Welcome to my weekend coffee share! The last coffee share for this year to share with our coffee share group hosted by Natalie! Her blog is so fun, positivity flows and her photos she shares are so beautiful. She hosts our group #weekendcoffeeshares and you can click here to visit hers and others if you are interested as there are wonderful bloggers out there and I love our coffee share group! We will be breaking for the holidays. Can I get you a hot cup of coffee or tea? Or maybe a glass of milk to go with the sugar cookies I baked. I actually made them last weekend and they are almost gone. 😀 I am planning on baking more this weekend. I also want to make ginger molasses cookies, maybe some magic cookie bars, fudge and I am not sure what else as I will look through my cookie recipes and see what jumps out at me to bake!

Sugar cookies are so messy but hey, you have to make a mess sometimes! I had a ton of fun baking last weekend. It always feels more like the holidays when I bake cookies. It is a fun tradition and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. I am hoping to bake enough to be able to make some gift bags that I can give some baked goods away. I also need to figure out Christmas dinner for next week. I am not sure what I will make but I work all week including half the day on Christmas Eve. We still need to work to run the blood work for those sick animals heading to the vet on that day. It will hopefully be light, as most likely it will be mostly emergency vet visits and we are closed Christmas day.

I finished my cup of coffee as I love coffee with my cookies. I got myself a refill, can I get you one too? Winter is here in Southern California and we got a lot of rain this last week. We are in a drought so the rain is welcome. I wish it would rain more often and not all at once for hours at a time, but we can’t control the weather so it is what it is. It rained closed to 12 hours straight I think and when we get that much rain, it floods at the barn. The horses do fine in their stalls and stay under shelters or in the barn. Our arena has a low spot and always puddles, or to be honest it is like a huge pond. It is now almost dry as a trench is dug along the fence line to drain the water out of the arena. I have shared over the years my photos of Zack and Chloe out in the water and now it’s Murphy’s turn with his first winter here!

He was so cute walking around and pawing which is their way of playing in the water. I thought maybe he would roll but the video was getting kind of long so I ended by showing the snow on the mountains. When I left him alone in the arena I looked over and there he goes, down in the water!! As he rolled his head went into the water and he got water in his ear as he shook his head and promptly stood up. Haha, I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to catch him rolling darn it all….. But I took another short video of him all wet. Silly guy had a lot of fun turned out that day!!

I wonder if he will roll again in the water if I give him the chance. I ended up working him and not turning him out again with all the water which is now almost gone. We are expecting more rain next week and I am sure it will pool up again and I am also sure I will turn him out again, but he may be done rolling in the water. Haha, I wonder though?

Here is Miss Chloe in the water. I didn’t take a video, but she pawed but did not roll in it on this day. She has rolled in the water before but now that she is older, she rarely even rolls at all let alone in water. She is so sweet and had fun being out on this day.

I forgot to mention that after Murphy rolled in the water he went ahead and rolled in the wet arena dirt. Oh boy, he was so dirty I ended up hosing him off to clean him up. Here is a photo of a very dirty Murph!

This is my December fun here riding my horses and trying to keep up when the weather turns. We are expecting a lot of rain next week and probably a wet Christmas. I can’t say white Christmas because it does not snow at our elevation which is basically sea level. Our local mountains do get tons of snow and as you have seen we have gorgeous views of wintery snow capped mountains. After the rains the air is so clean and crisp, our winters are beautiful in their own way. And in one day you can visit the ocean and smell that salt water, or surf if you are so inclined and in just over an hours drive away (without traffic) you could be sledding down a snowy mountainside. I am always grateful for our weather because I can ride my horses year round and I know there are many places in this world where that is not possible due to inclimate weather. ❤

I have been struggling a tiny bit with Christmas time as there is always a certain amount of stress that I think we all do to ourselves and it is mostly stress in planning stuff. That is what I do to myself. I have my own personal plans as you can see and read here which is doing all the things Diana loves. Which is tending and riding my horses! Haha, and when home I will do house chore’s and take care of my home animals, our dog and cats but then I sit down and cross-stitch or crochet while watching cooking shows or sometimes a movie! It’s all wonderful with the exercise of horse care and horse back riding, and relaxing while creating. BUT what about getting some gifts or planning some dinners!! Hahaha, I do and can make myself get this stuff done, I just have to do it without stressing. Thanks for listening as I am motivating myself by writing this. 😀

I am sure some of you are great planners! or are you like me with a middle name of procrastinator? I will give myself a break because I do work full-time, 40 hours a week so for me there is a lot to fit into each day. I rarely do my crafts during the week as I just don’t have time so there is even more I want to fit into my weekends. I am sitting here writing this thinking I can’t believe there is only 2 more weeks left of 2021. As there are things in the news that are sad, in my bubble I am going to try and enjoy the end of December with as much FUN as I can fit into it and stay safe at the same time, I hope! 😀

As I think of the holidays I am missing my family and I am so thankful for technology and video chats. I had so much fun as we have been video chatting each weekend with my grandkids in AZ. Oh my, they are just so cute and I have so much fun with them. They melt my heart and we have done a gift exchange and will Zoom on Christmas day as we each open the gifts together. It’s so fun having them on our TV set! Speaking of my son and family, he continues to send photos of his kitties cuddling!! CUTENESS!!

The above photo is how I feel sending warm hugs to everyone! These brothers do not disappoint and cuddle each other often. I just love when they send me these wonderful photos and since they are such a handsome pair I can’t resist and need to share! I hope and pray for everyone affected by this virus and pray for our country and mankind. These are crazy times but I can remember growing up having other things that made our world feel crazy, for us old folks out there I am sure you remember too! Let’s take in the beauty and keep smiling for all the good out there and so I will end with this beautiful photo my daughter-in-law took and shared. Let’s enjoy this season to it’s fullest and remember what Christmas is all about. I hope your holidays are filled with peace, joy and happiness! ❤

With Love to all and thank you so much for sharing coffee with me today!

Happy Horse Crazy Grandma,

~Diana ❤