I hope everybody has gotten their christmas cards from uncle Plume McPlumey. If you are expecting a card but it hasn’t arrived yet then you might want to skip this entry, as it shall be mainly about the card.

First of all, for all the unlucky people who weren’t graced by my good fortunes (oh I am so full of it!) here is a PDF version of the card. In fact even the people who did get the card might want to check out the PDF. Because that is the original vision (full of it, full of it!). That’s how it should have looked. The printed version was a bit misaligned and cut and the photos too dark etc. The PDF is nice and clear.

Also, if you would like to see full size versions of the pictures from the card then they are here and here and here and here.

There were a lot of happy mishaps in making the card. On the day I had decided to take the pictures the goats just happened to be tied up on the front lawn at the playground. For the first time in months. That was quite handy, because I could take each goat in turn. If they had been loose then it would have been one big, chaotic mess. Now it was more orderly.

Another fortunate thing that happened was Bodil coming by. At first she didn’t see me, she just saw the goats wearing christmas hats! Haha. So she went inside and asked what was going on. I hadn’t told anyone about it, so suddenly I had a puzzled crowd.

That’s Magnethe in the foreground of course. Then it’s Bodil with her dog Lulu and Pernille and Shermin, one of the regular kids. And everybody was laughing and cheering. Even the construction workers who were working a bit up the hill. Goats wearing christmas hats, that’s not something you see every day.

Bodil said that we should get a picture of me with the goats. A good idea. But I don’t think we would have been able to get all three goats to stand still with me for a picture. So it ended up being just Mads and me. I hadn’t planned to be in the card myself, so it was a lucky thing that Bodil was there to take the picture. She tried taking a lot of pictures actually, but she wasn’t used to the digital camera. So only two shots happened. The one in the card, and this one:

While I was taking pictures of Mads and Magnethe, Shermin came over and asked if she could put a hat on Vanilje. And I let her try. It was more complicated than you’d think though. Vanilje’s horns are so small that you can’t really “pin” the hat on them. With Mads and Magnethe I just poked their horns through their hats and bam, hats were on tight. But it didn’t really work with Vanilje. Also, she was a bit upset I think. Because it was the first (and last) time that she had been tied up. So after I had spent some time taking pictures of Mads and Magnethe I noticed Shermin still struggling with Vanilje.

And then I went to help her. We did manage to get the hat on her and snap a few pictures before she tossed it off. And luckily the pictures turned out pretty good, for quicksnaps at least. One in the card and an extra here:

Then of course I made sure to give her some treats and I sat down with her for a while. To keep her company.

Mads was much better at modelling his hat. He’s good at posing. I think he loves the camera.

Look at him. He’s so working it.

Mads was easy and Vanilje was hard. Magnethe was a little in the middle. She kept turning around and following me. So when I wanted to try a different angle I’d move, and then she’d move with me and ruin my intended shot! In the end I didn’t really have any pictures of her that I liked enough to put in the card. So I brought the christmas hats again the next day. This time the goats were inside. And I put the hat on Magnethe. And what happened? Another fortunate circumstance. She promptly decided to stand in the bucket. I would like to say that I had planned the great shot of her standing in a bucket like that, but nope. Just luck. I love the picture though. Goats standing in buckets, that never gets old. Here’s another Magnethe shot:

The picture of Mads and Magnethe on the back was just luck too. I hadn’t planned that little joke. I just saw the picture and thought that it looked like they were conspiring together. So I had a lot of luck and circumstance, but I am really happy with how it turned out. And I am glad that you guys have enjoyed it too.

I think that is pretty much the story of the christmas card. I made some videos on the day of the “photoshoot” too, I shall look and see if any of them are worth posting.

And now, it is very nearly christmas. In fact it is 7 minutes from now. In Denmark we celebrate on the 24th of course. So tomorrow is the big day. I will have a nice day in with the family. Christmas is the one time of year when we all eat dinner together. And then we’ll have presents and … well that’s about it. Most of the traditions have faded away now that the kids (and by that I mean my brother and I) are grown. But it’ll be a nice day anyway. And I will go up to the goats and wish them a merry christmas. I’m going to make a mix of their favourite treats. Usually I’ll bring them one kind. And try not to give them too much because, well they aren’t exactly slim eh? But tomorrow I’ll give them so many treats that they’ll think I’m Santa, even though my beard ain’t white. We’ll have our own little christmas party. I’ll try and see if I can snag a dance from Magnethe. I’d bring a mistletoe, but you know… they’re goats. They’d pick it clean before I could find a place to hang it.

It will be a good time, and to all a merry christmas.

It’s the day before the day before the day. Christmas is almost here.

I think it’s going to be a pretty nice christmas this year. Not big and fancy. No snow. But I’m feeling good. It will be nice with the family, the uncle. I will bring christmas treats to the goats. I will look at the cards that you nice people have sent me. I will be darn jolly, I will. I feel richer this christmas. Richer in spirit and friends.

Ho ho ho.

So, the news from the playground. Vanilje is going on a little vacation. Actually, she has already left. She’ll be back though. Hopefully it won’t be too long. She’s going back to Kurt’s place to have some “alone time” with a buck. Yes, she’s going on one of those wild sex cruises that you always hear about. I guess Kurt’s farm is the goat equivalent of those cheap Greek tourist traps that all Danish teens go to every summer. Or something.

My little Vanilje. I feel kinda the same way I did when it was Magnethe’s turn last year. “YOU’RE GOING TO DO WHAT TO MY LITTLE BABY!?”. Aw. And I feel somewhat torn of course. Because on the one hand the thought of wonderful little goat kids and seeing Vanilje grow to be a mother, that is wonderful. But on the other hand, the thought of saying goodbye to those kids when they grow up.. that is not good. Not at all.

But I’m going to look on the bright side. It still pains me to think of 3B and Springbok, but I am glad I got to know them. So I will look forward to the new kids and all the fun we’ll have. I have no doubt that it will be great.

Per told me about it a couple of days ago. I asked him, what about Magnethe? She wasn’t going? he said that they figured one of the kids had impregnated her! Oh boy. And here I was thinking that she was putting on weight because she was a goat and goats eat all the time. But I guess that wasn’t all. I didn’t think it would be possible for the kids to impregnate her. It’s all a bit incestous, isn’t it?

A goat’s life is one long party, methinks.

Here is the last picture I got of Vanilje before she went on her merry way:

Funnily enough it was a picture of her leaving. Hehe. In mid-air, jumping through the hatch.

I brought a christmas card for the playground too. I had to explain that it was made for my “internet friends”, that’s why it was in English and so on. But I figured they would like to see the pictures of the goats wearing christmas hats. The picture of Mads and I was taken by Bodil, by the way. I met her while doing shopping, just after I had left off the card at the playground. So I told her she’d have to go take a look at that. And then we said our merry christmasses. She told me that we probably wouldn’t see each other again before christmas. She’s spending most of her time at home these days. Because of her dog, Lulu. And the fireworks. Apparently Lulu had a bad experience with a piece of firework going off close to her some years ago. And since then she has been very afraid of all the bangs and noises. So Bodil stays at home and takes care of her. And she doesn’t go out on new year’s eve. At midnight when all the shooting is worst they go out into her bath room together and she lets the water run and plays soothing music and she sits like that to make Lulu feel okay. I think you can tell a lot about a person from how they treat their pets. You can tell Bodil is a sweet and caring person. Her dog matters more than anything.

I’m not a fan of the fireworks myself. Especially not rowdy teenagers with bags full of cheap cannonfodder. And that’s without getting into the whole thing about illegal fireworks. A couple of brothers were killed here in Denmark recently. They were manufacturing illegal fireworks. Now someone else is left to pick up the pieces…

Anyway. Back to jollytown.

Don’t we look like old pals, laughing at a joke I just told?

While Mads is thinking “enough with the jokes, bring out the peanuts buddyboy”.

Magnethe and I holding hands. Sort of.

And also, videos. Youtubed for that seasonal spirit.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rt7gwk11vpg. A funny Magnethe moment. She sneezes but it breaks into a sort of abrubt burp. Cutey.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ydcv0OQlAro. I’m sitting on the bench and Mads decides to join me. He’s a good jumper when he is properly motivated. And you can tell it’s almost feeding time because both Magnethe and Mads start baahing at the hatch door.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=m18fnbZH7gg. Another Mads video. This is a scratch attack. A good, hard scratch. It almost looks violent. I find that youtube sometimes seems to screw a bit with my framerate, some parts of the videos seem to go a bit fast. And sometimes the audio is out of synch too. The start of this video almost looks like I think Mads is one of those scratch lottery tickets and I’m trying to get to the magic numbers. But anyway, he takes it like a good sport.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=duBrrw7nUyA. Cute, little Kridte. This is her version of the “up-close and personal” videos that I did of Mads and Magnethe. A compilation of three scenes in fact, where she gets up and almost eats the camera.

So that is some cute christmas spirit for you guys.

I got a big dose of christmas spirit from Luis. His much anticipated card. I can’t believe you said you weren’t an artist, Luis! Is there a story behind the christmas tree heads? I loved the inside with the quote from Finn Family Moomintroll. Perfectly picked. And the picture of me with Magnethe, again perfectly picked. It’s amazing how sweet it is to see it like that, picked out by someone else.. it makes it even sweeter still. Thank you Luis.