In which Santa Jim celebrates a "round number" birthday and...PARTY!

Santa Jim wasn't sure he wanted to celebrate this birthday.

Saint Nicholas was born in (what is now) Turkey, in 270 AD, so he is 1,748 years old
That would be a LOT of candles if we lit them all!

Then, we started talking about a party.

And hey:  we do like to party.

Chocolate castle cake, and sugar-free chocolate cupcakes

It's been raining all week, but we know better:  when we have a party, the sun comes out and gets HOT.  So we filled up the SS Grog with cold-cold-cold well water for people to dip feet into.

Foxie was happy to see so many friends in his backyard

The invitation said that well-behaved dogs were welcome, and people brought lots of lovely dogs--including Kim and John's two shelties.  I counted two dogs named Jasmine (a sheltie and a Min-Pin), two dogs named Lucy (a black dog and a yellow dog), plus our own floofs.

Roo checks out Jesse, and Foxie is interested in Jasmine

Lucia and Jen brought the baby barn swallow they've been raising

Tours of the garden were in high demand.

My mom explored the bean house in the garden.  Whenever somebody goes inside
the little enclosure ringed by scarlet runner beans, a humming bird comes to scold.

We enjoyed food and friends all afternoon.

The fire always attracts visitors, even on hot days

And of course, the Dragon was happy to show off her tricks for all the visitors.

The goats want to learn tricks so visitors will bring them cookies, too

Thanks for joining us, everyone!

CAKE!