Holiday Fun

 December is more than 1/2 over - snow is a memory - colder temps are finally arriving - and the holiday season is in full swing!!

I had planned on downloading pictures and doing the Christmas blogs yesterday - yea, that didn't happen!  We had high winds come in - horribly high winds!!  I did rescue the grill cover (after Glenn had secured it part way under the grill) before it went flying away as the wind moved the grill across the deck, along with 3 of the chairs!  The electricity went off about 12:30 - no big deal (or so I thought) as we have the wood stove in the lower level!

But I had just put wood in the stove and with no fan to blow that hot air out, the stove gives off this "hot" smell that plays havoc with my nose and makes me cough!  Glenn was just getting back from CS after picking up the truck from the mechanics' place and there was high winds down there too!

It's funny when you don't have electricity, and you realize there really isn't a lot you can do!  Hence, no downloading pics or blogging!  So I settled into the recliner (and of course tried to use the electric button to recline - ha!) and read the afternoon away!  And then it got dark - we realized we didn't have any "D" batteries for the lantern!  I found many small candles (they sure don't give off much light) and some little battery operated candles and we made do!  I had laid out frozen stew for dinner so that was easy enough to heat on the gas stove!

We could text, but phone calls dropped after a minute or so!  I read more (and luckily my kindle was charged as I just couldn't see enough to read a regular book) and about 8:30, the electricity came back on!  HOORAY!!  Back to civilization!

So today is back to the computer to finally blog!

The first weekend of December was busy with the holiday quilting party and the Holiday Home Tour!  Friday I went to the party which is held at the Lutheran Church - a friend from 4-H days had invited me along with 2 other gals from 4-H so it was great to catch up with them!  There are things to buy and a quilt to buy raffle tickets on and a fabulous potluck meal!

Cindy had decorated the table we all sat at and it was cute as can be!

Here's the quilt we all bought tickets for - it sure would have been fun to win it!

It was a fun time and I enjoyed seeing friends!

Joleen got in that afternoon so she was along with Jane and I for the Home Holiday Tour the next morning! We met in Divide as the first house was out in the country behind gates so they had a shuttle to take you to the house - WOW - what a house!!  7200 sq ft!  It was absolutely beautiful and decorated so pretty!!  We enjoyed seeing 4 more houses in Woodland Park that were very well done too!

Mucky Duck in Green Mtn Falls was our choice for lunch and we enjoyed their famous tomato basil soup which I have always loved!

What a great couple of days with friends!