The Meaning of Christmas?

Thanksgiving is always that time of year right before the Christmas season when people get together and show their appreciation for everything they have. 

Most commonly this is done by family and/or friends getting together and sharing a meal.  It's a very loving time and a wonderful reason to get everyone you love together.

It's normally a meal involving turkey, sometimes ham or if you're a vegetarian, lots of veggies.

But it's not the meal that makes it so traditional for families...it's the quality time that everyone gets to spend together.

It gets you into a thankful mindset which is very appropriate to the follow right into Christmas time!

Christmas is another traditional holiday in which we celebrate the birth of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Lots of times, it feels as though people lose sight of what Christmas is really supposed to be about. 

They become obsessed with the idea of getting the best presents or buying their loved ones the best gift, etc. 

But what they lose sight of is that it isn't how expensive the gift is or how high-tech it is.  It's about the thought behind it.  The love put into it.

The gifts are merely a way to show each other how much we love one another and how much we appreciate each other. 

Yet, in the mix of all the gift giving, we must never forget that Christmas is about Christ.

Christ, the baby who was born to save the world.  Christ, the one who humbled Himself SO much He came into this world in the most delicate, innocent, and fragile form - a baby.

We should humble ourselves this Christmas.  We should put others before ourselves.   Instead of buying ourselves a pair of fancy new gloves, we should donate clothing to places like Salvation Army for the less fortunate.  Instead of gorging ourselves on Christmas ham, we should donate food to a soup kitchen.

This Christmas season, we should all try and step out of our comfort zones to show the true meaning of Christ-like love to those who have less than ourselves. 

I'm not saying everyone can give, because I know sometimes there are situations when you just can't.  However, we should never stop trying to help out others, even if all we can do is make someone smile, you've shown them the light of Christ. 

With this in mind, I believe that anyone who sets their mind to it can show the love of Christ to others this Christmas month. 

My Rabbitry ~ Mid-Decorating

These past few days we seemed to hit a warm lull.  And during that time I took  advantage of it and decorated my rabbitry for Christmas now instead of when it's freezing outside. 

My pumpkins I had used for some color during the fall I cut up and gave to the chickens. 

 

As you can tell, anytime during the middle of decorating and un-decorating...it's a bit messy. 

 

It looks so ugly without some cloth covering up that stuff.  I'm going to have to get something soon and normally you can find fabric at places like Salvation Army for only a few quarters!

 

Here's all the stuff left to decorate along with all the stuff I'd taken down.  I did all this yesterday, because I knew it was going to snow today.  And guess what!...it's snowing!  HUGE flakes and they're sticking :)

 

But anyway, yesterday we got a bale of hay and I distributed it out to all my bunnies.  I gave them a LOT.  Mostly for extra heat, but if they eat it that's fine too :)  It got everywhere!  I had to do a deep raking afterwards. 

 

 

All the tarps down, and the decorations mainly up, it still looks kind of sad.  However, once you pull back all the tarps and add the beauty of snow, it will look awesome, I have no doubt in my mind!

 

Right now I'm looking out the window at these massive snow flakes.  I'm looking forward to going out later to my rabbitry and seeing everything against the crisp white!   And these past few days, I've  been doing a DEEP clean in all the hutches, so that nothing will freeze and then get a build up. 

 

I also moved the lop males, Bruce and Benjamin.  I switched their places with Abby and Kayla.  Then a few days before that, I had taken Eleanor out of the cage with Abby and put her in an empty hutch, next to the baby lops and Cupcake. 

 

I had done this, because Abby's taken after her mother, Olivia in personality.  And for those of you who remember, Olivia was the most evil rabbit ever!  Anyway, Abby's not that mean, but she's definitely strong-willed and was picking on Eleanor.  So I felt that I should separate them.

 

So now all the bunnies have their own cages that should, and those that get along sharing still do, etc.  I'm very pleased.

 

OH!  I almost forgot, the puppy we kept from the litter we had this past summer...this will be her first experience with snow!  We're all excited to see how she tackles it. :)  It's always fun and I'm sure she'll love it. 

 

 

Winter Rabbitry Décor

Here's a close up of all the different items I purchased to help make my rabbitry more Christmas-like!

I started by nailing on a few neat sparkly pieces onto the hutches...

And of course, like most people, I'm on a budget.  Sooooo...I needed something fairly cheap, but the product had to be durable, so it would last in the elements.  So where did I go? Dollar Store :)

 

And these bells are along my bench/sink.  I'm still hoping to get a new piece of cloth for the winter to hang up, as it hides the stuff underneath rather nicely.

 

Then I got a couple of these solar powered candy-cane things...if they work, then they were totally worth it!

 

Then I got 3 of these little post things.  Each one's different.  I have one on either end of the row of cages, then one in the center, where I had put my tin owl for fall. 

 

And then for all the middle posts, I wrapped them with different colored garland! :)

And of course, absolutely every single post has a red bow with a little bell in it...and so do the hutches, they have a few on them as well.   I just love the look...so festive!

 

This snowflake is the post in the center :)

And then here's some more garland :)

 

And then this happy bear is my last post :)

On the gate I duck taped this string festive hanging ornaments  

Then in place of my beautiful bird house, I put up with snowflake which unfortunately is somewhat hard to see.  I'm thinking of going to the Christmas Tree shops because the last time I went, they had this white disco ball...that would look neat :)

Then I also last minute hung up a cute sign that says "Reindeer Crossing" with a picture of well...a reindeer :) 

And THOSE are my winter decorations for this year! I'm hoping to add a string of silver bells (which I DO have) around my freezer, holding the food.  But we'll see what happens. 

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

"I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity.

"All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?" ~ Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

Quick Explanation

I was just thinking and a lot of times I take photo's of my rabbits with the door to their cages closed, not open. 

And it's NOT because my rabbits are mean or bit or are untrusting of me, etc.  It's actually because their SO friendly!

They're so unbelievable friendly, that if I were to try and take a photo of them with the door open, they come up to me and smell my face or smell the camera and I can no longer get a good shot of them.

So that's why I take almost all my photo's of the bunnies with their cage door shut, it's just a little bit easier to get a photo of them.

And they're already so hard to get a picture of with how much they move! (as you can tell by the blurry photo above :))  So yes, my bunnies are extremely trusting of me and beyond friendly. :)

Frozen Water's and Tarps

It's been getting colder each day and because of this, I've been having issues with the water bottle's freezing.  When they freeze, I've been gathering them all up and taking them to our basement where I defrost them in hot water.

It takes at least 15 minutes for everything to defrost and it's rather time consuming having to drag them from the rabbitry, to the basement, and back up.  I've been using a little wagon to help me do this.

However, I'm trying something new.  Starting today.  My sister and I went out and bought a whole bunch of plastic bowls.  I distributed them amongst the rabbits. 

Here's my plan with the bowls.  When the water freezes in them, all I have to do is pop the ice out and using a pitcher of water, re-fill it.  Not only that, but my one rabbit who has a bowl broke a hole in the ice when it froze over and was then able to drink the water underneath. 

So using this logic, I figure this would be a better approach to watering my bunnies throughout winter.

Piccolo has his purple plastic dish for water.  I had to use an old bowl, because the new ones would be too big for his small cage.



 

These photo's were taken BEFORE I filled them with water.  The reason?  If I were to stick new bowls in their cages with water, they would be so busy smelling the new scents and checking this new thing out that they would simply end up dumping their water.  Verses if I waited a while for them to check them out first, then fill them, they wouldn't dump the water.

The babies :)

There were mainly black water dishes, but a few colorful ones.  I really liked the ones with color.

 

There were only 13 of the bowls I wanted, so LE (above) was one of the rabbits who got a different type of water dish.  Still plastic, just bigger and only had one section for water instead of two. 

I also have my handy-dandy gloves that help keep my hands warm when I scoop up water for the rabbits.

 

And the gloves are really long, they come all the way up to my elbows!  But they're great because they're insulated and super soft. 

I was also able to get some pictures of how I covered up my rabbitry using the tarp and old feed bags.

These above are all the feed bags, then below is the tarp which covers 5 cages.  You'd be shocked as to how nice and warm it is behind them! Especially when the sun's beating on it.

Now, I know what you're thinking.  And yes, it IS ugly!!! But when it comes to keeping my rabbits alive, I'd rather use something practical and something I have over what's more esthetically pleasing. 

So there you go, now you know what my rabbitry looks like and what I'm currently doing in preparation for this cold weather!

Little Babies and Freezing Water

I got some pictures of the baby lops for you!  Here they are and they're as cute as ever. :)

 

As you can tell, they've got their winter coats on and with only being 17 days old, they're absolutely adorable little balls of fluff!

They're so cute, their fur is all pushed weird since they've been huddled together :)  So cute!

So there they are!  I finally got some photo's of them for you.  And Cupcake (the mom) is doing a wonderful job with them.  She's a great mother, constantly with them, nursing them, cleaning them, etc.

Today it's been below 32 degrees all day, which means all the water bottles were frozen.  I had to gather them up and take them down to the basement where I defrosted them, filled them half way with fresh water, and take them back up.

So far it's not that big a deal.  Hopefully the snow will continue to hold off a little longer, which would make it easy for me with their water.  Either way though, I'm just happy to have bunnies :)