Johnson Family Christmas

The Johnson Family Christmas took us out to the country, where TJ instinctively reverted to his wild ways. It's so funny: he always prefers the city sidewalks in Stillwater (even off leash), but he becomes absolutely crazy at the Johnson farm, and only at the Johnson farm. It's got to be something in the water - or all those delectable rabbit poops!

The Johnsons have provided acres of habitat for the birds and wildlife surrounding their property, including tree shelters, fields of corn and switchgrass, and - most recently - a highly visited pond. It's wonderful to watch the changes through the seasons, and we are so fortunate to see deer and pheasants, woodpeckers and rabbits and raccoons, and so many more. More elusive animals - foxes and owls and possums and badgers - leave their tracks, but I'm not outdoorsy enough to find them. And anyway, I most enjoy the prairie grasses and South Dakota sunlight.

TJ always needs a good recovery after his country walks. 

It wouldn't be Christmas without a 1000 piece puzzle of holiday scenes all in the same color family.

Merry Christmas! I wore my holiday socks for the occasion.

Howdy, Tucker! You look so fashion-forward.

TJ acts like he's so happy to see me, but he's only trying to figure out how to eat that scarf around my neck. It looks much too similar to a stuffed animal for him to ignore.

Tux finds a home with Travis, his best buddy.

Every year, Janice cross-stitches a holiday ornament for each couple. We've got quite the growing collection, and it's something creative and homemade that we always look forward to receiving.

And on the topic of creative and homemade, Mark and MiKayla's gift to the family was a rustic wooden bench - constructed entirely out of an old fallen cedar from the property - so that we could all have a place to rest on our walks through the fields. Sort of puts the rest of us to shame, especially since our gift was a bottle of vanilla extract and a bag of bird seed. ;-) Time to start plotting for next year!

Happy dog, sleepy dog.

After the gifts and before the lunch, we tried out a new, old-fashioned game of floating ball skills. Some of us were better than others, but all had fun.

We celebrated with a generally festive but low-key Christmas this year, which was needed and much appreciated. After a crazy few months, it was nice to take our bottles of Crown and our little blue bear and prepare for the new year.