This is the story I told my friends at DSP that led to this blog. I thought it would be appropriate to post it here...
My husband was late going to the barn Christmas Eve (what with putting together Big Wheels and doll strollers) and he happened to get to the barn just after midnight. Now everyone knows that the animals can speak at midnight on Christmas Eve, so he actually went around and had conversations with everyone. After hearing all the demands of the animals, he sat down to a game of Scrabble with the
sheep. It took a very long time, seeing they don't have thumbs - or fingers, for that matter, and they have a hard time picking up those little tiles with hooves.
The
sheep discussed some of their wishes over the game, one of which was adding barley to their feed as they are partial to it, and another being the demand for a new ram. Apparently the ram we have (which is the only ram in the flock) has quite an attitude and thinks he is God's gift to ewes, which the girls find hard to appreciate.
When he finally came in from the barn I asked him whatever took so long to do chores, and he told me about talking to the animals. I asked why the other animals weren't invited to play Scrabble, and he said the
sheep discussed that.
The horse is too snobbish to play games with
sheep (though the
sheep suspect she is just trying to hide the fact that she can't read and write). The cows, apparently, can only spell MOO, and there are just so many O's in the game. The pigs are just slobs and the
sheep just don't mingle with them. The flock of chickens have relocated to the chicken coop across the street, but three of them were tired of being cooped up and moved back to the barn. They are the scorekeepers for the scrabble games, but no one ever knows who won, because the
sheep can't read their chicken scratch.
The day after Christmas, my husband was right out in the barn installing game tables and overhead lighting in the
sheep pen. The cows asked for fleece bras since it gets very cold here (he asked me to make them, but I had to draw the line somewhere!
) The horse just wanted the burrs brushed out of her tail and the pigs wanted to go out into the pasture and dig since the snow had mostly melted and the ground was soft and muddy, so he put them out and they had a great time.
I was mildly annoyed that the girls in the barn were getting so much attention just because they could talk one day of the year. I talk nonstop and where does it get me?
I guess I complained enough about it, because he did come in and paint the kitchen ceiling and put up a new ceiling fan for me, so now I'm as happy as the other animals around here.
So that's the most recent news from the funny farm. If anyone has a henpecked ram for sale, please let me know.
