A few weeks ago the goats overheard Farm Woman say that Christmas was cancelled! It’s been a hectic year, and already working on next year’s events and planting schedules, apparently she’s just too tired to muster up enough holiday spirit for decorating trees, sending holiday cards, baking cookies, wrapping presents, and cooking feasts.
“WHAT!? Christmas is cancelled?!”
“No! It’s my first Christmas, it can’t be cancelled!”
It was true. This year it looked like Santa might be skipping the Curbstone Valley barn entirely.
“Lotus, you were a reserve reindeer last year, what do we do?!”
Lotus knows Santa personally, as last year she attended Santa’s Reindeer Auxiliary Flight School, but unfortunately she was grounded from flying and pulling sleighs at the last minute because she was pregnant.
“I’m not sure what to do. Wait, let me put my thinking cap on…”
“That’s better! Oh, I think I have an idea!”
All the girls are pregnant this Christmas, so as they can’t help to deliver presents this season, and worried that farmers had given up on Christmas altogether, they hatched a plan, and decided to trade in their antlers for holiday elf hats instead. Well, everyone except Lia.
“…but I like my antlers…I think the round ears look cute!”
Minnie wasn’t so sure about being an elf either, but in the spirit of the holidays she reluctantly played along.
“Um…Lotus…I thought we were dwarves, not elves!”
Lotus’ plan was that if the farmers were too exhausted to prepare for Christmas this year, the goats would all have to do their part to ensure that Santa didn’t skip the farm this year.
“Minnie, let’s put you in charge of cookie baking”
“Oh, I like cookies, I’ll make my signature hoof-prints with some of Farm Woman’s homemade jams”
Minnie worked very hard in the kitchen, baking all sorts of holiday treats. Remarkably none of the cookies came out hoof-shaped. (Don’t worry, Minnie did wash her hooves first, in some of Farm Woman’s goat milk soap).
Hoof prints with strawberry and vanilla jam
“Lily, you can decorate the tree…oh, and Lia, can you wrap the presents, without taping your hooves to the boxes?”
“I’ll make it the prettiest tree ever!”
Lily decorated the holiday tree…
The tree was trimmed…
Despite not finding any goat wrapping paper, Lia managed to wrap all the presents, and place them under the tree.
“I did find some paper with reindeer on it”
Lia did a lovely job, don’t you think?
But then, just as the girls were putting out some cookies for Santa, Lily remembered something…
“Wait! We forgot something! What about the milk for Santa? Doesn’t Santa get cookies AND milk?!”
Farm woman has been trying to encourage Lotus to stop producing milk for some weeks now, as she’s earned a well deserved break from milking this year. As such, there is no fresh goat’s milk on the farm at the moment.
“Pfffft! Hopefully Santa won’t notice that we’re out of milk!”
With that, Lotus put together a large collection of holiday treats, hoping Santa might not notice the missing milk. However, when Minnie wasn’t looking, Zedoary had managed to sneak into the kitchen, and ate the entire plate of treats!
Oh crumbs…
“Oops…I thought those were for me”
Fortunately Minnie had an extra plate of treats in the kitchen, just in case!
“Zedoary, don’t eat these! These are for Santa!”
With all the preparations done, the goats were very proud of what they’d managed to accomplish in just a few days. Lily would have her first Christmas after all, and with the tree trimmed, the presents wrapped, and the baking complete, the goats still had time to pose for the camera, and put together this holiday card for you, too!
“Merry Christmas!”
I suspect the farmers will be very surprised to see that Christmas isn’t cancelled this year after all!
Merry Christmas from Curbstone Valley Farm
So, with preparations complete, while the farm’s cloven-hoofed elves wait for the real Santa to arrive, we’d like to wish all of our family, friends, and readers, both near and far, all the peace, love, and joy of the holiday season, and throughout the coming New Year!
“Ho Ho Ho!”
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys — and St. Nicholas too:
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof…
Any excuse for cute goatie pictures,…possibly inspired by the image of eight tiny,…uh,…goats, pulling a sleigh?
Thank HEAVENS Christmas was saved!!!
Merry Christmas from Sierra Foothill Garden to Curbstone Valley Farm! ~~ Sue
PS. the daughters LOVED the soap!
Merry Christmas, Sue! So glad everyone enjoyed the soap! 🙂
Very cute! I love the elf hats and antlers. 🙂
I’m not sure the goats loved the the hats and antlers as much as we did, but they were very good sports about it. Merry Christmas! 🙂
How adorable Clare…love these goats and they are so expressive in those cute hats…you have earned a rest and a Very Merry Christmas…wishing you and your whole family (goats and other critters included) a Joyous New Year!!
The goats really do have larger than life personalities, although I’m not sure my pantry will ever be the same 😉 Merry Christmas, Donna!
Glad the goats saved Christmas and it looks like they had fun doing it too! Hope you and Mr. CVF have a great Christmas! 🙂
I think they had lots of fun. Merry Christmas, Catherine! 😀
Herd animals definitely gather together this time of year.
They certainly do 😉 Happy New Year, Cindy!
I am so glad the goats saved Christmas, and they did an admirable job! I hope you received great blessings this Christmas, and I wish all of you at Curbstone Valley Farm the very best in 2014!
Thank you, Deb! Happy New Year! 😀
Merry Christmas Clare and goats! (belated Christmas that is). Those girls sure do look sweet with their antlers and caps. I had similar thoughts this year – I’m too tired, can’t we just skip the decorating stuff? Managed to get it together though just in time. I’m drooling over that plate of goodies. The jam cookies look wonderful as do those jammy looking squares. They remind me of something my mom used to make but can no longer find the recipe for.
I really felt like I was running on fumes during the weeks close to Christmas. I was sick over Thanksgiving, and think it just took a while to recharge my batteries after that. Like you I managed to pull it together, just in time…with help from the goats, of course 😉
Oh, those jammy looking squares are cranberry streusel bars. I could dig up the recipe if you’re interested in trying them. Happy New Year!