Rudolph is missing!

I love a good short story. When I wrote for my Grandkids, I used Morris and his toys, I kept the theme rather simple. Someone or something got lost. 

There always big search of some sort. I seemed to  always gravitate towards a theme about friendship and trust. 

When Morris passed on, I couldn't bring his toys to life again. His stories came to an end and I didn't have the heart to even finish his last chapter.

So maybe in some ways, having Legos and endless ways to tell stories will be energizing.

Here we go!

Owner: Welcome to the Alpine Lodge! Name?
Batman: Batman.

Owner: Okay we have a reservation for Bat Man.
Batman: No, it is Batman.

Owner: Okay. Mr. Man.

Batman: Grrrr. It's...Batman.

Owner: Sure Mr. Bat. Man. The room with the balcony is all yours.

Santa: Psst Mr. Batman!

Batman: I am Batman. The Dark Knight. This is my balcony!
Santa: I have a problem I need your help!

Batman: Ok, but I warn you ... I am a night stalking, crime fighting vigilante, and a heavy metal rapping machine!!!

Santa: Um. Okay. I still need your help.

Batman: Of course! I hate criminals. I fight criminals!

Santa: Well it's a reindeer. I'm missing a reindeer.

Batman: Huh?

Santa: I'm missing a reindeer. Rudolph.

Batman: A reindeer. A Rudolph. Heh, is he a criminal that needs to be brought to justice??

Santa: Um. No. He is a reindeer I need for my sleigh.

Batman: He isn't a criminal?

Santa: Well, no, not really.

Batman: Oh. That could be problematic.

Santa: Um. Well, rumor has it that his nose has gone dark!

Batman: A reindeer that has gone to the DARK Side? Tell me more!

Santa turns away and mumbles something about going back to having coffee in the outhouse.

Meanwhile ~~~~~

Santa's elves take to the woods to ask anyone they can to help find Rudolph. Of course they run into ... who else? But the Brother's Odd. 

Elves: The carrots are to lure the missing Reindeer back to us.
Yeti: Well. I am starving. Can I have one?
Elves: Oh. Okay.

Big Foot: Me too?

Elves: I guess we won't argue with Forest Creatures. Sure, they're yours!

Elves: Hi, we are looking for a reindeer named Rudolph.

Chewie: Is that so?

Elves: Yes. Have you seen a reindeer?

Chewie: No, but Stinky and I can keep a look out! I have seen deer though.

Elves: Really? 
Chewie:  A few days ago we saw deer being hunted by a hunter.

Elves: OH no!

Chewie: Don't worry, the hunter didn't have a clue.

Elves: Whew....
Chewie: You know, if you had something the reindeer would like perhaps he'd be easier to find.

Elves: Um. Well. We gave our carrots to a Big Foot, a Yeti, and a Squatch.

Chewie: Oh. Them.

Crazy minds and creative thoughts...

I am not always at play.

I do have a complicated life. I run our place and am a full time Caregiver. There is always something I need to address and work on for our place.

 Thankfully, I can have great daydreams. Some would think that a person my ahem, age, shouldn't be like this. My father was a very creative and imaginative person. 
He had no talent for mundane things. His brain was always on the go. My mom was the opposite. She could plan things to the smallest of details. She is regimented in thoughts and actions.

I may be a bit of both. 

Funny how things come to you when you are mucking out a stall [Lil' Richard is the one equine won't try to tear apart our large stall.]

Sunday was MY day of stall cleaning. I filled the skid steer bucket with manure and drove the skid steer to dump the pile of old hay, straw, and shavings. Rich said he was too unsteady to climb in and out of the skid steer.

So it is my job to keep that machinery running and useful. I would much rather use the little 4 wheeler and cart to clean up stuff and dump it, but he sure loves his skid steer. 

I abide by his wishes as my 'job' as his caregiver and wife is to make his days as pleasant as I can.

Here I was dumping and spreading manure when I thought about the recent Lego build we did together. 

The Alpine Lodge build has a cute skating rink, an outhouse, and rooms to rent. It is like having a doll house to play with.

During my shoveling I thought .... wouldn't it be funny to have the Lego Batman sign in as a guest? I mean what on earth would the Dark Knight be doing at a winter lodge???

Wouldn't it be funny to take a photo of Santa Clause being interrupted in the outhouse by one of his elves?

And why would all of this occur?

Oh...And what of The Brothers Odd?

How would this fit in with the much anticipated delivery of the 9th deer for Santa's Sleigh on the MOC build??

As I refilled the bucket with manure and hay chafe, my mind skipped from one thing to another with a story line of images jumping about like quick movie clips.

Did Batman sign into the Lodge because he knew Rudolph went missing for nefarious reasons? 

What did the Elf give Santa as a reason to be interrupted while doing his morning constitution?

How would The Brothers Odd even fit in?

I drove the skid steer to the pile and dumped it, then spent time backing it into the shed to the spot where it can be plugged in on cold mornings for using. That effort took all of my brain power.

I dusted myself off and started towards the house.

What IF a Hunter chased Rudolph into the woods? What IF the Brothers Odd decided to help search for him and found Chewie?

And to think that I kept letting these thoughts engage in the back of my mind while I prepared supper and set up appointments on my calendar for the week.

All because of a Lego Outhouse and an Etsy order for a 9th reindeer.

Santa: What the $#@#$%???
Close the door and let me...
finish!
Elf: But I have important information! 
It seems we've lost Rudolph again!

Santa: Oh NO! Not again!
That foolish reindeer!

Maya is right. The more I think about something fun and creative, the more fun I have. 

Haha. My husband just came over and patted me gently on the head. He says I will be committed to the nuthouse before he goes.

Pretty skies

  This year has been fairly plain when looking at sunrises and sunsets. Or perhaps I just didn't get my butt out there to watch them. Most of the summer was dealt with smokey or cloudless skies with no moisture as we went through a summer of drought and Canadian fires.

Thank goodness right now that has changed. The mornings and evening have been presenting us with a few glorious skies.

The 4 second video below is a time lapse of a sunset a couple of nights ago. I set up the camera on the porch while I filled the big stock tank and let the camera do it thing.

I had taken a still shot too.

Friday night wasn't brilliant but it was still worth seeing.

Another 4 seconds of the sunset. It is something that I am

fooling around with. It isn't brilliant, but

this way I can see if I am getting any progress

at all.

Hobby, my minifigure 'self' likes going out and watching the skies with me. Poor thing, she is getting quite worn from bouncing about in my pockets.

Sunrises!

I'm so happy for brilliant mornings and spectacular evenings. In the winter, I can watch both the sunrise and sunset from our porch. In the summer I have to walk out to the pastures to the north.

Sundance after our last snowfall. She'd just taken a snow bath and was watching deer while eating at the hay feeder.

Hopefully we get clear skies and I can actually get out on one of these nights to view the Geminids shower this week.

Adult Activities in play...

We are working on Lego building again. I leave the Lego pieces to a complicated build in piles in pie plates. When I go to do something else, I can hear him sorting pieces as the parts clink against the pie tins.

Sorting pieces according to color and size appeal to his OCD side. He can't help himself. He has to do it and then supervise how I pick the pieces up. How dare I mess up the piles!

I went to do some chores and left some of the Lego minifigs on the table that went to the Alpine Lodge build.

I came back to this.

His comment was: "Looks like there is an axe murderer chasing the sleeping lady. That fool on the skis..."

Don't tell me that Legos don't encourage something! 

We received a Lego set as a gift in the mail. We already had a Santa set but when Rich opened it, his comment was---> "Now we can add the reindeer to the other set and take that one Reindeer from the Elf set and make the Reindeer be the right number!"

He immediately searched through the packages and sorted everything out for me. Then, he instructed me on how to do a MOC [Lego speak for My Own Creation]. He studied everything and then instructed me to .... create this...👇

We are still working on making one deer into Rudolph and figuring out how to attach him in the front.

Rich then had me search the internet high and low for a replacement reindeer. Really? 
Yes, I ordered one from Etsy which will arrive hopefully on Monday. Then the Reindeer will be all set. 

This weekend is a special 4 day doe hunt in our area. So once again I am banned from the woods as the neighbor folks search the woods for deer. 

That's fine. We'll spend more time playing and building. It does bring joy into our lives to do this together.

A certain amount of play is very healthy. It releases endorphins and reduces stress. And who doesn't want that during the Holidays?

Okay back to the fun things...

 What a bummer to read my melancholy thoughts. But that stuff happens in the dreary overcast days of December. The days rush to be darker and more bleak, depressing, dismal, dull, drab, unexciting, insipid, and well...frankly uninteresting.

That is why we have candles and pretty lights this time of the year. This is why some of us may decorate and add life to our homes. 

I personally like winter. But I get why not everyone enjoys it. I can see both sides of the coin.

So back to some fun I go....

Who doesn't think dinosaurs should join the ornaments? I think this one adds a bit of curiosity to all the little horses that reside in the tree. This is a nod to my oldest son who loves dinosaurs.

I haven't asked the unicorns and other horses how they felt about sharing a living area with a dinosaur!

This is a fairly old ornament that I found years ago. It had a tag on it that I took off. I like horses and who doesn't love a Pegasus? I always wanted to have one to ride as a little girl.

Not all dragons under the tree are ferocious. This one seems quite happy. Perhaps it is because it got the gold beads!

This Angel horse was given to me 30 years ago by one of my 4H students. We joked and named this Cheyanne after my mare I owned at the time. Cheyanne was not an angel, but she sure was something else. This stuffed ornament did have her coloring, but not her attitude.

This is the first ornament I ever purchased for myself. It is a cheap plastic rocking horse. I have treasured it for 30 years. I've always liked how the light shines through it.

Once upon a time I had a pony mare called Lily. She had a flaxen mane and tail and was half Halflinger and Arab. She was a tough little 13.5 hand horse with attitude and a great brain. She rode, she drove on a cart and she was purely fearless. We used her to sort cattle and team pen.

She looked exactly like this ornament..

A friend of ours from South Dakota needed a good replacement mount for their 80 yr old mom who'd lost her aged riding and driving mount. We sold her. She served many years for this lady who would ride Lily across the countryside to go to town. Apparently it was shorter than driving there!
When I hang up this ornament, I wonder what adventures Lily and the elder lady had together.

The Grumpy Dragon apparently has made a new friend! She presents him with a gift under the Christmas Chair. [Personally, I think she looks a bit frightful but I suppose they are a match in attitude.]

And...

If anyone was wondering how the Brother's Odd were doing....

I saw Yeti and Big Foot walking down by the creek yesterday. I don't know what they were up to....

But their brother Chewie was watching from a distance.

I just wish they'd help each other out. What on Earth is Chewie waiting for???

If you need your spirits lifted on these wintery bleh days, I will leave you with this photo of Charlie.

Here he is getting ready for colder weather.....

It's Friday. Hug someone.

Thoughtful

 

Mindful.

Thoughtful.

Winter nights seem to give me more time to pay attention to things I wouldn't normally think of.

Mindfulness means a lot of different things. To me, I just felt that it meant to be more aware of others and their feelings.  Grandma always reminded us to be Mindful of our manners so I was a bit surprised to see that Mindfulness is meditation so that you can feel in the moment.

I looked up Thoughtful, it says to be more aware of others feelings.

Color me confused or old fashioned. I decided to chalk it up to Semantics. My definitions of thoughtful and mindful are similar. Apparently it isn't any more.

December's dreary days lead me to do more thinking. Yeah. I shouldn't be doing that. I mean thinking usually gets me in trouble. I think up scenarios all night with the preface of: What If?
In the summer I'm too tired to think of What If's since I'm physically busy all day.

I recently read Annie Dilliard's Novel The Maytrees. First off, this is a hard book to follow. Her writing jumps all over the place as if she were super high on caffeine when she wrote it. 

Sort of like me on some days when I jump around in conversation or home duties. 

The book is about a couple ... the novel explores their love, loyalty, friendship, and forgiveness. It explores the human heart. 
Usually books don't move me much. I read a lot of novels and don't even know why I decided to pick this one up. I was looking for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and found this book at the library.

When I finished the book I sat for a very long time just being thoughtful while looking at the lights and decorations in the room.

What better time of the day than a dark cold night to sit and think about everything in life. I asked myself questions in my head.
How did I get here?
Where will I go from here?
Has my life been meaningful?
Does it really matter?

Will I make a difference?

What will it be like when I am just a memory?

Meanwhile at the tree

Here is another shot of my Christmas Chair and tree. 

It is the light that I really love. Oh and of course all of the toys that are running about.

These are carousel horses that were given to me years ago. Funny that three different people purchased these and gave them to me. The horses match. I've always thought that was amazing. 

The horses were on the chair and I guess that made them vulnerable to the Star Wars Storm Troopers who thought they'd go for a joy ride. I don't mind, it looks like they were having a great time.

I hope my 'chair shenanigans' don't bore anyone. After all, I do it for me and not really anyone else. 

During those cold, damp, dreary, and grey December days with longer nights and shorter days...I generally need something to distract me.

On the chair. Miss LaFleur and Yvette rearrange ribbons and add an ornament to the tree. They are so happy that the chair allows them access to the branches!

Oh my! It looks like the Dinosaurs are back giving Santa a hard time. 

I wouldn't worry too much. Santa usually has these things under control. He just keeps some of Charlie's dog treats handy....

I've heard this year that the dragons wanted in on having fun at Christmas.  I also heard that they took over the space under the chair.

I understand that they are not exactly happy about the color of the string of beads.

I heard one grumble:

I thought you said there'd be gold under this place! I want gold!

Behind the scenes, the Lego elves are getting involved. This one is busy feeding one of the unicorns who jumped off the tree for a treat.

....

and not on the chair we find Rabbit and Bear. Rabbit is always kind to Bear trying to find ways to cheer him up and make him feel better.

Rabbit to Bear:

Here you go Bear, this small box represents all my love and caring for you. 

this time of the year is not easy

for everyone

remember kindness

and

love....