Monthly Archives: December 2011

The many faces for Santa Claus

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Up from the basement he arose quietly, bearing gifts that were labeled for the Buntjer family.

His red suit sagged where a round belly should be, his white beard was bushy and his spectacles clean.

Reece chats with Santa.

He boasted “Ho, Ho, Ho” as he walked through the kitchen, sending kids flailing in all different directions.

There was Reece who was anxious to greet the big guy — a John Deere combine he hoped Santa would buy.

Alayna grew wide-eyed and leaped into my arms. She buried her face and whimpered in alarm.

“It’s Santa,” I said. “You can’t be afraid.”

I tried to peel her away, for photos I must take; but she wouldn’t let go … oh, for goodness sake!

Niece Katie was timid, just really not sure. Then she sided with Alayna and hid behind her.

Niece Alayna is scared of Santa.

Adrianna was brave as she reached Santa’s lap. She looked in his eyes as he fumbled in his sack. Her request was a present — it was that easy — and a fluffy snowman would do … nothing too cheesy.

Emily accepted her snowman just fine, there was no whimper, no screamin’ or cryin’.

That was for Kiera, the 16-month-old. She screamed and she hollered, she kicked and she flailed. This big man in red could not hold her, she wailed.

And just as she had everyone’s attention, there sat the Brod-man … he must be mentioned.

For in my photos of that Christmas Eve Day, as Kiera was screaming our little Brody was gleaming.

Kiera wails while Brody raises his hand.

He wanted to sit with this Santa in red, so eager his hand rose above his head.

“Pick me, Santa, pick me,” this 13-month-old thought. “I’m a brave little boy and I’m loved a whole lot. What’s in your sack, Santa, what have you brought?”

So Brody was placed in big Santa’s lap. He stared at the beard, the glasses and cap.

As he accepted his snowman with nary a smile, his daddy was awestruck by his brave little child.

Santa’s sack was now empty, he must be going. Lots of work was awaiting, at least it wasn’t snowing!

With a wave and a “See ya,” our Santa disappeared … no signs of a sleigh or a herd of reindeer.

Great-nephew Brody is awed by Santa.

That didn’t matter, the kids didn’t see — they were too busy, their eyes filled with glee.

Later that night, as stars brightly shone, the families packed up and they headed for home.

“But wait,” nephew Reece said before he could leave. He needed some reindeer poop to give Santa a treat.

He went to Aunt Connie’s platter of candy and plucked off a dropping to place in a baggie.

Santa can have his milk and his cookies, but reindeer poop, well, that’s one-of-a-kind. Just ask this little Buntjer boy, he knows the big guy won’t mind.

(Dear readers, I apologize for the cheesy creativity. I hope you all had a memorable Christmas!)

A merry little woof-mess

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“You hold onto her collar and I’ll lather in the soap,” I told my dad.

“She isn’t going to stand still,” he shouted back.

“Well then, you might want to get out of the way!”

In between us, poor Molly was wide-eyed and looking for an escape route.

Molly is my dog … a farm dog who has been spoiled at the hands of her grandparents (my mom and dad). She’s more apt to spend  her nights – and her days – in the house, and she’s even resorted to sitting next to the dinner table while they eat, politely waiting for her hand-outs.

The only problem was that she didn’t smell like an inside dog. Deep down near the roots of her black hair were years worth of dirt and grime.

In the nearly eight years since I brought her home as a puppy, the only thing she has had that ever resembled a bath was getting caught in the rain or stepping into the kiddie pool to cool off on a hot summer day. Obviously, those encounters didn’t involve soap.

So, on my day off – the day before our great family Christmas gathering – I decided if Molly wanted to be the pampered inside-the-house pooch, she needed a good cleaning … a Pet Wash kind of cleaning.

Yes, Molly had a lot of firsts today – her first ride on a rug-covered leather seat (Dad insisted on taking his car), her first ride down the interstate (she actually ducked when we drove under an overpass) and her first visit to a glorious Pet Wash (in Lakefield).

Molly probably wouldn’t use the word glorious. In fact, I’m pretty sure she’d use any of the available antonyms you could say in front of a five-year-old.

Our visit to the Pet Wash went something like this … Molly eagerly exited the back seat of the car and led like a well-trained dog all the way up to the door of the doggie dirt-remover day spa. I don’t know if she caught a whiff of a former visitor’s fear or what, but it finally took me pulling on the lead rope and Dad pushing on her behind that finally got her through the door.

She took one look at the walkway leading up to the bath bay and wanted nothing to do with it. Poor girl. This called for drastic measures – I had to pick her up and put her on the rubber mat. Needless to say, Molly didn’t like being three feet off the ground.

It wasn’t that she freaked out and barked up a storm. No, she started to shake and crouched down with her belly resting on the rubber mat. She didn’t want to move … at least not until the water started spraying out of the shower head.

“Oh, it’s warm water, Molly,” I soothed, rubbing in the shampoo-laden liquid along her neck, back and legs. “It’s not so bad. Isn’t this nice?”

If Molly could talk, I imagine she would say, “Don’t push it or I’ll shake my body and give you a mouth full of grimy dog wash water!”

As I worked the shower head, Dad tried to keep a grip on her collar and work the machine.

When he leaned over to press the rinse button, Molly suddenly thought she was free to go – the death grip had apparently lessened on her collar.

With one hand on the nozzle, I had to use my other hand to keep her from escaping. The front of my sweater suddenly felt a bit damp. Yeah, probably not the best attire to wear to the dog wash!

With two minutes left to go on the timer, Dad needed to flip a button on the machine again – Molly was going to experience the blow dryer.

Oops … new sound here … worse than the water sprayer.

Not good!

Molly freaked out, it took Dad and I both to hold her in place, and the soothing talk I had used when we began this ordeal was starting to sound a little more strained.

About that point, the Pet Wash attendant poked his head in the door.

“How’s everything going in here?”

“FINE!” I said.

“OK!” Dad hollered.

The door shut again … whew – that could have been some escape route if we didn’t have a hand on Molly’s collar and another around her belly.

When the time ran out, Molly was still a rather wet dog. It was a good thing I bought a doggie chamois! I rubbed her down from head to paws as much as I could before she finally decided she’d had enough.

The ramp that she refused to walk up to get to the doggie bath worked just fine for her to get down. Once she hit the bottom, look out … the doggie shake, a couple of sniffs around, and then another doggie shake. She was good to go.

When we returned to Worthington, I decided to keep Molly with me for a bit. After all, her Christmas present was under my tree, and we weren’t going back to the farm without it. She got a new pet bed – perfect for a clean-smelling canine!

Molly and her new pet bed.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t go straight back to the farm. I had to stop and get something at the grocery store. I’d never left Molly alone in the car without being more than a few feet away – so I guess she had another first today!

By the time we finally arrived at the farm, I put her pet bed in the entry at the farm house and she immediately plopped herself down and fell asleep.

She stayed there for the next three hours … sleeping … soundly.

I’m pretty sure it was a stress-induced doggie coma.

When part of the family arrived tonight for Christmas, they couldn’t believe how shiny Molly’s black coat was.

“Her hair is so soft,” I said.

“She even smells good!” said nephew Blake.

Molly looked up at me then with her big brown eyes, and I wondered what she was thinking about our eventful afternoon.

I can only guess it might be, “Don’t even think about doing this again!”

Molly and her Christmas presents.

The holiday house

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When my parents tore down the old two-story farmhouse and built a new home on the farm in 1980, they did so with their current kid-count in mind. There were four bedrooms, a rec room in the basement, a large living room and a counter in the kitchen that had plenty of room for buffet-style serving on the holidays.

Now that it’s just Mom and Dad out there, the space is certainly more than adequate, but I think it will be put to the ultimate test on Saturday.

It’s going to be Christmas at the Buntjer house, and if everyone shows up as expected, there will be 26 people and one dog underfoot. It may just be the biggest gathering the house has ever seen — or at least a close second.

One could say our Thanksgiving gathering at the farm was a practice run. We were six people short of the whole family then, and another six stragglers showed up after the big turkey feast. Even then, our seating was inadequate and we ran out of turkey.

This time around, with a morning brunch and afternoon soups and snacks on the menu, it will more or less be a food free-for-all (graze-fest) after the breakfast bakes are devoured. It’s the perfect menu for the stragglers — those nieces and nephews of mine who would prefer to sleep until noon or later on the days they don’t work.

Mom is already worried about where she’s going to put everyone. We’re anticipating three one-year-olds with high chairs, a four-year-old in need of a booster seat and 22 chairs for the rest of us. The teens and pre-teens will be relegated to the basement (less folding chairs to carry upstairs), and my brothers will probably end up in the living room, eating their food in front of some sports-related TV program.

Throw in the Christmas tree and piles of presents and, well, everyone’s goal will become trying not to slip on wrapping paper or trip over one of the little tikes. (That may sound funny, but poor little Brody and Kiera were each knocked on their diaper-padded backside at least once on Thanksgiving because someone didn’t notice the knee-high munchkins now that they can walk everywhere.)

If we could have a repeat of Sunday’s weather this Saturday, we may not have to worry about tripping over each other indoors. Like Thanksgiving day, we may see a repeat of a football game in the front yard, and 4-wheeler rides out to the back pasture.

What a day it will be to have the whole family together — the kids fighting over Christmas presents, the Moms shooing the boys away from the sugar-laden cookies, the guys focused on the TV and the girls breaking out the board games. Oh, I can hardly wait!

Here’s wishing all of you a Merry Christmas!

Bookmarks, book titles and bargains

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A couple of years ago, a friend of mine told me about his e-Reader.

What’s an e-Reader, I had to ask, envisioning some type of contraption to hold a book open — or something like that. Two years ago I’d never heard of such a device.

These days, you can’t look through a department store’s advertising flier without seeing an e-Reader of some sort splashed among the pages. The Nook and the Kindle are probably the most widely known, but there are a number of other, not-so-famous brands.

While shopping at a Barnes and Noble last weekend at the Mall of America, I had a one-on-one demonstration with the latest name-brand e-Reader model available.

The associate explained all of the great attributes of the electronic gadget — you get access to thousands of books, magazines, newspapers and even movies, Internet, email and, well, I can’t remember what else. My eyes were too fixated on the $250 price tag.

Wow. I can buy a lot of library book sale books for that price!

Imagine how surprised I was to find out then that if I purchased this top-of-the-line gizmo, I could get three free books — the rest were going to cost me. Curious about the cost, I had the associate help me find the book titles of one of my favorite authors. Sure enough, there were about a dozen titles to choose from, all at the amazing low price of $7.99 each. I seem to remember the associate saying something about titles costing roughly 60 percent or 70 percent of the cover price — if you were to buy the actual book, that is.

Now, I’m all for a bargain, but rarely do I pay the cover price for any book I buy. In fact, I can remember paying cover price only once in my life — earlier this year when I purchased “Unbroken” and used it to collect the autographs of as many of the World War II veterans on Honor Flight III that I could before we landed in Sioux Falls and went our separate ways.

Right there is one reason I prefer real books to e-books. My “Unbroken” book is one of the most treasured in my collection, alongside some of my autographed Bob Artley, Jim Brandenburg and Paul Gruchow books.

While I was a bit tempted by the easy access to book titles offered through an e-Reader, I decided to be patient. After all, the Nobles County Library’s special Christmas book sale was just a few days away (it started Thursday and continues through Friday in the lower level of the library, 407 12th Street).

I had hoped to be one of the first customers to the book sale on Thursday, but a two-hour session of the Nobles County Board of Commissioners delayed my visit until the noon hour. I was on a mission — searching for any and all Debbie Macomber books. I read my first book by the author last month and absolutely loved her way of combining her favorite hobby, needlework, with her job that pays the bills — writing. Yes, we have a couple of major things in common.

Anyway, I was luckier than I had anticipated. I found 17 titles by the author, enough to fill up the length of my arm and then some.  (I apologize to any of you planning to go to the sale in search of Macomber books!) I was then in for an even better surprise — books were 50 cents each or a bag full for $2. Now that’s a bargain those e-Readers can’t even touch.

Yep, for $2 I have enough reading material to last through the winter (if I set aside a little time for stitching each day). And, I’m recycling to boot! Not to mention, I much prefer holding a book in my hands, watching my progress as my bookmark moves from beginning to end over the course of a few days or a week. It’s kind of like reading a newspaper — I prefer to have a newspaper in my hands and be able to flip through the pages rather than read it online.

If you’re looking for some book sale bargains, the Library Book Sale is going on from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Gov. Dayton declares Minnesota TB-Free

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Gov. Mark Dayton has declared today, Dec. 7, 2011, as TB-Free Day in Minnesota. The declaration marks the end of a six-year battle in the state to eradicate bovine tuberculosis and regain its TB-Free status.

In making the declaration, Dayton acknowledged the dedication shown by Minnesota livestock farmers, the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, the Minnesota Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, agricultural groups, state legislators and numerous other state agencies over the past six years.

With the help of nearly 500 veterinarians, Minnesota producers tested 758,929 head of cattle and bison for bovine TB over the past six years, while the Board of Animal Health tracked thousands of animal movements, ensuring effective animal traceability.

Dayton said the state’s cattle producers contributed nearly $1 million to help support bovine TB eradication efforts.

Approximately 14 miles of deer exclusion fencing was erected on northwest Minnesota farms in the management zone to stop the spread of bovine TB; andMinnesota deer hunters worked with the Minnesota DNR to test 13,841 wild deer for the bacterial disease. Of the deer tested, 9,738 were from northwest Minnesota, and the remaining 4,058 were from outside the zone as part of a statewide surveillance.

The Board of Animal Health has maintained some requirements for cattle and bison herds in the management zone, while the DNR will continue to manage deer populations and conduct surveillance of hunter-harvested wild deer in the area until testing indicates the disease has been eliminated in deer.

“The hard work and dedication of many people have brought us to this great day — reclaiming Minnesota’s statewide TB-Free status,” said Gov. Dayton, adding that bovine TB was eliminated in record time. “I want to thank the Board of Animal Health, the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association, the Minnesota Milk Producers Association, Minnesota Farm Bureau, Minnesota Farmers Union and everyone else who participated in this tremendous effort to protect Minnesota agriculture and make us TB-Free.”