Twas The Night Before Christmas

Parker was all smiles as we started our Christmas celebration!! Unfortunately, Robby was still sick and couldn't join us till the next day!  Poor Aleah was under the weather too and you could tell she didn't feel good all weekend!

 

After our traditional soup supper, I got out my guitar, handed out the "jingle bells" and we proceeded to sing for a while!  The kids always love jingling those bells!

We had Rayna read The Night Before Christmas!  And because Evan and Kylan are now reading too, they helped out.   Somehow Kylan didn't make it in this picture but he was there!

After that we donned our coats and crawled into 2 cars to travel around the neighborhood looking at lights - we didn't go very far but I couldn't believe how many beautiful lights there were!

Jill brought dessert to eat which was delicious and then we headed back home to get some shut eye before present opening the next morning!

OUR Christmas Eve Day

Deck the halls with boughs of holly - Fa la la la la, la la la la!!  It was time to celebrate our Christmas with the kids and grand kids!!

 

We headed to Denver Thursday  night after work - yes, we took Friday off!!  Always fun to take a day off of work!  Traffic was bad as there was an accident but we finally arrived and got the car unpacked which was a LOT of trips into Jessi's house!

 

Since Jessi had to work on Friday, I got to have coffee with Jaime which is kind of rare!  She's not too much of a morning person so I was excited when she said she wanted to go to coffee!!  Kenzie joined us and enjoyed her smoothie!

 

 Turtle mocha for me - chai tea for Jaime!!  We had a fun time visiting!

 Early afternoon, Jaime and I took the kids to play Monster Glow Golf!  What a cute bunch!

 Rayna and Kenzie played with me and the two boys played with Jaime - they had all kinds of cute monsters around that did silly things and it was a great course to play!  I got 2 holes in one!  Lucky me!!

The weather was beautiful out and it sure didn't feel like we should be celebrating Christmas!  But the celebration started late that afternoon!

There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays!!

I'm not fond of having Christmas right in the middle of the week - especially when you own a business and have to work the day before and the day after................

 Was it busy on Christmas Eve day? Not at all!  We shut down at noon so the guys could get home to their families and Glenn and I headed to Co. Springs for a couple of stops and a movie.  I was disappointed that there was really nothing I wanted to see - we had already seen Catching Fire and Frozen.  So I let Glenn choose the movie!

He didn't want to see anything very "deep" so he chose Anchorman II - oh my - it has to be in my Top Ten List of awful movies!!  Yes, there were a few laughs - yes, the music from the 70's was GREAT - but the movie itself gets a THUMBS DOWN!! 

After the movie we headed back up to Woodland Park for the 5:00 church service which was very nice and then on to Fiesta Mexicana for dinner.  I was surprised at how many people were eating out that night!!  Chicken nachos with all the trimmings and sopapillas dripping with honey and chocolate sauce were our choices that night!!

Christmas Day dawned bright and cold!!  It's always a little tough not being with the kids on Christmas Day but I knew their time was coming this weekend!!  I baked a cherry butter braid for breakfast and mid-morning made special coffee!!  I had to accomplish 3 major tasks on Christmas Day - packing up all the gifts, packing the clothes for 3 days, and getting all the food lined up to go!!

SO I alternated between all the packing and watching movies!!  While I watched All I Want For Christmas and The Santa Clause, Glenn made phone calls to his sons and mom and who knows who else?

Late afternoon we watched a couple movies that I had on hand - Nick of Time and DJango and both of those were good!!  Shrimp was on the menu for dinner that night along with pumpkin bread and a salad so it all tasted yummy in front of the TV!

We will head to Denver tonight after work - it sure doesn't seem to be busy here and since I'm already done with what needs done, I just may have to do some scrapbooking!!!

Friends & Decorations!

Another Living Social to use!!  I had bought 2 for Joseph's Fine Dining in Colorado Springs and friends John and Patty joined us on Friday evening!! 

 

Neither of us had been to this restaurant so we were anxious to try it - I knew it was out of our price range but with the coupon, it was affordable!!  The place was very nice inside and had a cozy fire going in the corner!!

 

We each choose an appetizer, entree and dessert from their pre-selected menu for the coupon and the table was decorated with those sparkly cut outs in holiday colors - what fun!!

 

I chose clam chowder which was delicious and Glenn had the vegetable soup which was also good but Patty chose the salad below - now how clever is that to use the cucumber slice to "wrap" the salad?

 John had the cream cheese/jalapeno stuffed mushrooms and they looked delicious!!

I had the chicken for my entree and it was very good with the sauce they put on it - I loved the cracker and the fresh asparagus and underneath it all were the mashed potatoes - a fantastic meal!!

 For dessert I chose New York cheesecake with caramel and raspberry sauce and we all had coffee to go with it - why is it coffee tastes SO good in a pricey restaurant??  Maybe because you pay so much for it that you HAVE to enjoy it???  Who knows?

Afterwards we headed out to drive around the Broadmoor to see the Christmas decorations - they were beautiful as usual and I snapped this one as we were driving by - I LOVE that tree!!

It was a great night with friends!!

Saturday night we had another set of friends over for dinner so a good excuse to clean the house and make a nice meal!!  We ended up playing pool in the basement - yes, I need to practice as I'm pretty bad but we had a great time!!!

Holiday Happenings

Weekend 2 of our holiday happenings was with the Smiths!  We met them at Texas Roadhouse late afternoon on Saturday and had a great meal with lots of country music in the background - my kind of place!!

 

Then we were off to the zoo!!  It was cold of course but not as bad as the year before!!  We all put our long underwear on and braved the cold!!

 

The place was packed!! 

The lights were beautiful as usual and we enjoyed looking out over the city at the new elephant pavilion!!

I kept snapping pictures and snapping pictures and my flash just wouldn't flash - I figured there were just too many lights around until I finally found the setting for the flash and realized  my flash was turned OFF!  Geesh - I need to take Camera Settings 101 I guess!!! 

We rode the sky ride and boy was it cold going up there!!  But it's always pretty looking out over Colorado Springs!!  They had the cutest train all lit up and yes, Kylan is standing in the picture!!

Ah, what a cute couple!!

This is on the sky ride going down - AFTER I had finally figured out my flash!!

All in all, one great time at the zoo!!

We stopped at Starbucks after the zoo for some decaff coffee and hot chocolate - Jaime was freezing and just couldn't seem to get warmed up so we got home and put the electric blanket on her and soon she was toasty warm!!

 

The guys got up early to fish - we slept in of course or should I say the rest slept in - I opted to get up about 6:15 and do a few things before relaxing on the couch in front of the fireplace reading - ah, peaceful bliss!!

 

The morning flew by and soon it was time to head to Cripple Creek to see the production "The Christmas Blaze".  We took Kylan this time and he really enjoyed it!!  It was one of the best productions I've seen there and of course the "Olio" at the end was hilarious!!  I would go again if I could!!!

We bid the Smiths' goodbye and then headed to the "Unchoir" party over at Arlyne's house - there was a nice crowd this year and we all enjoyed visiting and eating a lot of great food!!!

One more weekend before Christmas - maybe some down time will be in order!!!

A Sweet Barter

We have a new candy making place here in town and the owner needed his slabs of marble glued together that he uses to roll out candy making material.  So Glenn went up a couple of months ago and got it all taken care of - in the meantime the owner had brought down his samples of peanut brittle (I blogged on this before) and asked if I would consider a trade for Glenn's labor!!

 

I stopped at their place last month and decided that yes, this would be a perfect gift for our 5 guys - so yesterday I stopped in and boy, I've NEVER had the chance to spend $200.00 in a candy store!!  I picked out the allotted items for one basket and then just duplicated 4 more!!  In the box at the bottom of the basket is an assortment of chocolate bear claws, truffles and chocolate covered cherries!

Now that I've put together the boxes (that will be handed out today to our guys) I'm wondering WHY I didn't get an extra set for ME!!!

December Festivities

It's the start of all the gift opening in December!!  And all the fun activities!!

Jessi, Gary, Kenzie and Evan arrived Friday evening and later on, Jill, Aleah and Parker arrived for the weekend!  The house was full with kids sleeping all over the place!!

It was SO cold all weekend - we kept the wood stove stocked and the furnace running full force as it was below zero each night - luckily the sun did shine some during the day!

I tried a new breakfast crockpot recipe that cooked overnight in the hopes it would taste great and I could use it for our Christmas breakfast - it didn't cook quite as fast as I thought it would (I kept it very low) but I turned it up as soon as I got up and by the time we were ready to eat, it was done!!  It tasted great so I will be using it for Christmas and it's so nice to make the night before and just plug it in!!

Jessi, Jill and I headed out for the Home Holiday Tour mid-morning and stopped for coffee before meeting another friend - we love looking at all the decorated houses and dreaming of having that "perfect" home!!

It wasn't too bad weather wise getting in and out of the car so we managed just fine!!  We ate lunch at Carmen's Tapas place and yes, we ordered tapas and shared - they were delicious!!

We also stopped at our office so I could show the girls our 5th wheel - gosh, it was cold in there which made it hard to imagine camping in the dead of winter!!

After a couple more stops, we headed home and Glenn and Gary were officially let go of their child care duties!!  Here's Jill reading her "Elf on The Shelf" book - yes, Dash ( her elf) made himself quite at home in our house and even managed to spill the sugar on Sunday morning - naughty Dash!!

We were all supposed to head to the annual Christmas Parade late afternoon but the temps were so cold that only the Keppy's decided to brave it - they said it wasn't too bad at all and had a fun time - even brought home lots of candy for us!!

The rest of us watched a movie and Papa made popcorn for all of us!

Gary and Glenn got up VERY early to go ice fishing - brrrrr - didn't even sound fun to me!!  I was HOPING to sleep in a little bit but the two little giggly girls woke up at 5:45am and since our bedroom is right above where they were sleeping, I could hear every word!!  Oh well, if they weren't so darn cute, I might be mad!1

Evan always helps me make my cracker mix - he loves dumping all the crackers in the garbage bags!

And of course it wouldn't be Christmas without turning on Santa and hearing Jingle Bell Rock!! 

Jill and her kids left mid-morning as she had another party to attend on Sunday - Jessi and I had coffee and apple cider and just relaxed the day away - Kenzie took a really long nap (from getting up so early) and the guys enjoyed the Broncos game while Jessi and I caught up on some reading!!

They headed out after an early dinner and once again, the house seemed way too quiet!!

Covering Up With "Family"

I  FINALLY picked out one of our family pictures and ordered the woven blanket that Glenn had given me a coupon for at my 60th birthday party!  It arrived this last week and turned out fantastic!!

 

I was amazed at how well the colors and the features turned out - thanks Glenn - I'll love covering up with it!!

The Second Step to Retirement

 I found the perfect 5th wheel down in Pueblo so we checked it out and bought it the next week!  It was delivered a couple days ago to our shop in Woodland Park and since our driveway is now snow packed, we might just leave it in town during the winter!!

It has everything that was on my "want" list for a 5th wheel!  It's the perfect size too as we needed a smaller one so we can pull a boat behind it!   There is a lot of light inside with the huge window at the back and it has super nice window coverings!  Because it was an older couple that owned it, it's had very little use and looks brand new inside!!  (No Bob, you CANNOT take it hunting with Glenn).

I can't wait till spring arrives so we can take it out for the first time!! 

Kenzie's 5th Birthday

Aren't these two about the cutest little girls you've seen?  They play SO WELL together and can't wait to see each other when we all get together for holidays!

 

We celebrated Kenzie's 5th birthday on Friday night - she loved her presents!

Jessi always asks her kids what they want for their birthday dessert and usually it's NOT cake!  This year Kenzie wanted Oreo Fluff!  So that's what she got - and if you didn't like that (but who doesn't?) there was leftover pies!

We actually got to sit down and play a game of Mexican Train - I'm not sure how Jill and I got stuck playing with the guys but it was fun and we all enjoyed it!

Saturday morning while 3 of the guys fished, Jaime, Jessi, the kids and I all headed to the theater to see Frozen - and we all LOVED it and want to see it again!  I highly recommend it!

And here's a pic of the 2 cuties with their Christmas shirts!!

It was a great holiday weekend in Denver!

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving 2013 - we have been SO blessed this year that it was easy to think of what we were thankful for - EVERYTHING!!

 

This year we were all together once again as last year the Savages' weren't with us for our meal - it's always fun hanging out in Jaime's huge kitchen to watch everyone help with dinner!

 

These two little ones were sitting at the table long before our meal was even ready!!  Check out the cute place cards that Evan and Kenzie made!

We even had time to sit and relax in between preparing dishes!

Brad and Jaime cooked 2 turkeys this year -  Brad would cook them in the smoker first and then finish them in the oven!  Yes, it took 3 guys to handle this!

I had to capture a picture of Robby mashing potatoes because I don't think he has ever helped with Thanksgiving dinner before!!  Well maybe...........  Anyway, it's always nice to have the guys help out!!

All day long people were "photo bombing" pictures!!  Looks like Jaime got in on this one!!

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious:  turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, crockpot stuffing, fresh green bean casserole, corn pudding, relish tray, rolls, sweet potatoes, orange juice jello salad, cranberries, pumpkin pie, apple pie and key lime pie!!  Yes, we all got full!

Jaime's cat Cica always has to make an appearance at the table - this year she chose Jessi to stare at!

After lunch and a trip to the park, I set the kids all down to do turkey stickers - they all seem to be concentrating!

Parker loved putting the stickers on!

It was a great day spent with the kids and grand kids!!