What's Up Wednesday

Whoa! What a week! This year, Chanukah started really late, on Christmas Eve. Which means Christmas and Chanukah festivities overlapped and it was non stop holidaying for my family. Since my brother and sister-in-law got married, we all gather together on Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd) (which is Festivus for all of you Seinfeld fans) for a delicious meal of Chinese food. It's a Jewish tradition to have Chinese food on Christmas but we do it a few days early. Obviously, I have a shirt for the occasion.

On Christmas Eve I had a few errands to run, ponies to groom, and LOTS of presents to finish wrapping. I stopped at Tractor Supply to get food for the pups, and stumbled across this guy.

He was the last one and ON SALE! So I had to take him home. Obviously. I named him Scott after the toilet paper. Which I thought was a lot more funny than it probably is. Actually, I still think it's hilarious.
Once Scott was moved into his new home (hahahaha) and the ponies were all cleaned up and tucked in, I headed back to the house for marathon gift wrapping. Pia helped too.

Although her version of helping is not at all helpful. It's the thought that counts though, right? Plus, that face...
The tall kids got a Christmas Eve/Chanukah treat for dinner:

I love the sound of slurping ponies! And they love warm bran mashes. Chanukah Harry filled their stockings too.

Chanukah Harry took care of the short kids too:

Christmas morning comes early for all parents, and parents of horses are no different. Since I had to meet the family at noon, I had to get the barn chores done by 11 at the absolute latest. The wrench in the plan is that the sun doesn't come up till seven. Sheesh. Thankfully the family was running late so it all worked out.

Disposed of Mr Hanky and his family

Romey wondering why turnout was so short.

Jamp, thankful that turnout was really short

Rio, happy with whatever turnout he gets.

My step moms have both been Catholic, so we've always celebrated Christmas with that side of the family. I don't have any grandparents left, but my little brother (we share a dad, different moms) has a grandma left. She's almost 97! The last few years we have brought Christmas dinner to her house. This year we did as well.

In case you think Jesus was at dinner, that's just my little brother. There is a strong resemblance. He's also a carpenter. It's very odd. We stayed a little longer than planned. Grandma Ann has round the clock care, but on holidays the care comes in shifts. The next nurse was running late but we told the current one to go thinking someone would be there soon. Turns out the next shift taker quit and wasn't coming. Awkward. Thankfully they got someone over about an hour later. Don't tell the ponies dinner was late. They didn't seem to notice.
Once the ponies were fed, I headed back to my dad's house where we would exchange presents. My brother and his family joined us. Presents are always fun, but the giant floor piano my niece got was ridiculously entertaining.

I made the pugs wait for their presents until the 26th. It was late by the time I got back on Christmas, and they were just as happy to have a bone instead that evening. They're such good sports!
Monday was another marathon day. But before I did anything, I helped the pups open their presents. They were just as excited as any kid is for presents!

family selfie fail

Next up was pony time, and then 2 pm Chanukah party with my mom and my brother & family. I got mom an ugly Chanukah sweater:

It lights up! Of course it does. She loved it.
We all opened presents. I got my nieces giant stuffed animals cause that's what Aunties do.

And my younger niece and I took some pretty great selfies:

Present opening was followed by a delicious early dinner. I ate no less than 8 latkes. They were amazing. AMAZING.
I headed home to feed the kids, and then ran out to get a few errands done. I was planning to pack but had run out of energy. Instead I just hung with the pugs for a bit before bed.
Originally, I had wanted to fly out to Florida on the 27th, but the flights were stupid expensive if I left that day. So I waited until today. That actually gave me a whole day to pack and get the house back in order. It literally took the entire day to do those two things. Ugh. How does the house get so torn apart?! And where do I put all these awesome gifts I got?! #firstworldproblems
I did however take about an hour off mid day to take the pugs out. It was an oddly gorgeous day, in the upper 50's WITH SUN! Unheard of this time of year. I couldn't spend all of it indoors. Nope. I didn't want to take them on the road. All the salt and ice melt chemicals are terrible for their pads. Instead we wandered around the yard. Fun was had by all.

Ponies were cared for once packing and chores were done, and then I ran out for a few last minute errands and to pick up something for dinner. (I cleaned out the fridge, there was nothing left to eat! oops.) And the whole rest of the night I did nothing but hang with the puggers. It was lovely!
My flight today wasn't until the afternoon, but the short kids stay with their grandma when I go away, and she had to be at work for 9:30. So we were on our way over there at 8:30.

P wasn't even awake yet. After dropping them off, I stopped for breakfast and spent the rest of my time grooming the ponies. My plane was totally on time, until it was time to actually taxi. We were delayed almost an hour because one of the over head bins had broken:

If I were in charge, I'd have just duct taped that thing and we'd have been on our way. But that's not how they do things. Instead, they call maintenance to fix it. Then they tinker with it for awhile. And eventually they give up and just remove it. No seriously:

After all that, they just took the door off and we finally left.
It was a really pretty flight out though since the sun was setting:

Tomorrow I am heading to the barn first thing to ride Badger, and then I'm meeting up with Devon at the horse show! I'm so excited!

How was your week? Do you celebrate any of the holidays? Any big plans for New Year's Eve? Let's chat in the comments!