Christmas at Shiloh Ranch

We had a wonderful night tonight at the church Christmas party.  As you can see above, it was a cowboy theme, so we all had our western gear on.  I've had these boots forever, but Mom just got some of these items recently and looks fantastic.  They had this great place set up for pictures like this, giving us some extra props and so on.  You'll see later where I make our photo look a bit like an old western photo.

The rest of the night was so much fun.  You can see we had time to dance, which was nice, and there was even a time to learn something I've always wanted to try out:  line dancing!

Yeah, here we are doing a bit of boot-scooting!  Oh, here's that other picture of us, one with a more serious expression as folks tended to have back when photos were first taken.

There was a Santa there too, and that was fun - we had to get ourselves a photo with Santa too.  There was a lot of things to do tonight, and it was just great doing that with all our other friends from the church.  Santa looks warm here, doesn't he?  Good thing too, as it is super cold outside!  Oh, and look what else I did:

Mechanical bull-riding!  I was on there for a good bit, although I  must confess they were probably taking it easy on me somewhat.  Still, it was fun holding on for dear life, although I might benefit greatly from a visit to the chiropractor soon!  The landing wasn't so bad - it was the holding on part!

Here's mom visiting with a real bull, and would you look at those horns!  There were two of these bulls off to the side, and that was nice.  Although they probably wouldn't appreciate what we all had to eat tonight.

Along with the theme for the night, our meal was catered was by Texas Roadhouse, which is one of Mom's favorites!  We had steak, potatoes, salads, and those great rolls too.  There were also bottles of root beer and big mugs to pour sweet tea in.  We sat with our friends at the center of this large dining area, and just had a nice time!

Ah, here we are at the saloon upstairs.  The place we were at is called Siloh Ranch, and we just saw the interior of this building at night, but it's a new place for us at the church, and it's just a great place to spend time at. 

Plus, it was decorated pretty nicely too!  There were lights, trees, Christmas music, and there was a live band throughout the night playing all kinds of music - not just western and country.  You can see a few shots of Mom and I attempting some more line dancing here.

It was a really fun and much needed night.  Really lifted our spirits!  On the way out, we visited the axe throwing wall, something set up by a guy who has one of these mobile axe-throwing stations to bring to events like this.  Anyway, it was our first time, so Mom and I tried it out.  Wouldn't you know it?  I got a bullseye with my first throw!

It was a really nice night together.  We got home, and we were just in time to read to Maddie tonight.  Of course, we're still visiting with Albert and the new Hogfather while Susan works out the mystery as to who's causing the real trouble here.  

It's St. Nicolas Eve tonight, so Maddie put out a pair of boots at the fireplace, just like she does each year.  We'll see what shows up inside those boots tomorrow.  Maddie's been good all year, so I suspect there will be some pretty nice candy!

Hopefully Krampus won't be coming tonight.  We'll see though.  Krampus has been roaming around lately, and you have to keep an eye out for that sort of thing.  We need to get some spray or something! 

Here's Jingle Bell this morning - and today - sitting at the stovetop.  He's cooking eggs, although they're not quite the traditional eggs.  Looks like there's some chocolate involved!  Chocolate makes it better, doesn't it?

We had a good day today.  Maddie had a night HOME ALONE, but she was good because it's a season of studying hard.  She's got a lot going up as the first semester wraps up.  Christmas break will be here before you know it!