(no subject)

Good little ride on the pony tonight- dusty, because I was just too lazy to water, but good. I let her w/t/c around first seeing as it's been a week since I last rode. She tossed her head and kicked up her heels, and then I tacked her up and hopped on. Stiff to the right as usual, but not as bad as I feared. Right seatbone helps keep her from bulging the right side, whip taps remind her that she can't just bully through, and vacation makes me pretty mellow. I did some put-your-hands-forward-and-see-what-happens when she got a bit quick and high, and she reached forward and down, which was nice. I felt like we may have even unlocked and worked her back some for the first time in a long while. Did some slow trot where I had her in a longer frame and I tried to do a 10 m half circle to a leg yield, and found I had a great big trot that I wasn't even sitting and a horse that was sliding around like pudding. It was pretty amusing and I shortened my reins and gathered up her hind legs and had a perfect leg yield right. She was pretty in tune and when I thought "pop that leg up a bit more" she was right there and it was super fun. I am still weak as heck and probably 5 lbs heavier, so lots of breaks and not a lot of consistent work, but we were both happy and limbered up so yay for that.
On the 5 lbs- my parents celebrated our visit with ridiculous amounts of food. For Christmas eve, there was probably about 9 pounds of my mom's lasagna. Dad got into the act and produced 16 pounds of italian beef. I am not exaggerating.
Christmas brunch at a friend's was potatoes, egg/sausage/cheese/breadish casserole, home made sweet breads, and home made egg nog. OMG, the NOG.
Christmas dinner was prime rib- my mom cooked 1 lb per person, with cheese/broccoli/rice casserole, party potatoes (mashed potatoes blended with sour cream and cream cheese), and pumpkin pie, ice cream, and mini-eclairs for dessert.