Sunday, December 18, 2011

It's comin' on Christmas...

It is the Sunday before Christmas. The house is decorated. My 2-year-old grand-daughter is coming all the way from Los Angeles to visit us and I want the place to look like Macy's. I want to see that Christmas magic in her eyes. Even if only for a minute or two when she first gets here.
We don't have much snow. I'm still hoping for a White Christmas this year for my Los Angelinos. But we've had little cold weather here. Hardly any snow. I think it will be a short winter. My husband is anxious to rev up his 54" snow blower on the front of his John Deere. But so far it's only been a few inches here and there. Not enough to bring out the great Green and Yellow Beast.
Here is a picture of our big red barn. It was built in 1870. The siding is new, as is the roof, but inside there are hand-hewn timbers and very old floors. The lower level is where dairy cows were once kept. The previous owners had cats and when we bought the place the lower level smelled like cat pee. But a summer with fresh breezes the the doors open have dispelled the odors. I think of black and white Holsteins down there getting milked. Once this was a thriving farm with dairy cows, cattle, chickens and even pigs. There is a huge cement pad over in the corner of the property and it has an odd circle in the middle of it. I finally found a woman, my age now, but who grew up here. She said it was the pig barn and the circle in the middle was a corn crib that all the pigs from the four different pens could reach it. But now it is just our vegetable farm. And, I hope, in the Spring, a flower farm.
Meantime, I have put a wish into the universe. Two wishes actually. Don and I were sitting around the other night having a glass of wine. I got to wishing out loud and wished for "one more adventure" and "one more baby." This is because all my children and grand-children live far away and I miss them. My friend Pagyn would say you must be very careful about the wishes you cast adrift in the Universe.
Here I am with my new baby. Her name is Cricket. She is a two-year-old pug. She is zany, crazy love. We are thrilled to have her. After two years as a kennel dog and one litter of pups, she is more than thrilled to be the small darling of two people with nothing better to do than to pet her and coddle her. She has kennel manners and will need to be spayed, but all in good time.
And the adventure? Well the adventure is yet to come. Often nervous about the future, I have decided to embrace it sight unseen this time. Sometimes I get glimpses of the future but at the moment it is merely the man behind the Green Curtain. So with Christmas only a week away, I'll just click my red sequined shoes together and say, "There's no place like home."