This crazy year ended in much the same fashion as we have been experiencing. We had some real low points, some joyous moments and experiences that we would have never dreamed of at the beginning of 2020.
I will start with the low point. Leslie lost her battle with cancer on December 15th. She fought the good fight. She was ready. We were fortunate to spend a whole lot of time with her the three months she was in Hospice. We had seen her a lot from her diagnosis in March 2019 until March 2020 when Covid broke out. After that we helped from afar but she didn't want to risk exposure so she did very little. When she went into Hospice on September 15th all that changed. We knew we were at the end and the risk of exposure to Covid became less of a concern. We saw her often, four, five, six or seven days a week. It was awesome. I have really wonderful memories of our visits. I am so thankful for this extra time together. We will miss her so much.
We had a lot of high points in December too. One of which was Sophia testing for her C2 Horse Management and C1 Dressage Pony Club Certification. She did amazing. The rater thought she was also ready to pass the C2 Dressage level as well but she plans to do that riding portion in the spring. I am so proud of her and her two friends, Kate and Gretchen who studied together. The Horse Management (HM) portion is tough. There are both knowledge and hands on portions. Sophia worked hard and it showed.
Sophia decorated Nicki's stall for Christmas. It looked very festive.
We wanted Christmas to be as special as always so we cut down our tree again. We were able to take Loki with us. He did great. The selection of trees was pretty limited. Some of the local cut your own places did not open this season so the one we went to was picked over but we found a perfect tree. Wasn't big but it was perfect. We didn't do a whole of decorations on it because we weren't sure what Loki might do with them. He mostly ignored the tree (except peeing on it once!) so next year we can fully decorate it.
Christmas was unique. However that didn't mean we couldn't enjoy the typical feast. Sophia helped me make lasagna. I made a wonderful meat sauce. We made our cheesy bread Christmas tree and Sophia made an incredible fruit tart. I am so happy we could cook together.
We started our day opening gifts at home. We had a hearty breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bacon and eggs. We then did a Zoom gathering and opened gifts with Nick, Aiden and Lindsey. It is so hard not to see them in person but taking time to spend part of the day with together was awesome. We then did a Zoom gathering with Linda, George and their families.
We had a little snow on December 16th. It felt good to go outside and enjoy the snow with Boba and Loki. Loki had a blast!
Our animals are all good. Loki was neutered in late December. I was so worried about him wearing the cone but he was great about it. It is funny to see how Loki tries to stay by Gracie.
Nicki even benefitted from Christmas. She got a lot of new tack.
We finished the year with our traditional fondue dessert on New Year's Eve. Sophia was a great help getting the dessert ready.
Hoping for a much better 2021!
