A Fowl End to 2020

Happy 2021!

Here's a quick recap on the end of 2020 before we forge onward into the new year.

Christmas morning: cloudy and white

So many presents!

Nala enjoying her giant candy cane

2020 prettiest present award

Mom received all of this! <3

We were most excited about the stuffed birds!
Each one makes the call of the real-life bird it represents when squeezed.

On HI3, we found a cool pony on Christmas Eve!

Aw, tiny star. <3

Little Buck had a high stat total:

and an okay, middle-of-the-road personality:

Because his performance metrics were not so great, we were already thinking, mmm, probably not keeping him.

Then we had PepsiSummer get on him, and... yeah. It wasn't pretty. Interestingly, he's the same height as Pizza but is over 150 pounds lighter.

As if the game could sense our disappointment with Buck's size, this was the first wild it put in our path on Christmas day!

(Side note: Pepsi, another player on the game who has great taste in names, apparently also lives in the snow belt and shares Mom's feelings towards the white stuff.)

Whoa! She is by far the hugest brindle we've ever caught!

Her personality and performance metrics leave much to be desired. =( She's even ornery, which is our least favorite personality trait. 

It's a long way down if she bucks you off!

Because she's brindle, amusingly large, and came to us on Christmas morning, we haven't been able to trader or auction her. We decided to give her until the end of the year and see if any other wilds came along that we deemed superior.

It didn't happen.

So, even though she is impractical for everything we routinely do (she's ornery, skittish, pokey, and a lackluster jumper), I don't think she's going anywhere. I will happily let one of my sisters take her on and just admire her from a distance.

Later on Christmas Day, Felicity and Showtunes found our second ever sparkling crate.

Inside was a cheetah plushie!

Not only did Showtunes get ridden and get to keep the plushie, but we also determined his favorite treat! He was one happy pony this Christmas!

We were sorry to see the day end, but end it did.

Because of the pandemic, the humans have been hanging around the house way more than usual this holiday season. On New Year's Eve, we had time to ourselves for once while they visited Lake Michigan.

Mom reports that it was not intolerably frigid or windy at the lakeshore, which is not usually the case this time of year. Even so, it was below freezing, and by the time they meandered their way from downtown to the end of the pier and back, she could no longer feel her toes or fingers. It looked to Mom like there were more birds around than other people, but then, everything was a blur to her - literally. She managed the entire outing without glasses (mask + glasses + cold air = don't even bother), including taking these photos with numb fingers. Now that's dedication to documenting the day!

Look at it. Acting all innocent. We all know what you are, you gigantic snow machine!