Both girls are home now having successfully avoided the Christmas strikes so we decorated the house ready for Christmas Day.

And, again, due to forces beyond our control….. *** cough *** the dogs ……

…  we are not having our full sized (5′), or what-my-mother-always-called, The Hong Kong spruce!

We have to settle for some smug hygge-style branches and a very much-smaller-than-I-actually-thought-when-I-bought-it wee tree.

Obviously, the branches had been saved from last year.

Other Christmas traditions, however, continue, such as Daisy doing an impossible jigsaw while sort of watching Muppet Treasure Island.

She knows all the words too.  Yes, she does. It’s her talent.

All our decorations are special to us.

With a huge sheep theme.  This is Lambie immortalised.  There is Bert, Ster and Puzzah too.

Our first year with Mum’s beautiful decorations.  They look lovely in front of her tapestry.

So that’s us. It is getting colder too though I am not sure if it will snow for Christmas.

From Wikipedia:
A supermodel is a highly paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling.

Today, our supermodel, aka Monster, was asked to heave himself into a Christmas box, that I had found earlier when I was wrapping presents, wearing his Christmas tinsel for the annual Christmas card photo.

We have had several attempts.

Monster wanted to know what his motivation was for this important role.

He had some excellent direction from the Christmas card stylist.

And we tried to motivate him and shovelling him back into the box.

And there you are. Where he sits, he fits!

It is very hard work being a supermodel.  Tea and biccies all round.

Today is the Winter Solstice. The shortest day or the longest night, depending on your perspective.

So precisely 5.48 hours of daylight (I did the math(s)).  Everything is done as fast as possible in the available light while we can only think that the days will get longer now.  Summer is a-coming (it is just a long way away but, still, it is on its way!)

A glorious morning (weather-wise) makes up for last week’s debacle.  It really does.

However, it does not make up for Newt’s Napoleon complex which is defined as “a domineering or aggressive attitude perceived as a form of overcompensation for being physically small or short.“.  Well, that’s Newt to a tee.

Silver is, of course, the model of perfection.

His behaviour is exemplary as well as looking beautiful for any photo.  Newt does not have this ability.

The Old Ladies are doing well. My work of religiously feeding Vitamin throughout the year has yielded dividends. The word “tank” springs to mind now.  She is looking great. A leg at each corner now.

As this lot have plenty grass, I shut the gate to the small emergency hay park.  I turned around to see a pair of eyes watching me  – Fivla!

Nothing gets past her.  Not never!

We came out first thing this morning to find lots of meltwater lying around.  The temperature had been slowly going up all night.

Our burn was very high too – it all comes off Stourbrough HIll (173 metres high) at the back of the property and the bottom field was therefore flooded.

Iacs, Klaengur and Haakon could see me giving out breakfasts, particularly to Albie, Storm, Tiddles and Waffle.  Poor Iacs. He was beside himself. His routine had been ruined. I could feel his thoughts from here.  What about him?

Well, basically, nothing. I can’t get over that burn and they’re not attempting to come over to me. So, sorry, they had to do without today.  They have loads of lovely grass and fresh running water (lots).

When the wind calms down (possibly tomorrow), we have lots of clearing up to do.  No one likes the meltwater much.

And then it will all be perfect just in time for Round 2 at Christmas!