HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

One last post before the new year sets in!!

We FINALLY got some major snow here in Colorado - it started about noon yesterday and we ended up with about 8 inches - it's still snowing a little bit this morning and it's darn cold out - 10 below!!

The good news is I feel much better!! I really did take it easy yesterday - putting vicks and moist heat on my chest every other hour, lots of tea with lemon juice and honey, and plenty of time on the couch!

So the New Year's Eve festivities are on - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

A Warning!

Yesterday I took the day off - I've been taking a day a week in December since I have vacation time to use up and although I wasn't feeling well, I had plans to head to Colorado Springs to spend my Christmas bonus from my boss and I just didn't want to give that up - I made a quick trip down in the morning and was back home by 1:30!! Only today I'm paying for it because I'm home sick - yes, I have that darn cough and sore throat back so I'm spending the day on the couch in hopes I'll be a little better tomorrow for our New Year's Eve activities!!

Anyway, I had a great time shopping and found exactly what I was looking for - a new coat, a pair of black shoes and a pair of tennis shoes, a case for my new movie camera, a pair of jeans, and a new white robe!

I was at Walmart when I saw the fluffiest, cutest robes hanging on a rack - they were SO SOFT!! But I couldn't tell if they were below the knee or floor length so just decided to try a black one on - BIG MISTAKE!!! I was wearing a light blue/purple sweater (one of those soft, clingy ones) and a pair of light tan brushed denim jeans - I tried on the robe and decided it was NOT long enough so took it off and then looked down at myself - I was COMPLETELY COVERED with black fuzz - everywhere the robe had been in contact with my clothing was black!!! Oh my gosh, I looked hideous - what to do - I started picking off the bigger chunks but soon realized that would take hours so I wheeled myself over to housewares and found a lint brush - I took off the outer covering and started de-linting myself - and it took 3 times of tearing off the lint roll before my clothes looked better!! Trust me, I did NOT buy that robe!!

So a word to the wise - it you see a nice fluffly robe, DO NOT TRY IT ON!!! Buy it and then take it home and try it on!!

READ THE LABEL FIRST!

I have a set of snowman dishes that I use during the Christmas season - and also have matching place mats for them! But what I don't have is glasses to go with them!

So during our after Christmas shopping spree, Jessi and I were at Walmart and I saw the cutest plastic glasses that had red and green dots all over them - I bought 4 of them and brought them home and they look just darling with the snowman pattern!!

Of course I have a place setting for 8 so decided I better get 4 more and sure enough, my Walmart had them too!

We used them Sunday night although only one glass got put in the dishwasher - imagine my surprise when I unloaded on Monday morning and saw that I now had a glass with pink and blue dots!! I dug threw the trash to find the sticky tab that I had scraped off all 8 of them and sure enough - NOT dishwasher safe!! DARN!!

I don't mind washing them my hand - it's the REMEMBERING NOT to put them in the dishwasher!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE.............

that the frog is not sitting at our house for the next year but is at the Savage's house!! Glenn and I have YET to have that cute little thing at our house!!

So this is what happened: we're going through the annual predictions and actually Glenn and I aren't doing too bad - we're at the end and counting them up - and believe it or not, Jill and Robby tied with us!!!! WHICH MEANS: going to the tie breaker!!! The tie breaker is ALWAYS the price of diesel gas at the Western Store outside of Woodland Park - but I was appalled at what we had written down last year - $2.46!!!! Gosh, diesel must have been CHEAP last year and that's where we got that number!!

But Robby and Jill guessed $2.99 and the actual price was $3.10!!! I was so upset - I jumped up and down but it didn't do any good - so the cute little frog went to the Savage's, ONCE AGAIN!!!

Do you think it will EVER take up residence at our house????

By the way, I don't know how the Christmas Eve Cont'd post wound up on top of my Christmas Post but it's mixed up so you'll have to scroll down to check out Christmas Day!!!

Christmas Eve - cont'd

I not only enjoy taking pictures but also taking movies on our movie camera!! The best part of using the movie camera is to watch the tapes, years later............

So if you ever see me lugging around a huge camera case, you'll know I've got my movie camera with me!! Yes, I've had this camera since 1996 and it's one of the LARGE ones - it takes a cassette type film and after you've finished one, you just throw it in the box with the rest of them until it's time for Robby to edit them into a DVD!! Robby was VERY good about making me DVD's and I would choose the music to go with each scene - not an easy process for either Robby or me!! And he finally got to the point where he said - NO MORE!!! I didn't blame him a bit!! My box has several tapes in it now and it's time to get them in order and take them to Walmart so they can put them on DVD's - only it just won't be quite the same without my "chosen" music on them!!

Glenn had put a gift for me under the tree a while back and decided that I should open it on Christmas Eve - and I did - and I was SO EXCITED to find a NEW MOVIE CAMERA!!! One of those cute little digital ones with NO MORE TAPES to use and no more large batteries to charge!! WOW - it's so nice!!! And he caught me completely by surprise as I had no idea he was getting it for me!!


So there just aren't quite as many Christmas pictures this year because I was busy using my new movie camera!! Robby showed me the on/off button and the record button and that's all I needed to know for the holidays!!! Now it's time to get serious about this camera and read the instruction booklet!! Thank you Glenn - I LOVE my new movie camera!!

Christmas Day - 2010

This was MY Christmas picture of the kids before we started opening!! Evan and Mackenzie decided to start dancing, Aleah kept running out of the picture and Kylan is totally bored!! What a crew!!

We did get some family pics though although we forgot to take one of Glenn and I - no matter - we look the same anyway!!



First on the agenda is usually the kids socks but because everyone seemed to be starving, we decided to do breakfast right away - at least the first 1/2 of breakfast - Jessi's homemade cinnamon rolls were SO TASTY, and along with the all the fruit and dip, we had a feast!!

The kids enjoyed their socks from Santa and then it was on to the opening of the gifts!! Because the 2 boys wanted to just open as fast as they could, Jessi decided we would do a special chair - we decorated the chair and sat it in front of the Christmas tree and the only person that could open HAD to be in the chair - and it really worked out well!!

Papa made worm farms for each of the boys - he has a huge container of worms down in our storage room and every time the boys come, they're very excited to see the worms!! Let's hope the worms stay in the containers and aren't found crawling around the house!!


Soon it was time to eat the egg bake and cinnamon toast - we were all really full after that - and the gift opening continued!! I was excited to get Cabella's long underwear to wear when we go ATV'ing and can't wait to use my new crepe maker that Jessi got me as she had my name!! Also on the list was a new watch and a beautiful scarf!

Glenn received some new coveralls for work (I know, really exciting!!), an ATV book on an area that we want to explore, and a new heat gun for work!! Robby had his name and gave him a new pair of Cabella's socks (they last FOREVER - he's worn this one pair for probably 8 years!!) and a long hitch type thing that will make it easier to hook up the boat when the camper is on the pickup!

After a fantastic prime rib dinner, the kiddos (except for Rayna) all took naps and the adults did their predictions (more on that in another blog) and their socks!! Then it was on to Christmas Trivia - wow - what competition between the 3 couples and Glenn and Rayna who made up a team!! Jessi and Gary won so got the first pick of the prizes and Glenn and Rayna were next! I was hoping Rayna could get the cute holiday cocoa mugs as she LOVES cocoa and sure enough she did!!

Kylan is NOT happy in this picture with his cute reindeer antlers and Mackenzie seems to be saying - "Oh my, Oh my"!!

Aleah was all smiles in this photo!

All in all, one fantastic Christmas - I think the key is to be ORGANIZED and Jessi and I spent a lot of time and emails thinking the weekend through so everything would go off without any hitches!! AND IT DID!!!

Christmas Eve 2010!

I guess the Front Range of Colorado was NOT meant to have a white Christmas this year - it was all to the west and the east, every place but US it seems!! With temps in the 60's, it felt more like springtime!! Maybe next year for the white stuff...............

It was an early start for us on Christmas Eve as we not only had to load the car (which was so jam-packed that there wasn't even room for a computer modem that we were supposed to take to Robby!) but we had 4 stops to make before we ever got to Jessi's!! First, to the store as I was short 2 cans of ginger ale for the punch, next stop was coffee for the trip, (yes, another snowy white kiss for me), then to a client's house to deliver a granite vanity top and finally up to Brighton to seal ALL the granite in this 6000 sq ft house - wow, it was AMAZING!!!

But we finally made it to Jessi's place just in time to get all unpacked and head to the afternoon Christmas Eve Service!!

Once again, there was a nativity scene and the kids were amazed at the animals - they WERE cute!!

After church we all headed to Jaime's house for our soup supper - this year we made chicken and wild rice soup and meatball tortellini soup, along with sweet Hawaiian rolls! YUMMY!!

After dinner, we had our tradition of reading the Christmas story out of the Bible and Jessi read "The Night Before Christmas"! We also started a NEW tradition - I have been practicing for a month on the guitar (since I haven't picked it up in years!) and we all sang Christmas carols - definitely a tradition we will continue as the kids loved singing the songs, even though they didn't know a lot of the words!! Since I was playing, I don't have any pictures of that portion of the evening but it was cute having the kids around me!

Then everyone opened their gifts from their other sides of the family - it went WAY too fast and we decided that Christmas morning could be a little tough on the 3 year old boys who LOVED opening as fast as they could!!

What a special Christmas Eve it was - all being together - everyone in good health - and lots of good food and laughter!!

A WHITE SNOWY KISS!

Since we're closed tomorrow for Christmas Eve, I decided to stop and get some coffee this morning - only my regular place doesn't open till 9:00 on Thurdays so I was reduced to going to a place I used to go here in Woodland Park!

When I pulled up to the parking space, there was a sign outside describing their "drink of the day". And that's when I decided to go OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE and order something different than my usual "medium mocha, shot of caramel, skim milk, whip cream"!! Aren't you proud of me Jessi????

I ordered a "White Snowy Kiss" which consisted of white chocolate, white ghiradella, french vanilla flavoring and whip cream!! And guess what?? It is ABSOLUTELY delicious!!

Move over Caramel Mocha, you now have some competition!!!

This COULD Have Been Me!!

I made a Walmart run on Tuesday lunch hour - yes, the store was packed and the parking lot was full!! As I was taking my cart to the car after checking out, I saw one of our insureds walking around with HIS cart, looking a little perplexed. I figured he was trying to find his car.

I unloaded my stash into the car, took my cart over to the cart area and on the way back to my car, I see our client STILL walking around, looking for his car! And I sympathized with him. The poor guy could not remember where he had parked!!

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN ME!!! Because I never remember where I park either, I have to park in the SAME row every time I go to Walmart (or the mall, etc.). That way I always know where my car is - ask the girls where I ALWAYS parked at the Citadel Mall - it was ALWAYS outside of JC Penneys Catalog Department!!

I look at it this way - I'm saving hundreds of brain cells, not having to REMEMBER where my car is!!

Gary's Birthday Weekend!

Please don't tell me it's Thursday already and I haven't even blogged about the weekend????

OK, it IS Thursday and I'm behind.................

We were excited to have GARY, Jessi and kids come down for TWO nights - Gary rarely gets to come because of his work schedule but with his 3 days off for his birthday, they headed on down Sunday morning!!

Jessi and I decided to just RELAX most of the day - I don't even remember what we did to be honest - all I know is it was nice to just sit around and play with the kids!! Kenzie decided to just crawl in the toy box to admire and play with the beads!! Between her and Aleah, these beads get a LOT of use and I'm thinking - hmmmmmmm, I spent HOW MUCH on these two little girls when they probably would have been excited to each get about 6 strands of Mardi Gras beads???

Because I had to work on Monday, Jessi spent the day with the kids and they had a REAL tea party that I had to miss!! But Jessi took some cute pictures so I had to "pretend" I was there!!

The guys went ice fishing for the WHOLE day - they're really both die-hards when it comes to fishing!! Glenn got to try out his NEW ice hut and it worked great - although it really didn't bring them good luck in the fishing department!! They stayed until Glenn had caught a couple of fish and by then it was dark and time to head home - but they had fun and that's all that counts!!

I enjoy reading to the kids so we crawled up on the guest bed and read a while!!

We did have cake and ice cream for Gary's birthday but the picture I took really didn't come out at all - but we had fun singing him Happy Birthday and enjoying his cake!!

Since Mackenzie had received some bath toys from friends, we decided to give the kids a bath so they could try them out!! Mackenzie LOVED her mermaid Barbie and both kids enjoyed the "colored" water from the fizz tablets!!

It was a great weekend as usual and since we get to see them Friday, the withdrawal symptoms weren't bad at all!!!

An Early Gift!!

My hubby works so hard and rarely buys anything for himself and I always make it a point to spend a little extra on Christmas, his birthday, and Father's Day! So his gifts are all wrapped, under the tree, just waiting for Christmas Day.

So over the weekend, him and Robby go to our other property so he can bring back his "ice hut" that he built himself - him and Gary are going ice fishing on Monday!! As soon as I saw that poor, pathetic hut that needed SO much work before he could even take it on Monday, I made the decision to buy him one!! I knew Robby had one of those "pop-up" ones so I emailed him and asked him to find a couple of them that he thought Glenn might like!

I ordered a fishing hut on Monday morning, 7:30am from Sportsman Warehouse out of Utah and it was delivered on Wed. morning, 10:00am from Fed Ex!!! Now that's SERVICE!!

Last night I decided I would give it to him - I put him in the office and shut the door and carried the LONG box to our kitchen island - then proceeded to open the door and sing the "Merry Christmas" song to him with these words: Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, Have a Happy Father's Day!!!

He was not only shocked to see it lying there but also very excited!! And of course we decided to practice setting it up - not realizing how much space it would take!!! WHOA - that thing was big!!! I moved the recliner out of the way to give Glenn room to pop it up and it did go up very easily, once we figured where to pull!!

I decided to run up to the loft and take a pic since it was too large to get an idea of how big it really was!! I had ordered a 4 man hut since they were out of 3 man huts and Glenn was glad I had ordered the larger one!!

One of the BEST parts about it: it goes down very easily and all fits very nicely in a long backpack like duffel bag!! I had my doubts that it would fit back in the case but it DID!!!

SO he's ready for ice fishing with Gary on Monday!!! Let's hope they catch some!!

Where or Where is that Forecasted Snow????

How can ALL the weathermen on the evening news be SO FAR OFF in predicting snow?? We were supposed to wake up to at least 5 inches of snow this morning - want to know how much there is??? ZERO - NADA - NOT A FLAKE TO BE SEEN!!

Now I'm not complaining that the snow didn't arrive - I just can't understand why we're placed in a huge snow warning with expected snowfall up to a foot and when I woke up this morning, there was nothing - in fact, the sun is shining as I'm writing this!

I guess the only good thing to come out of this is that Glenn got the tires aired up on the jeep (it's our plow truck) and a battery put in it and had it parked in the garage so it would be all ready for plowing this morning........... my car had to sit outside!

Come on weather people - with all the technology out there, surely you could be a LITTLE closer on your weather report!!

Aleah's Weekend!

My oh my the weekends are flying by and Christmas will be here before we know it!!

Friday night my boss and his wife took us out to dinner at Outback - think bloomin' onion, a filet, garlic mashed potatos, fantastic bread and a chocolate brownie dessert to die for!! YUM YUM!

Robby, Jill and Aleah arrived about 10:30 - past my bedtime - so I had Jill call me from Divide so I could wake up before they started pounding on the door - he he!!

One of the reasons they came down was because Robby was bringing down our new desktop computer and printer!! He is ONE AMAZING tech guy!! Hour after hour he installed everything we needed from the old computer and got us all set up!! I can now also print from my laptop! Gosh, it looks SO MUCH BETTER than the huge old one we had sitting there (which has taken up new residence at Glenn's work!) THANK YOU THANK YOU ROBBY!!!

Jill, Aleah and I just hung out all day Saturday! I had so much fun spending some quality time with Aleah - she loved the beads we had in the toy box and we spent a lot of time just handing her the beads so she could put them on, one at a time!!

Aleah was very well behaved around the Christmas tree too - I was pretty impressed than a 1 and 1/2 year old would leave it alone!! Because our main level is the coldest level in the winter, I suggested we put the pack 'n play in the lower level in Glenn's office and Jill brought her monitors so she could hear her if she woke up in the middle of the night! It worked out great and I need to remember to tell Jessi this for the next time they come down!! Aleah slept like a trooper both nights!!

Although it was windy on Sunday morning, the sun was out in full force and we spent some time on the deck! Aleah had fun pushing the little cart around and swinging!!

They headed back to Ft. Collins after lunch and I headed into town for a baby shower - just one more weekend before Christmas Weekend!!!

Another BLISSFUL Day Off!

SO what did I do on my 2nd week day off? I had an absolutely WONDERFUL massage with a new gal that I really liked!! She uses a lot of the same techniques that my other one used BUT uses HOT, MOIST TOWELS over parts of your body that felt SO GOOD!! I've already booked my next one!!

And the rest of the afternoon? I spent it on the couch, reading a book!! I started downstairs in the family room because the wood stove was going and it was toasty warm - but after a massage, I have a hard time STAYING warm!! So I brought my electric blanket downstairs (it's not one we use on the bed, just a small twin size one that I use when I'm cold!) and set it to high!!

After a while, I decided to move upstairs so I could enjoy the decorations as I read - I fixed myself a "special" coffee and not only finished my book, but started another one! It was ONE WONDERFUL DAY!!

My sister Teri had suggested quite a while ago to read a series of books about "knitting". At the time, it didn't sound too interesting to me but when I was at my used book store, I unknowingly bought the first book in the series - and of course couldn't put it down!! The book I finished on Wednesday was the #2 book in the series and now I'll have to get the next one to read!! Thanks Teri for a GREAT suggestion! Easy reading and a REALLY enjoyable series!!

What will next week bring????

One FUN December Weekend!!

Who would have thought 2 little chairs would be SO enjoyed by Evan and Mackenzie!! I always keep all of the toys in the one closet and when we went to get out books to read before bedtime, they both saw the chairs and INSISTED we carry them down to the lower level so they could read their books on them! Yes, I hauled them up and down the stairs several times last weekend!

Both kids were really good about not playing with the ornaments on the tree or bothering the nativity scene on the hutch!

The bus is always a fun thing to play in - Kenzie couldn't quite get the hang of where to crawl in and out but she managed............

Jaime had brought down a couple of educational crafts a couple of weekends ago and both Evan and Mackenzie enjoyed playing with them.

What a fun weekend with Jessi and the kids - it's always nice to have any of them down during December to see our decorated house as Christmas is always up in Denver!!

Holiday Events!!

I love, love, love the holiday season!! And I was excited when Jessi and the kids decided to come down so they could participate in a couple of the events held in town!!

But FIRST, the cracker mix had to be made!! I knew Evan would get a kick out of dumping around 15 boxes or sacks of crackers and nuts, etc. so Jessi opened them, I held the garbage sacks open and Evan dumped! Then I poured the "mix" on top, shook it up and turned the bag every couple of hours for the next 2 days - tonight it will be ready to put into containers for gifts!!

Next on the list was the Holiday Home Tour which consists of going to 6 different homes in the Woodland Park area and touring them - of course they were ALL decorated for Christmas!! Glenn was sweet to babysit the kids (although they slept the ENTIRE time we were gone except for the last 15 minutes so his job wasn't TOO tough!!) while Jessi and I headed in to explore the homes - WOW - we fell in love with the first home and couldn't get over some of the amazing things that were done to that house!! It was our favorite for the afternoon!!

After a trip back home and a quick dinner, it was time to head back in for the Christmas Parade! We hadn't been to one in years so were excited! Was it cold??? ABSOLUTELY!! But we were bundled up good!!

We did arrive about 1/2 hour early to get a good spot and luckily there was a bench right behind where Jessi and I staked out our claim so Glenn had a seat and kept the kids warm for a while!

Main street ( a major highway) was blocked off for the occasion and rerouted around the town and it was neat being on Main Street with the beautifully decorated stores and lights!! The parade lasted almost an hour!! And yes, we were getting pretty cold by that time but about 1/2 through, the Lions Club brought around FREE hot chocolate and I can't tell you how great that tasted going down!!

Sunday morning Jessi and I did MY Christmas baking which really isn't baking at all but candy making - chocolate covered peanut butter balls and caramel pecan bars - they BOTH turned out excellent and we'll be enjoying them until Christmas!!

Jessi and I decided that the weekend needs to be an annual event since the home tour and the parade were SO much fun!! Maybe next year I can get the other 2 girls to come down too - although I'm not sure Glenn could handle 6 kids!! Thanks Jessi for a great weekend!!

WHAT???? A Day Off????

Glenn and I did NOT take a fall vacation this year - and since we're nearing the end of the year, I happened to look at my little vacation chart to see how many days I've used this year and lo and behold, I still had 7 vacation days!!! SEVEN DAYS!!!! WOW - I was one excited girl!!

But alas, we're not going anywhere...........So I just decided to take a day a week until Christmas and then I'll probably just carry over the extra days!

What am I doing on these days off? I'm doing "ME" things!!

Yesterday was the first one - and I decided that in order to really enjoy the rest of my days off, I needed to get completely caught up on the shopping and the list of errands I had to do! But I STILL had a great day - I got up as usual but instead of heading to work, I backtracked to Florissant to get some yummy coffee at Costello's - then it was off to W. Pk to get Christmas letters ran off, Christmas pics picked up, a Walmart run and newspapers to the recycle center.

And then it was to Colorado Springs to finish up the Christmas shopping - ALL of this was done by 12:00 and by then, I was sitting in the movie theater watching "The Next Three Days" with Russell Crowe - a great movie which I WILL watch again when it comes out on DVD!

What am I doing with my other days off? HMMMM - I know one day will be scrapbooking, one day will be a FULL day of reading (hopefully an entire book) and the others are yet to be decided!! Got any ideas for me????