Cinnamon

As you know, this friend joined our family years ago, when Archer was just one and still too small to ride. Beautiful Cinnamon was carefully crafted by Grandpa Craig and has a source of great joy for many children through the years.

Cinnamon has suffered great injustices, but continued to serve us faithfully. There are the dents in the walls where the kids rocked too close. There are the missing parts (saddle blanket? where?) and moments of coloring (is that crayon or marker?) on his pretty white nose. The worst was the haircut. I walked into Archer's room one day to find that Cinnamon's mane and tail had been completely sheared off at the hands of a young boy who said, "But his hair was in his eyes! He needed a haircut!" There were pictures shared with Grandpa. To spare Cinnamon further humiliation, we won't share those here.

But Cinnamon has always been a faithful friend, quietly enduring all abuse, trick riding, tipping over and climbing upon. Cinnamon has strongly stood up to the increasing size of the kids on his back, and never with a single complaint.

He has now been adopted by a new Mom, a Mom who calls him Rosie. She will teach him to cook (in case you couldn't tell, he's wearing an apron and chef's hat here), and tell him all about the latest fashions, probably share with him her secret Christmas plans and wishes. And in return, he'll keep her company at night when she's all alone in that dark bedroom, he'll wait for her to return home from school for more cooking lessons, and he'll faithfully stand by her side as he has done for Archer for so many years.