Cozy on Christmas

Oh the weather outside is frightful, and Car-o-lyn is delightful ... oh yes, this is most certainly a great time of year. Besides the fact that I'm almost a Christmas baby - Dec 19! - I am the biggest winter weather fan and live for all things cozy ... and cold. So when the snow starts to fall (and fall and fall and fall ...), neighbors set welcoming lights in their window, and Swedish Meatballs, cookies, and lefsa abound, Carolyn is a pretty happy camper. 

Of course I get wrapped up in all the hoopla that comes with the season, and I treasure the family traditions I grew up with. 

 

But when you get married, you have to part from those traditions just a little bit so that you can experience Christmas all over again from a new perspective. And sometimes it's those new traditions that bring the most meaning. Cross-country skiing out in the corn field, enjoying from-scratch lasagna, and bundling up to spend the Eve of His birth in one of the coziest and most fitting places - a stable. Or more specifically, the Sapa Ska Barn.

Two years ago E and I fed calves on Christmas Eve to help E's dad come in from the barn a little sooner (no break from chores on Christmas!) and because we both love checking in on those little guys. 

 Funny little side story about the calf nipple you see above: that's the first gift Evan ever gave me! Well, not that specific one, but he wrote Happy Birthday C on an old "retired" one I still have in a box somewhere. It was our freshman year at St. Olaf College and we had only known each other a couple of months. Give a girl a calf nipple and she can't say no, right? Haha ... 

 Anyway, continuing on with the farm tour ....

After the trek out to the barn you finally start to warm up a bit in the prepping area as you mix the milk with a little replacement powder - which smells delightfully like pudding. Add a little water, toss on some nipples, and you're off.

Christmas music is cranked up in the barn, and we pretend we're Santa bringing treats to the little calves

 They're pretty thankful we stopped by

... or else they're just hungry ; )

Have a very merry and *cozy* Christmas!

We'll be spending Christmas down at the farm again this year, then we'll be jetting off to New Jersey the next day. (Flying to Bethlehem on Christmas! ...Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, that is.) Traveling on Xmas isn't that bad. Everyone seems to be in a pretty festive spirit. Look at who we spied the last time we flew on Christmas: