Ho, Ho, Ho and All That Jazz

It's happened again. The holidays have come and gone much too quickly. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home this year. I defied tradition by cooking a ham instead of turkey. In years past I had faithfully stuffed, roasted, and carved a huge turkey because I thought that my children would be scarred for life if I didn't. However, after several pounds of uneaten turkey, I decided to make something that everyone would eat. Luckily, as I found, many of the traditional side dishes go amazingly well with ham. Yum!

Dan surprised me (I mean, REALLY surprised me) with a new horse right before Thanksgiving. I had been getting increasingly frustrated with Flash's lack of enthusiasm for dressage, which I enjoy immensely. My trainer had a horse that she had trained up to 2nd level dressage and she wanted to sell. I took some lessons on her and fell in love. The fifth addition to the Sroka equine family is Empress, a 7-year-old, 15.3-hand, chestnut thoroughbred. Pictures will be coming soon.

Christmas was wonderful this year. We did something new--Alex and Margaux were in the Christmas pageant at church. Alex did a reading and Margaux played an angel. I loved watching the pageant and attending Mass on Christmas Eve. I loved just lounging around the house on Christmas, watching the kids play with their new toys. Here are some pictures:

Of course our new year has already been full of horse events. I have lots of video footage that I am slowly putting into viewable form. Here is my first attempt. Happy New Year!

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