Holiday Recap

Happy New Year! Here was Clara on her last ride of 2025...

...and her first ride of 2026!

We've thoroughly enjoyed the holiday season, and we hope anybody reading this has too. Thanks to a combination of holiday days and PTO, Mom will have technically had a full 2 weeks off by the time Monday, Jan. 5 rolls around. I say "technically" because she's still been spending a few hours working in her home office here and there, but it's way closer to being on a proper vacation than she usually gets.

As Felicity promised, the rest of this post is going to be a fond recap of Christmas and its surrounding activities. So, let's start by rewinding the clock to Christmas Eve. Clara's horse of the day was - appropriately - Eveningecho. (This was not planned, just worked out that way in the rotation!) We spent way longer online than we intended because a SSO friend wanted to hang out. Not sure she'll ask again, as I was playing and am not exactly a riveting conversationalist, but she did help us get to a star we've been riding past every day on the mountain in Winter Village but could never quite reach. As it turns out, there's this magical faint path of sparkles that appears and bridges the chasm to the ledge where the star is.

It took a few unsuccessful tries/plummets into the chasm, but eventually they made it!

Here's the view from the ledge. That's our friend on her Tombhoof across the way. =)

Our gift under the yule tree on Christmas Eve was "Pebble!"

To our delight, Pebble is a little penguin pet wearing a dark red sweater!

We are way more excited about Pebble than the other free saddlebag "pets" from the Winter Festival, none of which are really pets.

"Jolly Baked Goods," an assortment of non-living holiday treats:

Bruce plushie wearing a Santa hat (we did not unlock him until after Christmas, sadly):

Gnemo the gnome:

I think perhaps SSO is trying to appeal to everybody, including those who don't like live pets popping out of the saddlebag randomly and those who want something less orthodox (emo gnome). We'd have rather had another fox, or an owl, terrier, cat, or bunny. But that's just us. This makes Pebble even more special this year.

Here are Clara and Carrotcake on Christmas morning! 

They started the morning off by running the long penguin race down the frozen Silversong river.

Then it was off to the Winter Village for all of the festive daily activities.

The gift under the yule tree on Christmas day was a redeem code for 100 star coins, the amount of a weekly allowance. Nice!

taking a moment to commune with the magical Katur before heading back to Jorvik

That was it for our Christmas Day adventures on SSO. The human contingent of the family stayed home all day for the first time since 2020 due to illness in the extended family. That meant no having the house to ourselves all afternoon, but we found plenty to do in Mom's room, ha ha.

Speaking of Mom's bedroom, here was the view out Mom's bedroom window on Christmas morning. As you can see, it was not a white one, unless you want to count the sparse patches of slushy snow and the dirty snow piles. We were brimming with Christmas decor indoors, at least.

The super cute photo on Mom's page-a-day calendar:

Us in our wintery pjs cuddling with our pets:

The tree and its sea of gifts:

Prettiest present award winner:

Mom's generous haul of gifts:

I'm most excited for Mom to sew together the little woodland animals. They'll probably be a great size for us. We're also looking forward to watching those DVDs, turning the pages of the page-a-day dog calendar, and (for Bethany and me, anyway) reading the Maisie Dobbs books. =)

Christmas came and went as quickly as ever. We didn't complete our Star Stable's Champion Ranks before the big day, which had been Felicity's unofficial goal. Considering we still got it done with 17 days to spare, I don't think we have anything to be ashamed of. 

These are great, but none of them have come out nearly as much as the Christmas tree or the snowman with a chainsaw from last year. XD

In addition to the icy river penguin race we already mentioned...

...week 3 of the Winter Festival brought us a stargazing activity...

...and a "bring back the wandering magical horse" activity.

Both are worthy additions, though I wouldn't have minded having to bring back multiple wandering horses instead of just one, or searching multiple areas. This one is quite quick and easy. :^)

fun sidenote: an Opalowl look-alike lives in Winter Village this year

To our excitement, the bazaar rolled back around for week 3 of the festival as well. The featured horses were all cuddly draft breeds!

From left to right, we have the Percheron, the Ardennes, the Noriker, and the North Swedish Horse. 

What an appropriate assortment!

We've passed on the Percheron in previous bazaars due to its very defined musculature and clumpy mane and tail. They - like many other breeds - have grown on us over time, though, and they were also recently retrofitted so that they can wear the newer tack.

The perpetually cuddly and sleepy Ardennes. We passed on this breed in the past because of how much time they spend snoozing while idle. That's really the only downside: their coats are great, and they have the more fluid, realistic animations of the newer generation 3 horse breeds.

The lovely Noriker. We all love these guys, but none more than Felicity. This is the breed's first time in the bazaar, though, so the discount isn't as good as it is on the other three.

If we didn't already have our Arcticair, a magical horse based on the North Swedish, in our herd, we'd likely have found one of these irresistible.

The Ardennes won out. As much as we love the Noriker, we're going to hold out for them to make a second bazaar appearance and hopefully be even more discounted. While in Valedale anyway to do the race on the frozen river, we made multiple detours to admire the various Ardennes color options up close.

flaxen strawberry roan and flaxen chestnut

mealy bay and bay roan

blue roan and silver dapple

seal brown and dapple gray

We love the dramatic dapple gray, but there's an NPC one that stands right outside Moorland Stables that we see every day already. We love the mealy bay and the darker roans too, but in the end, it was the flaxen strawberry roan who won out. On the final day of the bazaar, we rode out to the bazaar area to take home our last horse of 2025.

Meet Sandman!

Oof. Not one of our most endearing girl-meets-horse screenshots. XD

At least horses bought while snow is present actually get snow in the background this year.

Here he is in all his chunky glory!

What magical lighting for their first ride!

He looks great in tack too:

...and now he is in our stable settling in and chilling. We have five more horses that still are waiting on their turn to see the Winter Village, and then it will be his time to shine. <3 

Whew, congratulations on making it to the end of this lengthy post! We'll probably be making at least one more (less lengthy) post before the end of Star Stable's winter... and somewhere around five more posts before Michigan's winter weather is over. But let's look on the bright side: at least the days are getting longer! Until next time!

Dashing Through the (Virtual) Snow

From Thanksgiving until just a few days before Christmas, our area was thoroughly blanketed with a thick layer of snow. It really helped put us in the Christmas mood. 

Alas, it warmed up and rained a bunch last week. The snow's nearly gone now, and no more is in our forecast, all but guaranteeing us our third brown Christmas in a row. (Just figures, right? The one time we actually want the snow, it refuses to show up.)

At least we're guaranteed a white Christmas on Star Stable! The winter event is in full swing.

We were so happy to enter our stable on Dec. 10 and see this!

Star Stable does such a great job decorating every year!

We've been thoroughly enjoying the magical beauty of the Winter Village. Most of the fun races and activities from previous years have returned.

We're also getting 31 days of gifts under the big yule tree, which started on Dec. 10. So, the gifting will continue well into January, which is a bit unorthodox but cool by us.

A few new activities this year include:

slipping and sliding on a frozen pond to catch baby gnomes for their nap time,

taking  a basket of gnomes on mini tours of various Jorvik locations,

the running commentary from the capran tour guide is highly entertaining

ice fishing,

and decorating various structures around Jorvik,

like...

Jasper's barn, 

the Fort Pinta bridge,

and even the Fort Pinta statue!

The final levels of Ashfall's training zipped by. Here he is doing his final sparkle, after a New Hillcrest championship.

That means all of the horses are back in our riding rotation at last. The event's long enough that we think everybody will get a chance to see the Winter Village this year. =)

We're getting a break from horse bazaars, which Lily is relieved about. Star Stable did release two cool new magical winter horses this year, though, the Andalusian-based Sól and Máni:

Inspired by the sunlight and moonlight, their magical coats subtly change and shimmer. They also glow (softly, not obnoxiously) in the dark.

Sól has an appropriate golden non-magic coat:

...while Máni's is seal brown: 

I love the idea of these guys, and their lack of deer characteristics is a refreshing change of pace. I'm not fond of Sól's loopy mane or rump spikes, though. And while I love Máni's simpler night sky-esque design, I don't think the seal brown non-magical coat, with its reddish highlights, jives. Why couldn't he be dark and silvery, as in blue roan, grullo, or some shade of gray? 

If we were going to buy another magical winter horse this year, it would probably be Heidrun the "goat horse" or Fawny the "fawn horse." 

Since they're several years old, they are way less expensive than the shiny new horses.

Dash and Clara communing with some Fawncys out in the wild

They've both grown on us over time, but we still find it hard to look past their awkward early generation 3 gaits. We're not fond of the cloven hooves or - in Heidrun's case - the horns either. So, no plans to take one of these guys home on Christmas or New Year's, at least not this season.

Here's a look at the new winter token rewards for this year: the Brownie Bear Hug Set and the Polaris Set. I was hoping for some cheerful jewel tones, or something shimmery or decorated with snowflakes... but nope, it's all brown this year. The bronze bear details on the first set are super cute, though, so we'll probably make good use of everything but the brown sweater and saddle pad. The second set isn't really our style. Hopefully there are some players out there that really like it.

As you can see from that last square, some of the sets from last year are back as well, but we're ignoring those since we already own them.

Star Stable is giving us a northern lights inspired set as part of its latest trailblazer track, so we are getting some shimmer. That color scheme is fantastic, but as it's western style with a non-traditionally-shaped blanket, we probably won't use it much.

Here's a peek at the latest set of championship ribbons to be earned:

Cute! Are they worth all the effort it takes to earn them all? No, but you know we will!

Clearly, many other players want them too. =)

For your enjoyment and ours, here are some fun pre-Christmas screenshots!

You wouldn't know it, but there's a chicken down there in the deep snow too

We played against this NPC in all 4 western races, and the poor girl was stuck in this position the entire time. We could not stop laughing.

my favorite decoration this year

Artie and Clara posing in a snow globe

The rider-in-the-ground bug seems to be spreading. XD

It's possible to bring a winter animal back to Jorvik! Impractical but fun.

Also note one of our gnome-helping rewards this year, starry ceiling decor. 

We might leave this up year-round!

Hee hee, some of Maya's sheep get nearly buried. 

I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching the animals make little trails in the snow.

This is probably my favorite part of the winter event. =)

Whoa, who are these dark, hooded figures in the circus tent? How long have they been there?

a ridiculously precarious Star Stable transport

Brr!

Picnicking in the snow. Raina's not having it.

Our Atlas (right) and his twin, a permanent fixture by the baby gnomes this year

mini donkey cuddles!

This post is already so long that we plan to take a page from Star Stable's book and stretch the season out a bit. Our holiday recap will be coming first thing in 2026! Wishing anybody who would happen to see this a merry Christmas and happy final stretch of 2025!