The Fosheas: Merry Christmas Y'all!

Christmas at Misty Meadows

2012 Edition

Our accomodations during our stay.

The pastures

Welcome to Camp Misty Meadows, set in the heart of Conroe, Texas the thriving metropolis just north of Houston. The Loop family has been celebrating Christmas here since the early 90's. This camp is owned by the Girl Scouts of America and run mostly by volunteers. Every weekend during the school year, hundreds of little girl scouts come for a weekend of camping and horse-back riding. It's a lovely camp with acres of land and about 40 horses.

A full time wrangler lives on the property and cares for the herd during the week. Over the holidays the wrangler gets a few days of vacation and that's where we come in. It's kind of a big deal to turn over the entire camp and the large herd of horses, and there is a small pool of people who are qualified for the job. My parents decided this was a sweet opportunity to get out of the city during the hustle and bustle of Christmas and spend time as a family working at something we all love. At first my sister and I were a bit resistent. We wanted to be home with our Christmas tree! We wanted to be near our friends, instead of stuck in the middle of nowhere! But the parental figures were firm and we have grown to love the tradition.

I'm pretty sure this is the exact tent I stayed in as a little 6 year old; it was my first time as an overnight camper.

Waiting for the horses to come in the barn.

The first morning we went down to the barn, there was much excitement in the air. Emmy and Boone couldn't wait to see the horses, help feed and groom, and of course RIDE!

Helping Aunt Lesley close all the chains.

Making a new friend.

Waiting for the horses to finish eating.

Poseidon likes the smell of that coffee!

This might be one of my favorite pictures; Uncle Doug walking a horse out with all eyes on him!

We found out there were two miniature ponies! Biscuit and S'mores were their names and they were the cutest things we had ever seen. Just Emmy and Boone's size! Biscuit, the white horse, was very timid but Smores was very sweet and let the kiddos pet him to their hearts' content.

Emmy having a conversation with S'mores.

Then it was time to get our riding boots on! Pancho saddled up Goldie, one of the sweeter and less frisky horses. Emmy and Boone were given riding helmets (safety NEVER takes a vacation) and instructions on proper riding etiquette.

Emmy wanted a moment to bond with her horse before she got on. Later I would catch her blowing into the nostrils of practically every horse in the barn. Apparently Aunt Lesley had told her this was something the Native Americans did so the horses would know their master's scent. Emmy took this very literally and seriously. Me: What are you doing Emmy? E: I'm blowing my "scents" into the horse so they will know me forever.

Ready to ride!

Poseidon is the tall Paint with no saddle. Pancho wanted the kiddos to experience two ways of riding (and didn't want to mess with tacking two horses). Poseidon quckly became my favorite horse as his dispostion was so sweet and he is just a breathtaking horse.

Love those little legs! Boone was very impressed with the fact that he was riding on such a mighty steed.

Time to switch! Emmy had great posture and seems to be a natural rider.

Boone discussing some important horse business with Pancho.

When we weren't at the barn we were having fun riding bikes, hiking on the many trails throughout the camp, and just enjoying the great outdoors.

Superman was showing off his muscles pulling the royal princess.

P90X has really paid off. Joel decided to randomly climb a tree...

These wagons came in handy when the kiddos would get tired. Too bad it didn't have a motor because us parents were pretty pooped as well!

Every night we continued our tradition of opening a door in our Advent Calendar, hanging an ornament on the Jesse Tree, lighting the Jesus candle and reading a story from the kids' Bible. Afterward, we would turn off the lights and sing Chirstmas carols together before blowing out the candle. We had a lot of fun sharing this tradition with Pancho, Aunt Lesley, Uncle Doug and my grandmother Ammaw. Pancho even let us have a fire outside so we could eat S'mores and sing around an actual real campfire. As a sidenote, the weather was ridiculously amazing, never getting lower than 40 degrees at night and staying in the upper 60's during the day. Gotta love Texas!

Christmas morning we woke up to presents and cinnamon rolls, with Mannheim Steamroller playing in the background. Emmy and Boone left their boots out as stockings (ahem, I forgot to pack their stockings) and found Santa's plate of cookies and carrots polished off. We have not pushed the whole Santa thing and still are a bit undecided as to how our family will play that game, but the kids took the lead this year and we just went with it! It was actually a lot of fun and didn't seem to take away from the celebration of Jesus' birth, which has been our only concern all along. We will make a more definitive decision by next year.