Not Your Average Christmas Recap

Like a lot of people, our Christmas was full of presents, and family, and food, and all kinds of other fun stuff.

Unlike a lot of people, our Christmas also included one very large horse.

My little grandmother next to the big horse.

This horse belongs to my parents' and he's very big.

I have a weird history with horses. On the one hand, I really like them. I think they're cool, and in general they're very docile and friendly. Growing up, I had the opportunity to ride horses a bit and while I was never an expert at it, I have a general basic idea of what to do. Plus, I sort of think of them as really large dogs and since I love dogs so much I have a real affinity for horses too.

On the other hand, horses make me really nervous. Being around horses when I was younger put me in close proximity to a few "horses behaving badly" situations that really rattled me. However, since my parents own a few horses, my mother is on a quest to eliminate my anxiety around them, so she's constantly encouraging me to go to the barn and be around the horses more often.

Even though I'm not really ready to ride again, I do enjoy feeding them. And petting them. Those things are fun. So on Christmas day I threw some peppermint patties in my pocket (special holiday treat for the horses!) and hopped in the car with my family to go out to the barn.

My parents' horse has a quirky treat preference: he likes Lipton Green Tea! As soon as he saw the bottle you could tell he was excited. He drank the entire bottle and loved it.

He was rolling around in the dirt earlier that morning, hence all the dirt on his face.

See why I think horses are just big dogs?

Yum...

And even though I am kind of scared of horses, I love how big he is! I think pit bulls are small dogs (I love BIG dogs like mastiffs, danes, newfies, bernese mountain dogs, and st. bernards) so seeing such a huge horse was... well... it was like Christmas for me! Which was fitting since it was Christmas...

It was great too because Christmas day here was really beautiful. It was very warm for the season, I think it was in the 60s, and the sun was out so it was really nice.

These two are best buds.

I was pretty proud of myself for getting out there. I'm still gun shy about riding again, but I had a really good time feeding the horses treats and giving them a little extra love. I might even do it again when I get the chance.

I'm patting myself on the back for overcoming my fears a little with this one.

Anyone else do anything unusual for the holiday?