Evolution of a Christmas photo

Last year I neglected to get my holiday cards sent out, so this year I was determined to get it done. Following the time honored Pagac family tradition, I tried to get a photo with Lily and the dogs. At first, it looked like it might work...





Chip was doing fairly well, but Tater was another story.



After a few minutes, Corey noticed the chickens high-tailing it across the yard to Lily. It boggles my mind, but the chickens LOVE her. They follow her like puppy dogs in the yard and let her carry them around without resistance. They became this tame from her spending so much time playing in the coop this summer. I've never seen anything like it and my family has had chickens nearly all my life.

Lily sees the chickens coming to her...







Pretty soon, the dogs were forgotten.











Every good chicken deserves a kiss, right? Bird flu, shmird flu.













And the one that made it on the card...



Thanks to my friend Aimee for the hand-me-down handmade dress she's wearing in the pics :)

Who needs TV when you have this kind of entertainment?

Here are a few videos to share from today.

In the last week or so, Lily has really been interested in the chickens. It seems a little funny to me, since we have had them her entire life. Chickens are nothing new around here. All of the sudden she wants to "pet 'em" all the time. She likes naming the different parts of the chicken and getting in the coop with them. For the most part, the chickens are quite tolerant of her catching them and carrying them around. If they tire of her, they will escape to the enclosed top of the coop and she will patiently sit and wait below. Before long, they come right back down to her. I think they really like her. She was inside the coop when I took the following video.



The next video was taken this evening as the sun was setting and Corey called in some Barred Owls for Lily. I have to say, Corey can do a pretty mean bird call. It is part of what attracted me to him in the first place. No joke! One of our first dates was driving to a reservoir to go bird watching. We watched birds all afternoon and then his hunk of junk car broke down on the way back to campus and I had to call Laura to pick us up. But I digress.... In this video you can hear Corey call 2 owls in. They flew right up to the yard where we could see them. Unfortunately, they were too small to show up on the iPhone video. All you could see were trees, so I didn't include that. Turn up the sound and you should be able to hear Corey calling and the owls calling back.



On an unrelated note, I wanted to share a recipe. I may have shared this one before, but it is worth mentioning again since it is one of my all-time favorites this time of year. They are called Belgian Spice Cookies and you can find the recipe here. I make them extremely thin and crunchy. Almost like a cracker. They have just the right amount of spice and are completely addicting. I alter the recipe a bit by rolling them very thin using lots of flour to prevent sticking to the cutting board. I also do not refrigerate the dough, as I have found that it is much easier to roll when it is not cold.