OUR GALLERY PAGE

Please turn up your volume~ We have period musick for our Christmastide gallery that will change every few days~

KEEP VISITING HERE TO SEE OUR SPECIAL, PERIODIC PHOTO GALLERIES~

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'Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...'

(...but Mayfower, our darling Pilgrim goose is NOT on the menu!)

Welcome to our old New Hampshire home~

December 7th~

We were ready to hop over to Maine to get a puppy...

It was a sunny day here. We had a nice hour and a half drive on country roads to a small town in Maine to look at several puppies...

WELCOME HOME, PIPPA!

We fell in love with a Shih-Tzu-Yorkie-Poodle-Pomeranian mix that no one seemed to want, thinking she was "scruffy"~ We disagreed, and left with her in a front pack. She is so adorable and good as gold. We wanted a British name. I thought of Pippa, and Adam loved it.

You're home Pippa!

Christmas treat we made for our little flock.

My Coffee-Cream Macarons turned out perfectly~

We make all our own Christmas decorations, do all our own baking, and take all our own photos~

We made our chicken snowglobe.

A CHICKEN'S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

By Mary Spencer, with apologies to Clement Moore!

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the coop, not a hen was stirring among straw, sand, and poop.
Little stockings were hung by the window with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Maisie, Bella, Hannah, 'Livvie, Henny-Penny, and 'Clem', were all snug in their beds,
While visions of mealworms danced in their heads.
Our dog in her pj's, and we in our fleece, had just settled down for a long, snug, nights' peace.
Suddenly out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, that Adam sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
What he saw must have seemed like phantoms;

but was a miniature sleigh drawn by 8 prancing bantams!
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow illuminated the hens on their perch down below.
"Ho, ho, ho's" from the driver, I knew it had to be St. Nick,
With treats for our chickens, and then off he'd be---quick!
He was dressed all in fur as he entered the coop, taking great care to avoid any poop.
"You were snippy, Hannah, and 'Livvie you too, but you're just so cute---I can't forget you.
Maisie, and Clemmie, you've been such good chicks, and Bella and Penny, I can't leave you coal and sticks!"
Out of his pack came treats and chicken delights!
So many goodies, it was such a sight!
---'Chubbies' and cracked corn, and chicken-aprons and such,
Cranberries, grapes, hen toys, popcorn
---it was all just too much!
Soon he was gone, just that quick---
They all flew away like the down of a chick.
But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas, Spencer hens, and to all a good night!"

We picked out a lovely Black Hills spruce tree for the main room. It smells so good, and we think it's the prettiest tree we've ever had...

Our homemade Cranberry Orange Cardamom Christmas tree cake.

Twelfth Night Cake.

Our Christmas dinner for 2~

A little rib roast...

Mini Yorkshire puddings...

My own spinach in mushroom caps with hollandaise...

And of course the yummy treats we've baked for dessert~

Pippa.

Dad gave her her first bath and mom gave her a first hair trim.

"Wassail! Wassail! All over the town
Our toast it is white, our ale it is brown,
Our bowl it is made of a maplin tree;
We be good fellows all, I drink to thee."

"At Christmas be mery, and thanke God of all:
And feast thy pore neighbours, the great with the small."

"Good bread and good drinke, a good fier in the hall,
brawne, pudding and souse, and good mustard withall.
Beefe, mutton, and porke, shred pies of the best,
pig, veale, goose and capon, and turkey well drest;
Cheese, apples and nuts, joly Carols to heare,
as then in the countrie is counted good cheare."