24 Christmas Memories – 10

It’s day 10 and I guarantee you… most of you have never had a Christmas gift like the one I’m going to share with you today.

We knew that this gift would be coming at some point, but we had no idea that it would start on Christmas Eve and stretch through until Christmas Day.

… My wife put up with a LOT! 😅 …

Is this first Christmas Memory post you’re seeing?
You can get caught up by starting back on day 1 to understand this year’s theme.

A Christmas Miracle

We lived in the city, but we had a wanna-be barnyard kind of a home, with pet chickens, rabbits and a few skittish quail in the mix as well. At one point, we even had a small pen in the unfinished part of our basement (don’t ask!), where there lived a black rosecomb rooster and two hens. They are a bantam breed, so miniature chickens if you will. They were just gorgeous!

We noticed, at one point in December, that one of the hens was getting to be broody and wanting to sit on eggs, so we moved her to a smaller pen (also in the basement) and let her do her thing.

On Christmas Eve, we heard our first peeping sound and saw a cracked open eggshell. It had begun!

Over the next 24-36 hours a whole little flock of chicks emerged from their eggshells and provided perhaps one of the most interactive Christmas gifts our kids had ever had. How exciting! They even made it into the by-the-tree photos that year.

I think that, by and large, children today lift far too far away from barnyard animals.

While it’s true that our kids are already a long way off from the barnyard adventures of my mom and her family, still, barnyard animals were a great addition to our kids’ childhood.

Looking after them taught them responsibility and their efforts proved fruitful when they could sell excess baby animals for a bit of pocket money.
I have seen Soph walk around the neighbourhood with a chicken in her sweater… even going into the local Dollar Store (to the amazement of other patrons). The chicken in question had done so since she was a chick… so she was very used to it and very content.
The kids had an early introduction to animals as a source of food – eggs, mainly, but also one feed of quail and one mean chicken named Princess.
… and finally… they provided one Christmas Day unlike any they’d had before or have had since!