s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

The holidays have been quite nice to us so far.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go and visit some new neighbors who move in about 500 meters up the road 6 weeks ago. How do you greet new neighbors- why with camelids of course! So we haltered up Jim and Hyouki and went up to see them. The gobsmacked look through the sliding glass door when they saw a llama on the porch was very amusing. Viv, Mike and their teenage son Al are very nice people, British immigrants who have been here about a year.

Chritsmas morning had an unexpected start when the doorbell rang at 7:30 AM. You know something is not right when an unexpected visitor drops by at such a time, on such a day. It was Viv and Mike from up the road! Their transformer was shorting and sparking, and they had no power! (and of course their cell phone was flat, and their line-line was a hands-free model that needs power to work). Since we were now the people they knew best in the valley (barring on other neighbor who was away for the holidays), they came ot borrow our phone and call the pwoer company. While they waited, I made them pan cakes for breakfast and we all had a grand time. Normally it would take 4-6 hours to get a crew out for such a fault, but on Christmas day it took only an hour becauuse everything was so quiet.
We also had a grand gift for Christmas- more rain! We got over 25mm on Chirtsmas day. I am sure some people who had planned Christmas BBQs were a bit bummed by the rain, but we loved it. It did, ironically enough, prevent me from setting up a new Chritsmas toy- a weather station.

And for Christmas dinner we went over to Al and Mel’s and were treated to a vast feast of very tasty heart-explodingly-good food. And cake. Sugar-rush-inducing cake. As they were jetting off for a holiday today, we ended up with most of the leftovers, which is good, because today is the “Feast of Stephens”, our annual Boxing Day bash at our place. I don’t know how many people will show up, but I expect fun and merriment from those that do.

And who knows, with the nice weather today maybe Saffron will decide to drop her cria and provide some extra entertainment for us all.

Happy Holidays Everyone!