Presents and Painting

 I love to watch the kids open gifts!  Glenn and I buy just for the grand kids - and they all draw names!  The adults do a grab bag later on in the day - this year we decided to buy a game for one bag and a restaurant gift certificate for the other!

So it was on to the present opening!!

Aleah and Kenzie love to have matching items so their gifts are ALWAYS alike!

Kylan is our gamer so this sweatshirt was definitely appropiate!

Once again I made Snapfish books for each of the kids - it may not be the most exciting gift each year but I know in years to come they will love looking back at them!

Gwyn was just a delight opening her presents!  She honestly had this reaction on every gift she opened!  I had bought all the kids the same gift which they  opened at the same time - glass mugs with their names on them!

I had bought the girls gnomes when I was in Iowa last fall - they loved them!

Jessi served her yummy cinnamon rolls with coffee right after the opening - we all so enjoy them!

And in the afternoon, painting was on the agenda!  Here are the group of painters - I chose not to paint as it's not relaxing for me and I'm honestly just not good at it!  But I enjoyed watching them and taking pics!

And here are the finished products - aren't they amazing?

Next up - grab bag gifts, predictions and fondue!

Our Family Christmas PIcs

 It wouldn't be Christmas if you didn't take the obligatory group pictures!  And we decided to do them FIRST THING when we got to Jaime's on Sunday morning for our Christmas!

I was amazed our group picture turned out excellent!!  It usually happens that someone has their eyes closed or one of the kids is making a funny face - but I was very happy with the results this year!

Jaime and Brad have such a beautiful house and we were lucky that the sun was behind clouds most of the day so it made for great pictures!

This is the kids from oldest to youngest! (And yes, this one WAS taken later as it's night outside!)

And here is our great family picture!!

Now that the groups are out of the way - we are on to opening presents!!!

Family Christmas 2020

 It might not be Estes Park at the YMCA but Jaime hosted one heck of a great time at their house for our Christmas!!  It was nonstop fun at the Smith household and even though it was a LOT of work, everyone enjoyed the time we all spent together!!

The Savages' stopped at our house about noon on Saturday so we could do some visiting and Robby could help set up a tv that's going to Mexico - then we all headed to Jaime's mid-afternoon and the fun began!

First up - making diamond dot ornaments for the tree!  The kids loved doing this and the ornaments turned out cute as can be!!

When the girls were done with the diamond dots, the boys came up and the girls moved to decorating cookies!  Jessi had made "ugly Christmas sweater" cookies and the kids had fun decorating them!  We made a LOT of frosting!

As you can tell from the pictures, most of the kids were drinking hot chocolate!  Jill had made "cocoa bombs" - the newest craze which is a fair sized chocolate ball with marshmallows or peppermint in the middle!  Matias is dropping his in!

I rarely get pics of the guys but love this one I took of Brad and Robby, deep in discussion!

We served soup for dinner that night - and then it was time to celebrate Kenzie's birthday which was Dec. 2nd AND Gary's which was the day we were together, Dec. 19th!

And finally that evening, we played bingo - just like in Estes Park but the winners got ACTUAL gifts, thanks to Jaime who had a whole tub full of items she had bought and was ready to be rid of!!  The kids had a ball picking out their prizes when they won!

I started out as the caller but Robby took over later as I was starting to get hoarse!!  And wouldn't you know it, I dropped one of the balls and it rolled under Jaime's frig - we tried and tried to get it out but to no avail.....darn!!!

After the kids went back downstairs, a few of us played bingo in the "quiet"!

It was an awesome day!!  We were all tired by the time we headed back to our house - the Keppy's (minus Evan and plus Aleah) stayed with us!  And then it was on to Day 2!

An Awesome Tradition - Our "Unchoir" Party

 It's been HOW many years since we sang in the church choir together?   WAY too many to count!!  And yet the choir director Arlyne and soprano Beth  - we are still great friends and try to get together once every couple of months to catch up with each other!

Yes, we're all getting older and our numbers for the "unchoir" party are now reduced to 4 of us!  Many have moved away - and yet we remember each and every one!

We decided this year to get together at lunch time so nobody had to drive in the dark - does that tell you anything??????  Beth and I headed over to Arlyne's about 10:30 so we could have coffee together and catch up - Steve arrived later for lunch!

We had a very nice get together and served a light lunch of soup and bread - and then had a wonderful Christmas dessert together!

Arlyne's house is always beautifully decorated and with the fireplace going and snow outside, it was truly a wonderful day!  

Home Holiday Tour

 HOORAY!!  We actually had ONE Christmas tradition that did occur during the holiday season for us to attend!  The Home Holiday Tour is something I have done for years and years - and I have rarely missed one!  This year Joleen was in town during that weekend and Jaime was actually off!!  Friend Jane joined us that morning also!

We started our day with coffee from Cafe Leo - always a fun way to start the day!  Jane could only join us for the first 2 houses as she had other obligations so we headed right outside of town for the first one and then did the 2nd one which was right inside the city limits!

There was actually 2 VRBO rentals on the list this year!  One was in the lower portion of a house and was as cute as ever!  The other one was up on a hill with a beautiful view of Pikes Peak!

We had a great day seeing the decorated homes and then ended with Chinese for lunch!  What a perfect day to bask in the holiday spirit!

November Photo Dump

 Surprise!!  I have absolutely NO photos to post in the November Photo Dump - I guess that means I sure didn't do much in Nov. after vacation since we were quarantined most of the month!!

I am still feeling just great - and tomorrow is my LAST day of quarantine, even though I have been out a couple of times to the post office and grocery store!  Glenn is feeling fine - he's out and about doing some small game hunting and working in the shop (which keeps him out of my hair!!)

In Covid news, our county is now up to 655 cases which seems to increase every day - BUT the good news is we have NOT had a new death in the county since last spring!  So that's good news!

The weather has been COLD the past few days - and we did have about 3" of the driest snow ever!  It was sure easy to sweep it off the deck!  Next week is a complete change - we actually have a couple days scheduled to be in the low 50's!  That's unheard of in December!

My friend Joleen is here from KS for 4 days - dental appt and celebrating Christmas with her son and grandson!  And we're BOTH excited to do the ONLY Christmas event that's happening in the county it seems - the Home Holiday Tour on Saturday.  We'll join friend Jane and Jaime to see 6 homes - they have lots of different measures taken to keep everyone safe and there are allotted times that you had to sign up for!  We'll grab some special coffee to go that morning and then head to the houses!

Is it possible that it's only Dec. 3rd and everything is done for Christmas except doing the cards which haven't arrived yet?  YUP - I sure had plenty of time on my hands in Nov. so it's all pretty much done!

Elk Summer Sausage

 Did I mention in any previous blogs that Glenn got an elk?  If not, he did!  It was an easy hunt over on our friends' property and Glenn did all of the cutting up and wrapping.

But a couple days ago it was time to make summer sausage - Glenn borrowed a really nice meat grinder from our neighbor and we spent a couple of hours grinding and making the sausage!

We did several packages of elk burger also - with the understanding that if we loved the sausage, we would thaw out the packets of burger and make more sausage!!

I was impressed with the tools used to fill the casing - so easy!!  I would push the meat down through the grinder and Glenn would fill the tubes!  I was NOT impressed with clean up though - I never am - it always takes a while with sticky meat tools and pans!

The next day Glenn smoked the rolls in the smoker - he must have done an excellent job of it because the summer sausage is REALLY good!!  I mean SUPER GOOD!!  I was very happy with it!

Glenn ended up cutting the rolls in thirds and vacuum sealing them before freezing - we'll be enjoying them for the next few months!

Thanksgiving 2020

 Was I a little out of sorts on Thanksgiving Day?  Of course - everybody was meeting over at Jaime's place and I couldn't go because I was still under quarantine from Glenn's covid.  He was free to go - but said he wouldn't because of me having to stay home.

I prepped my usual food on Wed. and told Glenn to take it over Thursday morning - he insisted I go with him and just stay in the car but I said no - I KNEW what would happen - he would get to visiting with everybody and would want to stay awhile - and that's exactly what happened!!  I was glad he got to see everyone and get in some "guy" time with the son-in-laws!

And me - I made special coffee and actually sat in my recliner with the Macy's parade on - something I never do as I'm always in the kitchen!  Rayna face-timed me for a couple of hours that morning and would walk around showing me what different people were doing and of course I would talk to several of them too so that did make it feel like I was ALMOST there!

The girls were kind enough to text me lots of Thanksgiving pictures so here they are!!

This is the pilgrim set my mom made for me in ceramics - it rarely ever got used because I always decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving!  This year I decided to give it to Jaime since she always hosts Thanksgiving and it looks so cute on her table!

Our 3 beautiful daughters!

These guys all look pretty happy!

Flannel shirts were the dress of the day!

The grand kids - it's amazing to see how much they've grown!

Rayna and Matias

I love shots like this!!  In the background is Bev (Robby's mom) and her boyfriend who usually join us.

And that's my girl helping mom make the punch that I sent over!

After they all ate and got the kitchen cleaned up, a bunch of them came over to our house with our meal that we would eat that evening.  They stayed on ground level and I stood outside up on the porch so we could all talk - it was sure hard not giving hugs!!

Glenn and I enjoyed our meal that evening - it was excellent and proved that the 3 girls can do it all at Thanksgiving, even without mom around!!  But I DON'T plan on missing another one!

And Covid Strikes

 Yes - read that again - covid has hit home!!

The night before Glenn left to go pheasant hunting up in Burlington, CO, he noticed he was losing his voice a little bit and wondered if a cold was coming on!  But he left early Friday to go hunt and stay in a hotel for a couple of nights!  He called Friday night and said he didn't feel great but knew he was just tired!

On Saturday, he got up early to hunt and mid-morning had to come back to the hotel to take a nap as he didn't have any energy - when he called Sat. night, he didn't sound very good and he said he must have picked up a bug somewhere and caught a cold.

He arrived home Sunday afternoon and immediately went to bed to rest!  Said he had a slight cough, no energy, and his chest felt tight.  Monday he felt about the same but had noticed his sense of smell wasn't very good - oh no - that's when we decided he had better get tested for the virus.  Thanksgiving was coming up AND Neal was headed out with his kids for the weekend to pick up 1/2 of the elk.

I had to bring Jaime's car home Tuesday (hers was in the shop getting repaired - Brad was gone hunting in Iowa with one of his trucks and Jaime was driving the other truck - Sunday morning she got up and she must have left something on because it was dead - called me as she HAD to get to work - all I had was Glenn's truck as he wasn't home yet so I raced over there and then she dropped me back off and headed to work in Glenn's truck - Glenn was to go charge the dead truck but he just didn't feel like it - so Jaime stopped by after work and left Glenn's truck and took my car, a little easier to drive and park) and get groceries so I rode in with Glenn and he was just going to drop me off after getting tested.

We arrived 15 minutes early and were already about 12 cars back - the gal came over and I asked her how long to get a test and she said at least an hour!!  I decided to just walk to the repair shop and get Jaime's car and get my errands done!

Glenn ended up waiting 1 1/2 hours to get the test done - and then Thursday the Dept of Health called and told him he was positive - darn!!  

We tracked it back trying to decide where he might have picked it up and all we could come up with was the end of our Utah vacation - but who knows?  He has felt a little better every day and today he even ventured outside to get some work done so I know he's feeling better!  It actually wasn't any worse than a bad cold for a couple of days and he NEVER had a fever as we checked it often - although who knows if he had a fever in Burlington!

Glenn's quarantine is up the 24th which is tomorrow - so on Wed. he is able to be out and about around other people.  Me - I'm not so lucky - although I have NO symptoms, my quarantine has to go an additional 10 days from the date his is done!!!  So I'm stuck at home until Dec. 4th!!

OF course that means I will miss Thanksgiving.....the kids and grand kid are all congregating at Jaime's place and Glenn and I will be home.   Glenn could actually go over there and see everyone and eat with them but he's not going to - he'll stay at home with me.  The girls will bring us plates of food after they're done eating so we'll still get to have all the Thanksgiving trimmings - and I'll still make what I'm supposed to and Glenn will take it over Thursday morning.

If I had a choice to make, I will take Christmas over Thanksgiving any day - so I'm praying everyone is healthy the 3rd weekend of Dec. so we can all celebrate together.

Meanwhile, my house is decorated, almost all of the presents are bought, and most of my projects are done - I do find things to do most mornings and afternoons are spent relaxing and reading.

I almost wish I would have had a couple of symptoms so I could have gotten tested and done Glenn's quarantine right along with him - but they have told us that if you get tested with no symptoms you could get a false reading.  So who knows if I have it or not?

So unless I blog about my daily housekeeping chores or my relaxing afternoons, there will be NOTHING to blog about till I'm off of quarantine - good thing I started taping Hallmark Christmas movies early.....

Final Vacation Plans

 We woke up on our travel day to this beautiful sunrise!

After another good breakfast at the lodge, we finished packing up and headed out!  The highway we took was right through the entire park again - with signs that there wasn't any fuel available for 60 miles!  And there sure wasn't - it was the most desolate place ever!!

Brown and more brown everywhere you looked - it sure wasn't as pretty as those gorgeous red rocks we had just seen!

We had a great travel day heading east and it was nice to get back to the Colorado mountains!  I had made reservations in Pagosa Springs at a place that had a hot springs swimming pool along with a hot tub also!  They had the cute separate  cabins so we indulged and stayed in those!

As soon as we got there, we changed into our swim suits and soaked in the big pool - gosh that felt good!  There were a couple of families there too with kids so after awhile we walked back to the hot tub (that you could only have 5 people in) and soaked there - visited with a nice couple who live in the area and eventually got out!  They also have a private building for men and for women that has a sauna and a tiny pool - I peeked in just to see what it was like - DARK -  as no windows in the "bathing" area and I'm sure I would have gotten claustrophobic because it was SO HOT in there - I guess I shouldn't have said dark because you could certainly see in there but it wasn't a place I would have enjoyed!

By this time it's getting dark - and Glenn just didn't want to get back in the car and drive to a place to eat so I looked online and found a couple of places that looked good within walking distance.  Well that walking distance turned into quite a walk!!  But we found a great place - very small inside though and we would have had to wait - so we opted to just do take out!  We both had grilled chicken sandwiches with all the trimmings, including avocado, and they were delicious as we enjoyed them back in our cabin!

Yes, the election was on in the back ground! 

 We still had breakfast supplies in the ice chest so we cooked our breakfast early and headed out!  It only took about 4 1/2 hours to get home and as I always say - there's no place like home!

Capital Reef National Park

 We slept so good - no noise whatsoever from outside!  And after a great breakfast at the Pioneer Restaurant which was just a short walk away, we headed to the park - it was only about a 5 minute drive.

This park was totally different than the other 2 - the road through the park is actually a main highway - not a busy one of course since it's desolate out this way and the only place you actually pay is for a scenic drive down one of the canyons.

Lots of red rocks as we started into the park.

Our first stop was Goosenecks Overlook where we climbed through the rocks to a deep canyon - so massive  I didn't even try to take a picture!

The view from the lookout point.

Right in the middle of the park is a section called "Fruita" where there are numerous orchards -hard to believe this oasis is in the middle of all this rock!    It was lovely in this valley and the trees still had gold leaves on!!  I was excited to stop at the Gifford Farmhouse where they have a gift shop AND serve pie and coffee - and then quite disappointed when we got there and it was closed - probably due to the virus.....

We enjoyed seeing the orchards and in one spot you could park and walk along a boardwalk - the rocks were so pretty!

If you look at the bottom of the red slab you'll see petroglyphs - that was cool to see!

We took the 8 mile scenic drive - it was a gravel road and pretty bumpy but beautiful - went to a spot called Grand Wash where you could take a 3 1/2 mile trek UP to see the Cassidy Arch - I did forget to mention that my leg was super sore when I got up so I knew I wouldn't be doing any heavy hiking today which was pretty darn disappointing - but I knew that trek up the mountain to get beside the arch wouldn't have been anything we would have done anyway.  But we climbed up a short trail to see it in a distance and it took me FOREVER to finally catch it with my eye!  Too far away to get a picture though!

We enjoyed the scenery we did see - and had to bypass the Hickman Bridge trail too as it was 2 miles and I knew my leg just couldn't handle it!  What a disappointment!!

All in all, Capital Reef was my least favorite of the 3 parks we saw - don't get me wrong - it was gorgeous and if I could have hiked some, that would have made it a lot better!  But I still prefer the other two!

We were actually done seeing the park by early afternoon - Glenn wanted to do some gem hunting so he took me back to the suite where I relaxed and walked around the place.  Glenn found some "treasures" and had a fun time too.

That night we drove across the highway for pizza - it was good and we enjoyed visiting with the crazy waitress!  Afterwards I had Glenn stop at the restaurant at the resort so I could get another piece of the peach crisp to take back to our place!  And it was JUST as good the second night!

And I can't forget to mention that since Tuesday was election day, we spent our evenings watching the news and the election results!