Saddling Up {thewattys2015}

Chapter 19

*Filler Chapter!*

I skipped down our stairs two at a time. Guess what day it is? It's Christmas Eve! Yay! My favourite time of the year. Getting out a box of pre-made cake batter by Duncan Hines, I filed through the countless Christmas recipes, My mom and I had.

I got out the eggs, milk and butter, knowing that those are key ingredients in any recipe. I settled on my favourite: the classic sugar cookie. Santa loved to eat those. I made the dough and then I caked the island in flour. I rolled out the dough and cut out star shapes with a cookie cutter.

I placed the pan into the oven and turned on the timer for 20 minutes. After the cookies were in the oven, I placed them in the fridge to cool. Mom woke up then. "Good Morning Mom!" I said cheerfully. She waved and grabbed herself a steaming cup of tea, I had made us both. She took a sip and rubbed her eyes. "Good Sleep?" I ask kindly.

She nods. "Great. Done some Christmas baking already, I see?" She chuckles lightly. I giggle and throw some flour at her. "Yep."

She smiles devishly and throws some flour back. "Oh you're on!" I laugh loudly. I throw some brown sugar at her. Mom grabs handfuls of scraps of dough. She pelts them at me. I catch some of them and pelt them back at her, leaving her covered in flour,brown sugar and dough scraps.

Mom winks at me and walks up towards me. Slowly, without me noticing, a wet yellow liquid starts to drop down my head. "MOM!" I yell, laughing hard. I take my glass of milk and dump it over her head. "Your welcome." I smirk. Mom shyly smirks and throws some more flour at me.

I glance down at the kitchen mess. "Uh, We should clean this mess up." Mom chuckled in dismay as she sees the cracked eggs, spilt flour and a wasted milk jug. "Oops?" I offer sweetly. We both laugh as we start cleaning up this mess. Afterwards, We sigh and look at the sparkling marble countertops. "Finally. Done." I murmer. Mom pulls me into a hug and leads me to the couch. We sit together for an hour but then mom realizes it's time to drop me off at the stable as we are late for my lesson.

I quickly throw on breeches and a PINK sweater. She drops me off at the stable. Elle is already tacked up by Samara, my friend who is my lesson group. "Thanks Samara! " I say, pleased. I grab the reins and quickly mount her. We ride into the arena and are happily suprised by the jumps we see set up.

Ms.Briarwood walks in. "Hello! Good afternoon. Today we will be jumping, but without reins." She added. Ugh. Great. I removed the reins from the bridle and handed them off to the stable hands. I tried to control Elle by leg commands, hoping that would help.

Soon it was my turn, Elle turned to the first jump. I could feel her tense as she starts to get confused. I ease her over the jump, when she leaves the ground, I wrap my arms around her big strong neck to hold on. After we all went over that course, we did some games like the egg race except on horseback which was tricky.

It was our last lesson before the stable closed for a re-model, so Elle was going to be boarded at Paige's Family stable. Her mom and dad owned a full
Boarding and leasing stable and also they ran a quarter horse breeding farm. Since we knew them well enough, they said they would be glad to board Elle for a couple months for free.

Mom picked me up with the horse trailer trailing behind her. I loaded in Elle and made sure to put her tack trunk, tack, and the countless ribbons from all the shows. I got in beside mom after latching the trailer door shut. Mom drove to the Paige's house. The welcomed us in with open arms and helped us unload Elle, Her stuff and They even let me keep the ribbons in their tack room.

Afterwards, We sat by the large flat screen tv as we watched America's funniest home videos. We were drinking hot chocolate and eating some of the sugar cookies I had made. Later on, Mom and I set out three sugar cookies and one tall glass of milk. We set them out on a China plate Auntie Hallie gave Mom and Dad at their wedding.

We admired the pretty sight and sighed. "Our first Christmas without Dad." Mom sighed, fresh tears sprung in her eyes. "Hey it's ok." I say as I hug her. "It is. Thank you for being here." Mom says, kissing me on the top of my forehead. "Goodnight mom." I say as I go upstairs. "Goodnight Eleanor sweetie, Merry Christmas sweetie." Mom says kindly.