get from me.

I try never to do that. If you make unkind remarks about what you are givin it means you didn't want anything to start with.

So I took all those cutting remarks to heart this year, and only gave gifts to my husband and my son. (Oh, and I did give a small gift to his girlfriend. Thankfully she liked it.) My husband and my son know how I feel and they feel the same way about giving gifts.

Merry Christmas!!!

To the readers of Tumbleweed Crossing.

May you have Joy in your Heart, Pease in your Soul, and Happiness, and Freedom forever.

From the Desert Wind

writer of Tumbleweed Crossing

Cookies

I made cookies for the holidays. It is the first time in years. In the past my failures aren't worth talking about. Put this year I succeeded. I made 2 kinds of cookies, chocolate cake, ginger bread, banana bread, and peanut butter candy. Then I sent half of it to my son, and his friends in Los Cruces, NM. I hope it is eatable.

SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME AT WORK?!?---------------------------------According to Dr. BILL QUAIN, we are spending too much time atwork, and not enough time on the things we really want to do.Americans in the 21st century work more hours than peasants didin the Middle Ages, and spend less time at home with theirfamilies.

DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF TODAY

The United States Postal Service (USPS) will increase thecost of mailing a letter to 39 cents, and the cost of mailing apostcard to 24 cents on January 8, 2006. It is the first postalrate increase since June 2002.

Bah Humburg

I don't want to ever do any more shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRAULATIONS

Congraulations are in order to several of my readers.
First to Josie, who's book was mentioned by the Diva's.

Next to Jan for adopting her puppy, Padfoot. Part Lab and part - well we think he might be Great Dane or mastiff.

Last but not least to Cindy for adopting her new dog, Pixie. A terrier cross.

Stockings

I did make Christmas stocking for my horses, and hung them on the side of the barn. It does look kind of cool even if I do say so myself. I did one for BlackJack, Nita, and Star and then did one for the friends horse that I take care of Sundance.
After I bragged on this to my son, I got talked into making one for each of his six horses and his friends horse. That's Goldust, Blossom, Emme, Arte, CW, Dancer, and Beau.
That makes 11 stocking I have done for horses. They were just simple ones red with a white top with their name on it. I plan to fill mine with apples, carrots, and horse candy. The others had better get some goodies, too.

Holiday Rush

The business end of Christmas gets worse every year. It seems like it is only for the stores to make money. This year I refused to give gifts to any one that I had to mail them to, except my son. I asked all those friends and relatives not to send anything to me. It is just to much of a hassle. It takes all the fun and enjoyment out of giving gifts. Just having to go to a store and find something for hubby and my son was enough of a problem. By the time I got home I was mad and fustrated to the point that I was shaking with disgust at the whole situation and wanted a big drink of whiskey. (by the way I don't drink, but I can see how the holidays can drive you to it) Then there was the wrapping of those few gifts. There is no way I can take my time and make cool, neat, pretty wrapped packages any more. I used to do it, but not any more. Maybe it is just old age. I can't say for sure.
Anyway Dustins gifts are wrapped and I will mail them tomorrow. Yes I know it is a bit late, but he won't care as he isn't any more thrilled with all the holiday hoop la than I am. Besides his best gift is the money his dad put in his bank account. We told him to spent it on something for himself - not bills - but who knows that that will be. Probably a load of hay for the horses.

Christmas Lights

Saturday was warm enough that we did get out the outside Christmas lights and hung them. Some how it is never Christmas any more without putting up outside lights. The colors, sparkle, flash, flicker, blink, and twinkle of outside lights really goes a long way toward getting me in the spirit of the season. It has been really hard to get into the Christmas mood what with Skiggy being so sick. We ran lights around the eaves of the house and along one side of the horse pen. It looks very festive if I do say so myself.
I, also, found some old tinsel garland in with the lights and decided to wrap some around the mailbox and some around one of the light post in the yard. Some time this morning my obnoxious border collie, Tuffee decided it would be fun to pull it off of the post and play with it. I am sure she had a lot of fun doing it. I only wish I had seen her doing it and had a chance to take a photo of her running around with that long string of shiney garland trailing along behind her. Puppies will be puppies.

Cold

It has been an incredably cold week. Much colder than I ever remember having in December. I hope this isn't a sample of what is to come this winter. And yes, I do realize that it has been awfully cold everywhere, not just here in New Mexico. I finally gave up and got out the heated water buckets for the horses. I don't normally do it until January, or Feburary. I do the ice break test. If I can break the ice on their large 20 gallen buckets with my trusty hammer, then it is not bad enough to get out the small 5 gallen heated buckets. Setting them up with the extenion cords, and have to refill them usually twice a day is a pain. But when the ice in the big buckets is about 5 inches thick, and weights more than my hubby can pull out (he figured about 75 pounds) then it is time to get the heated buckets and use them.
So far I haven't resorted to putting blankets on the horses, but if this keeps up I may have to.

Skiggy is home and doing okay. I keep saying it over and over. I was so stressed out on what to do about my kitty. Would it have been best to just have him 'put to sleep' or spend tons of money I didn't have on a weird, strange, unheard of surgery? Thankfully his wonderfull vet offered a great deat on the surgery as he wasn't about to give up on my old cat.

Many, many thanks to Dr. Mike, Dr. Mortonson, Damian, and the rest of the staft at Cottonwood Animal Clinic.

Found a great blog at http://holdyerhorses.blogspot.com
Good article on whats abuse and whats not abuse.

Skiggy is home and doing well. In fact I can not beleive how active he is. Much more than I think he should be. Anyway I can't keep him from doing what he wants to. And I am so glad he wants to. Although he does look so funny. They shaved his belly and legs. Looks like someone tried to give him a poodle cut on his legs and didn't know how. It will grow back in time.

Skiggy

Skiggy is doing very well after his surgery. Better than anyone expected. I hope to bring him home tomorrow.

The cat is having surgery today. He probably won't survive. But we have to try.

To the idiot who compared my cat to a broken DVD player and suggested I throw him in the trash.

STAY OF MY BLOG

Old Cat

My old black and white cat had to go to the vet the other day with a urine infection. Cats seem to be very prone to those here. I have heard it might be a diet problem or it might be to many minerals in the water.
Don't know if he is going to make it.

Presents

I can not understand why people think they have to go out and spend a ton of money buying everything on the market for everyone that they know each and every Christmas. All this is way way to commercialized. It just isn't worth it. I don't want any presents this year. If you want to do something for me ----- make a donation to your favorite charity. If you want to know which ones I prefer ----- anything charity to do with animals and animal rescue ----- and of course all those that help children in need.