A Christmas Present

It is Christmas Day. We have opened our gifts. Dinner is in the oven. Suddenly, there is a strange pickup truck at the main gate. He cannot get in because the gate is locked. What stranger would be stopping by on Christmas Day?

We walked down to the main gate.

Low and behold! It was a rancher from the county seat of a neighboring county. He dropped by to ask about our eight-month old puppies. He bought two for a new ranch he bought up in Colorado. He plans to move them and his goat herd up to the new ranch in a few weeks. What a Christmas suprise!

After we sold the puppies, my son and I took the football that he received for Christmas and tossed it around in the East Pasture. He is inisting on watching every college football "bowl game" that he possibly can. According to the newspaper, there are about thiry of them this year! Everythine from the brand-new "New Mexico Bowl" to the granddaddy of them all, the venerable "Rose Bowl." My wife and I would prefer to see him work on some academics during this vacation. We will probably use college football as a lever - if he does some academics, he gets to watch a game. The more academics he does, the more games he gets to watch. Controlling the television is easy - as a matter of policy, there is only one in the house! He cannot try to watch via the Internet, either. Although we have five computers set up and running, only one is connected to the Internet and that one is located in one of the "public rooms" where activities can be constantly monitored.

In addition to the usual clothing, I received a three book series from a fantasy author I enjoy. This trilogy is part of a much larger series of trilogies, quadrologies and quintologies involving the same characters on a lifetime of adventures.

My wife also got the usual - clothing, but also a DVD and a farming magazine. If she finds it interesting and useful, we will get her a subscription to it. My son also gave her his usual gift - a recipe collection. Usually it is cookbook, but this year it is a card file full of recipes. My daughter found a new and unique Monopoly game (yes, it IS by Parker Brohters) to add to her collection. She must have about a dozen, and maybe more, different versions!