And the Winner is......

(The winner gets to keep this little logo award on their blog, if they'd like.)


All the names were placed in a festive bright red basket, for my daughter to draw out the winning 'ticket'. Ta Da!! Can you see the winner's name? (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

And the winner is Mellimaus of Riding Miss Daisy!!!!

Congratulations Mellimaus!!
With all your snowy cold weather, this cozy hat and scarf set should keep you warm and comfie this winter. Please e-mail me your address: Twinville2@ yahoo.com so I can get this sent out to you.

The other final contest entries are:
CDN Cowgirl of Not Quite Home on the Range
'Nuzzling Muzzles'
Melanie of 'The Knutson's'
Christy of 'Farm Dreams'
Andrea of 'Swamp Suburbia'
'Ezra Pandora'

And they all get a little goodie to place on their blogs, too.

But that's not all.

Because I appreciate each of you for being so supportive, encouraging, and just plain fun, while following along with me these past 27 days, I want to gift each of you with a hat or scarf (my choice), also handmade by me, just to say thank you.

So send me your addresses to my e-mail (Twinville2@ yahoo.com) and I'll get started on these right after Christmas. Thanks again to all of my bloggy friends!

Happy Holidays to all of my wonderful blog readers!

A,B,C....It's Time!

The Alphabet Challenge is officially over! Woot! Woot! And now it's time to leave your comment listing all *26 Alphabet Subjects* (in order, please).
I won't be approving any of the comments for 2 days, so that everyone participating in the Alphabet Challenge, has a chance to leave their comment.
I'll go back and look through the comments and check your lists. On Monday I'll draw a name, and that person will be the winner of the handmade hat and scarf set!
The hat and scarf were knitted by me, using beautiful yarn spun from Icelandic Sheep wool and Mohair(Angora goat) fiber. If you live somewhere very cold, this scarf and hat will keep your neck and head toasty warm.
Thank you to all of you for following along with the Alphabet Challenge. It's been a lot of fun and I enjoyed all of the great comments you all left for me, too.

Happy Holidays to all of you!

Z~is for Zuni, 'Z-End' and 'ZZzzzzzzz'

Whew! I did it! You did it! 26 posts in 26 days...one letter at a time! Pat yourself on the back, because I am. We deserve it. We are finally at 'Z-End'! And I tell ya, I do feel like taking a bit of time off from posting. Then I can finally get caught up with visiting my favorite blogs and reading what my special blog friends are up to, instead of racking my brain each day trying to come up with Alphabet letter words to use. lol!
Like they say, "It's been fun, but I'm glad that it's done"!

But first we must complete the last letter of the alphabet, the letter "Z"!

And how appropriate that this letter is for our German Shepherd, Zuni, whom Ranchman John bought for himself last Christmas. So, Zuni is officially one year old now. And whooeee, what an interesting year we've had with her.......

She came into our lives just a week before Christmas. My advice for you? Never adopt a puppy one week before Christmas. That's all I'm going to say about that. She sure was cute, though. But she grew really fast! And she had very sharp puppy teeth and seemed to think that we humans were the perfect chew toys. Yowch! And she about drove me crazy when she kept forgetting that her potty is outside...not inside the house. gah! But she sure was cute. Ranchman John took her to Obedience Training at Petsmart to teach her some manners and basic commands. It was pretty tough to sit and stay when she was surrounded by wonderful dog food smells. But she perservered.She sure was cute, wasn't she? She totally mastered her sit and stay. But the running off and ignoring us has been a much bigger challenge. Jumping up on us is also a problem, too. But she sure is cute, isn't she? She even graduated from her Obedience class with flying ribbons! Awww, so cute. She is very different than our first GSD, Cory, but she does share her love of snow with her. Jeez that girl loves to romp in the snow! What a cutie, eh?
Watch out! Cute is coming! Now you must admit this is just durn cute, right? What is she looking for under there, ya think?
Whatever it is, it must be very interesting. (Did you think I was going to say that she's cute? Fooled ya. lol!)
It's been an exhausting year with this puppy. We've wanted to throw in the towel a few times, too. But somehow this exasperating dog always softens our hearts and begs us to give her another chance............It's probably because she's just so cute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to all of you who've participated and followed along with my Alphabet Blog Challenge. I have read and enjoyed everyone's comment every day. Quite honestly they truly kept me going, too.

Now for your reward! Tomorrow I will create a post for everyone to leave comments on. I won't be approving any of the comments for 2 days, so that everyone participating in the Alphabet Challenge, has a chance to leave their comment.

What you want to leave in your comment is the list of all *26 Alphabet Subjects*, in order, please. I'll go back and check through the comments and check your lists. On Monday morning I'll draw a name, and that person will be the winner of the handmade hat and scarf set!
How exciting!!

Happy Holidays to all of you!

Y~is for Yin and Yang

Everything has its counterpart; one half of anything is meaningless without the other. There is an active and passive element to every principle. Seeing only pure light and hearing only constant sound serve us no better than being blind or deaf. It is the darkness from which we discern the light, the silence from which arise the sounds that allow us to give those sensory experiences their shape and meaning.
For example, the concept of night has no meaning without the concept of day, the concept of up has no meaning without the concept of down.

I'm someone who appreciates black and white, dark and light, and I enjoy learning about all people; their traditions, religion and ideas. Though I consider myself a Christian, I don't permit myself to live 'in a box' or allow myself to be close-minded about other's beliefs or opinions. The following video opened up my mind to some of the truths behind the symbolism of Yin and Yang. Especially how life is full of balance and that there is good and bad in everything. Take a moment to watch. At the end, the girl tells a wonderful story about how a horse escaping from the barn brought good fortune to a farmer.
Something similar has happened to my own family, too.

When we bought this house we weren't aware that there was another house, on our road, with the same address as ours. Apparently it was built as a 'mother-in-law' type of residence, in addition to the main house. But it was given it's own address, which matched ours.
We've discovered this can be a bit of an annoyance, and even a danger. We've had countless delivery people drop off packages at the wrong residences. Repair people doing actual repairs at the wrong place, too. We've had pest control trying to spray our house, when we never ordered it. We've even had our septic tank pumped by mistake. But we've also had the ambulance going to the wrong home....both for the eldery lady in the other house and for me, when I was recently sick, too. Thank goodness both events weren't life threatening, or it could have been very serious.

Recently, Ranchman John and I got a bee in our bonnets to suggest to our neighbors that they change their address. We were all set to head over there and then we found a $600.00 fuel bill, attached to our tank, from a propane company that gave us a fill-up....that we never ordered.
Yup. They delivered the propane to the wrong house.

When we called the company to complain, they told us that New Mexico has a law that restricts propane companies to only filling tanks that they have contracts with, and since we didn't have a contract with their company, they weren't permitted to charge us, and we were allowed to keep the propane. "Merry Christmas" they said.

Life is full of Yin and Yang, don't you think?

Have you experienced any Yin and Yang moments in your own life?

If you are interested in learning more about Taoism and the concept of Yin and Yang, you can read the 'Abolition of Man' by C.S. Lewis. He suggested the Tao as an ethical system for our times. Lewis seemed to see Chinese Taoism as a universal ethical umbrella - one that would include Christianity as well as other religions.

Happy Holidays!

X~is for Xmas

I bet you're thinking...er....'Xmas'? Isn't it spelled 'Christmas'? Why did I leave out *Christ*?

Well, as a Christian, I assure you that I would never dream of leaving Christ out of Christmas. And I didn't. (My Nativity set)
Let me explain.....
I grew up under the assumption that spelling Christmas as 'Xmas' was a way of keeping the holiday separate from its religious beginnings. And I was made to believe that people were so averse to religion that they were x-ing out Christ's name.

But I must admit I was just ignorant and wrong. Not long ago, I discovered that the 'X' in 'Xmas' is actually the greek letter 'Chi', which was a common abbreviation of 'Kristos', Christ's name. The word 'Xmas' is rooted in the heritage of the Church. It is simply another way to say Christmas, drawing on the long history of symbolic abbreviations used in the church.
As with other abbreviations used in common speech or writing (such as Mr. or etc.), the abbreviation 'Xmas' should be pronounced 'Christmas' just as if the word were written out in full, rather than saying "exmas".
(Our Angel Tree-topper made by my dear Aunt)
But I also have no doubt that some folks spell 'Xmas' because they are too busy or lazy to write out the whole word. And it's most likely that some secular people, see 'Xmas' as a way to avoid writing out 'Christ'. And certainly secular and commercial motives use 'Xmas' in ads and signs because it can be larger and more attention-getting in the same amount of space. But those factors do not take away the thoroughly Christian origin of the word 'Xmas'.
(Our living room decorated for Christmas)
Now, with all that said, personally, I prefer to spell Jesus' birthday, 'Christmas'. But I needed an 'X' word for this Alphabet Challenge and I chose 'Xmas'.
So, there. (lol!)

And how do you spell Christmas?

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ornaments and Christmas decorations with the hope that y'all will share some photos of yours, too.
I collect Western and Southwestern themed decorations. Here are a few.

Santa has a thang for chile peppers. The hotter the better!
I prefer having pricklies remain outside, but this little sombrero-wearing cacti is just so cute!
Real cowboys (and cowgirls) love their chili! Yummy!
Cowboy? No......Cowbear. Awww!
I also have a thing for tall things, like this tall-faced Santa. And I like folk art, too. So this ornament just makes me smile.
Another tall Santa.
And a tall Nutcracker.
I know this isn't a Christmas decoration, but this just goes to show how much I like my stuff, tall. I guess it comes from being a tall gal myself. Though in real life, I sort of wish my horse wasn't so tall, 'cause it's just so hard to haul my hiney up onto my horse without getting a boost from a mounting block, fence or a large rock. Of course, if I had a shorter horse, the poor horse would look like it had 6 legs.

Do you have any holiday collections or themes?

Happy Holidays!

W~is for Winter Wonderland

It finally feels like winter around here. We took advantage of the snow fall to finish putting up our inside Christmas decorations. There is just something so perfect about decorating for the holidays while snow falls outside, and you're inside sipping hot cocoa in front of a cozy fireplace, listening to beautiful Christmas Carols. I did venture out to take a few photos, though. The front of our house.
This is the peach tree by our front door. I just love the way it looks dressed in snow.
I finally got our electric luminarias up. With the strong gusts of wind we get during the winter I had to attach each of them to the stucco, with a glob of clear silicone, to keep them from blowing away. I only bought a few sets as they tend to be pricey. Eventually I want to add to them so they cover our entire roofline.
The birds have been grateful for the seed I've left out for them. I enjoy seeing their tiny footprints in the snow.
I love the warm glow from the luminarias dusted with snow.
Baby Doll is getting a little bored sequestered inside her pen in the barn.
Her new purple waterproof turn-out-sheet arrived, and I placed it on her for the first time yesterday. At first she snorted at it and tried to avoid me putting it on her. But she quickly decided I wasn't going to let it eat her, and now seems glad to wear it, to keep the snow from melting through her fur.
It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here.....

What's the weather like in your neck of the woods?
Are all your holiday decorations up?

V~is for Vader Mama

Zuni: "Wooof!! What is that thing?! Should I bite it, Mom?"

Baby Doll: "Whinny! I wonder if it has cookies?"

Aaaaghhhhh! Darth Vader's Mama is here!!: "Grrrrr!!"

Blanca: "You look really Baa-aa-ad"

Goaties: "Hey guys....what is that na-aa-a-asty thing?"


(Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.....)
Pepper, you're weird.

Cataleya: "Hummmm...I appreciate individualism. Being different is wonderfully unique".

"LUKE!!!! I'M YOUR GRANDMOTHER!!!"

Chickens (being chicken): "Bawk!"

Vader's Mama: "YOU DON'T KNOW THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE!!"

Critters: "Whatever. Just feed us, ok?"