Christmas Eve

 My friend Carrie came in on Amtrak Christmas week - she was here to see a couple of friends and spend Christmas with her son Boone and his girlfriend in Castle Rock.  After spending a couple of days with another friend, I picked her up in Co Springs on Thursday.  We headed to a wonderful lunch at Carraba's and it was during that time that she got the phone call from Boone - both him and his girlfriend had COVID!  

He hadn't felt well the day before and neither had she - yes, they were both vaccinated and both had gotten the booster also - but they still got it!  We talked over lunch about what to do as her return ticket home wasn't until Sunday night and of course her other friend and I both had plans for Christmas!

We headed to the Broadmoor after lunch to walk around inside and see the huge gingerbread house and all the beautiful decorations - but as we drove up to the parking garage, the gal in the booth stopped us and said everything was closed to the public, only hotel guests were allowed in the area. Darn - we were looking forward to that!

 We decided to walk around Old Colorado City or Manitou but both places were crazy busy with people walking around and traffic was awful, so we just got the heck out of there and drove back up the mountain!  We stopped at one of the new coffee places and enjoyed visiting there with coffees in hand!

After arriving at our house, Carrie decided to call and see if she could get her ticket changed - after 1 1/2 hours on hold, she got on the computer and managed to switch the ticket to Friday night for only a $20 fee!  Hooray - she of course was so sad not to be spending time with her son but at least she could get home early!

We headed up to Jessi's on Christmas Eve morning and stopped at her son's place which was basically on the way - she put their presents on the doorstep and they both came out and visited for a minute with her! 

Gary and Evan had both bought these motorcycles (?) - strangest contraptions I'd seen in a while!  But they run well and Evan and Kenzie had a ball driving them around!  

After lunch we headed to an afternoon Christmas service!

I always enjoy the candlelight service singing Silent Night!  A very nice service!

The mandatory pics taken in front of the tree!

And below is the picture that was taken at the church which Jessi received a couple days after Christmas - it sure turned out nice!

Glenn and I took Carrie to Union Station after church so she could be there for the train - believe it or not, it was pouring rain!!  We wanted to get back before dark but that didn't quite happen!  Downtown was kind of busy around the train station but we got Carrie dropped off and headed back home!  At least I got to see some beautiful Christmas lights on the way back home!

Jessi and Gary had a yummy meal ready for us when we walked in!

The kids opened one present that night and we relaxed and hit the sack early!