Grab Bag Gifts and Predictions

 We continued the day with the kids Grab Bag Gifts - they all had fun playing the "dice" game and claiming their gifts - and as expected, most of them ended up with the one they had put in!

Then the adults did their grab bag gifts - we all had fun and most of us enjoyed the gifts we brought home - Glenn and I ended up with a nice lantern that is chargeable AND a solar phone charger - I'm sure we'll put both to good use!

Everyone went their separate ways after lunch - some did ceramics, some went tubing, some went hiking and some played with these guns outside - this is Parker and Kylan!  Glenn took a nap and I had some quiet time in the cabin!

Here's the guys just hanging out later!

And here's the grand kids eating - although this must be from Friday night since Sat. night, Jaime and Jessi served up some taco and enchilada soup with lots of toppings - it was excellent!

I had made my mom's old recipe of peppermint dessert so we enjoyed it Sat. night - the picture is at the end for some unknown reason!

The kids decided they wanted to go back to the gym to play volleyball so Rayna and Matias took all the kids except Gwyn over to play!  The rest of us stayed at the cabin to do our predictions!  Glenn and I did absolutely AWFUL on them - wow - it was pretty pathetic!!  And the winners:  Jill and Robby took home the cash!

We started playing cards (not sure why Gary isn't in this picture) and this mouse kept running around the cabin!!  Every time we saw him it was kind of a shock and everyone would scream!

Brad had asked earlier in the day at housekeeping for someone to come over and bring traps but they never showed up!  The little thing would run around from the kitchen to the dining area into the living room!  Jessi caught him on camera up on the couch!

I was sitting there playing cards when I felt something on my shoulder - I screamed and stood up and Gary yelled MOUSE and I just knew that thing was on me!!!  I'm sure I was a sight yelling get it off me!!  Then I happened to look down at my chair and there's a spider on it that I apparently brushed off - geesh!!  After that, Glenn and I went back to our cabin and got 2 mousetraps (we had seen the traps earlier) and brought them over and set them!  (and yes, a mouse was caught that night!!)

Anyway, a fun evening and the kids had a great time again playing volleyball!!

The next morning it was time to pack up, have one last cinnamon roll with coffee and head back home!  Another fantastic time in Granby with the family!

It's a beautiful drive there  -  and I had Glenn slow down so I could take this picture on the way home!

And here's the peppermint dessert!

Our Christmas Day

 And before we knew it, it was OUR Christmas morning!!  A quick breakfast of cereal - bake 2 sets of cinnamon rolls - get dressed in our holiday attire - and take the last minute items over to the other cabin!  Hooray - we're set to open!

The grand kids loved their initialed mugs and their sack of goodies to go with it!

Gag gifts for the boys - right down their alley!

2 cute daughters!

Jaime bought these oversized nightshirts for our trip to the beach in June!  She got coffee ones for Jessi and I since we drink coffee (and get up early!) as we are sharing a room!  And for her and Jill who are sharing a room (and love to sleep in) relax/sleep shirts!!  Aren't we cute?

Here's all the grand kids according to age!

It was so much fun watching all the kids open their gifts!  They were all very appreciative and I believe liked everything they opened!  Here's the adults with their calendars!

The Keppys with the items they made at the craft building - all ceramic type items!

And here's the Savages!

Somehow we didn't get a family pic of the Smiths!

We once again enjoyed coffee and Jessi's yummy cinnamon rolls in the middle of opening!  More to come.....

Fun and Games

 It was a great nights' sleep - and I didn't even hear Gary, Kenzie and Evan come in about 10:30 that night!  Kenzie had volleyball practice on Thursday night and since both kids said no problem on missing Friday school, they headed on up!

After breakfast, Jessi and I headed back down to the lodge to get the keys to the other cabin - and then we proceeded to get most all of the gifts carried over and stashed in the main bedroom!  Saturday morning is always a little crazy and trying to carry all the gifts over is a chore - this worked MUCH better! (Since ours is a 3 bedroom cabin, we always eat and celebrate in the 4 bedroom cabin)

Jessi and I went for a walk up the hill that morning - it was gorgous out but VERY cold!  We peeked in a few of the cabins as it's always fun to see the layouts but most of them were very similar!  At one spot, we decided the lower bedroom was a storage area as there was stuff laying all over - and then we peeked in the kitchen and saw that it was OCCUPIED!!  YIKES!  

The puzzle was finished!  Hooray!

The Keppys went down to do ceramics - I watched for a while and then just went back to the cabin and read - the Smiths arrived after lunch!

Snow tubing was OPEN!  It was closed last year so the kids were excited to go!

Jill's arrived mid-afternoon so the whole gang was there!  Happy Hour time is always fun!

Rayna and Matias were all smiles!

Goofy girls!

Jill and I were in charge of dinner that evening - million dollar spagetti, lasagna, ceasar salad and garlic bread - it was all yummy and a quick clean up!  Then we all headed to the gym as we knew it would get busy later on.  First on the agenda was a family picture - the guy handing out the skates was nice as can be and took several pictures - and yes, we got a good one!  

Gary and Gwyn roller skated for a while while the rest of them played volleyball.  Glenn and I stood in the balcony (where the pool tables and ping pong are) and watched for a long time - then Glenn decided he needed to play!  It's fun to stand up there and watch and we laughed and laughed

On the last game of the night, the kids took on the adults - and of course you KNOW who won!!  Somehow the cute picture of them just disappeared - oh well!

Then it was back to the cabins to celebrate Kenzie's birthday with brownies and ice cream!

A few of us played games for a while and then it was time to hit the sack as we had a busy morning ahead of us!

Christmas at Snow Mountain Ranch - Granby

 It wasn't our first choice!  Estes Park holds a special place in our hearts and that's where we wanted to go this year for Christmas, knowing that once again, it could be our last time!  With 4 kids in high school next year, it's pretty tough to NOT hit the weekend before finals AND Jaime's work schedule (which is every other weekend).

But the dates happened to work for us this year so I called Estes Park YMCA to make the reservations as for some reason, I couldn't make them online.  I almost cried when she told me the reason why - once again they were closing the entire place down so the employees could have a week of vacation!  Why or why did it have to be when we wanted to be there.....

So of course we decided to do the next best thing - go to the Granby YMCA!  And that's just what I booked!  One of the reasons we like Estes Park is that you can walk to just about any activity that you want to.  At Granby, you have to get in the car and drive to everything as it's just too far to walk.

As any mom knows, it's a LOT of work to get ready for Christmas!  I feel like I start in September (which I do) because I make the Snapfish photo books for the grand kids - and that takes many, many hours of computer time, along with finding the photos I want to use.  The girls are very helpful in letting me search through their camera photos and pick out ones I need, along with all the ones I take during the year.  But it's very time consuming!

Along with the books, I also made the 3 girls a large Snapfish book of our family reunion this last summer and it turned out so nice!  And then there are the yearly photo calendars that I do - more computer time!  SO I start early - very early!

And then with the 8 grand kids, there is the present buying - I like to be as creative as I can be when I buy them but they're all getting to that age which makes it a little more difficult!  For the last few years I have bought 1 item that either has their initial or name on, and they all open it at the same time!  This year I did coffee mugs or should I say cocoa mugs, and I got to design them with their initial.(and of course you saw the cute picture of the sacks of goodies to go with those mugs in the blog at the end of Nov)  

Enough about that!  I enjoy it all and know that the grand kids appreciate the gifts, along with the awesome time we all have together in the cabins!

Glenn and I always go up a night early and Jessi and Gwyn join us - it's nice to get all settled in and organized and have some down time before everyone else arrives the next day!  We headed out Thursday morning to some slick, snowy roads but the drive was beautiful!

We always stop in Fairplay for coffee and this year I snapped a piceture of the moose! The Java Moose never disappoints!

Jessi and Gwyn were waiting for us when we pulled into the registration lodge at Granby!  We got all checked in, unpacked and started enjoying the rest of the day!

I always give Gwyn extra little gifts to open in the afternoon and evening - she's very good at entertaining herself and loves to draw and color!

I bought a new Christmas puzzle and we started on it that afternoon!

Also, we brought our new game I had bought - everyone loved it and took a turn!

We love the gas fireplace and putting the tree and light up ornaments on the mantle!

Glenn doing dishes?????  Jessi texted it to the other 2 girls with the caption - "Did hell freeze over?"  HA!  We all got a laugh out of that!

And a cute picture of Papa and Gwyn when we were checking in at the lodge!

We had a great afternoon and evening together - sitting by the fireplace reading is always enjoyable!  And I even remembered to bring the microwave heating pad that we could stick in the bed before we got in - their sheets are DARN cold when you're used to an electric blanket!

It's Jam Making Time!

 I can already taste the jam on those homemade tortillas in Mexico - yes, I take 4 jars of jam with me to Mexico and no, I don't bring any home!  

Jaime and I planned our day to make jam and it went very smooth!  This year we opted for cherry, raspberry, strawberry and triple berry jam!  Jaime brought the goods for 2 batches and I had the fruit for the other 2 batches.

Last year I had mistakenly bought the "less sugar" sure gel for the jam - we decided to go ahead and try it and I couldn't tell the difference!  The GOOD part is that it uses a LOT less sugar - the regular sure gel takes up to 8 cups of sugar for some of the jams - WOW - that's like eating a couple of tablespoons of sugar with each pancake!

We wore our Christmas shirts, listened to Christmas music and stopped for coffee in the middle of it all!

Here's the finished product!

It was a great jam making day and I love that Jaime lives close enough to make it with me each year!

November Photo Dump

 A short one this month!!

Jaime, Brad, Kylan and I went to the high school production one night - it was "Treasure Island" and of course had lots of pirates!!  They were a little hard to understand at times but did an awesome job!

This is what happens sometimes when my pumpkin bread flops!!  Still tastes awesome but just doesn't look very pretty when it won't come out of the can correctly!  Usually I only have one at times that doesn't come out but this time I had TWO!  Darn!

A weird but beautiful cloud over Pikes Peak one morning!

I made up 8 of these bags which will be given this weekend when we celebrate Christmas!  Each grand child will get a mug with their initial on it and one of these bags full of cute marshmellows, a chocolate stick covered in marshmellows, a peppermint spoon, cocoa, and chocolate!  

And that's a wrap for November!

The "Galarza" Get Together

 Years ago when we lived on Edlowe Road, we met our neighbors Cindy and Rene' - and we celebrated Thanksgiving and Easter with them for many, many years!  But when they moved out of state, our get togethers ceased, although the 4 of us became travel buddies on many trips!

Cindy's have 4 kids, and they used to be spread out all over the U.S.!  But then Cheryl moved to Colorado and then Erica moved to Colorado - their other 2 live in Alabama!  When we found out Cindy's were coming back for Thanksgiving, we all decided to get together!

Cheryl offered her conference room in North Denver for the get together and we planned an easy meal that wouldn't be hard to make or transport!  Unfortunately, Erica's all got COVID and Gwyn was sick too so Gary stayed home with her!  We were sad they couldn't come as Erica's girls and Gwyn would have had a great time together! Also Matias and Rayna were working!

Unfortunately I was so busy visiting that I didn't take hardly any pictures!

The gang!  Cindy is standing beside daughter Cheryl and Cheryl's fiance' is behind Cindy.  Cheryl's son Brennar is beside Cheryl - he was living in Tx. too but just moved back to Colorado and is working for the company that Cheryl works at.

We're going to try again this summer to all get together - maybe camping?  Who knows?  But it's nice to know that Cindy and Rene' will be up this way more now since they have 2 daughters in the area!  It was a great way to wrap up the Thanksgiving weekend!

Black Friday

 First - pictures of the Savages and the Keppys who enjoyed Thanksgiving without us!  Boo Hoo - next year we hope to be all together again!

Friday morning Jaime and I headed to Co. Springs (after getting coffee) and picked up Rayna to do a little bit of shopping!  Now I was basically done since we're celebrating this next weekend but it's always fun to head to Kohl's and pick up a few things!!  And that's just what I did!

I wanted a new cozy blanket to cover up with while we watch TV at night!  My current blanket was getting scruffy looking and Glenn and I both use those blankets every night!  Of course they were on a fantastic sale so I picked one out and am already enjoying using it!

Also found a cute green sweater there!  Jaime made a haul as usual and the store wasn't packed like some years!  We also stopped at Target and World Market before stopping for lunch at a new place that Rayna recommended - The Spagetti Factory - it was very good and a great choice!

Jill and Jessi and the girls were shopping a little bit too so we had fun texting back and forth!  But after lunch we were all getting sleepy so dropped Rayna off and headed back home!  Luckily it was a nice day out so we didn't have to wear our heavy coats!

Thanksgiving 2022

 What a different Thanksgiving this year!  The entire family always makes it a point to get together on this holiday but it just wasn't going to happen this year!  Gary had to work Thanksgiving Day so they had made the decision to not come, since they would only be down for a few hours!  And in the meantime, we had found out that Cindy and Rene' from TX were going to be in town at Cheryl's place who lives in Firestone, CO, not far from Denver!  And after some planning, we had all decided to get together up in North Denver for a meal and get together!  So after hearing this, Jill's had decided not to come down either since we would all see each other up in Denver on Saturday!

Jaime and I decided we didn't want all the work of a traditional Thanksgiving meal so we opted for steak and shrimp!  SO much easier than a turkey with all of the trimmings!  Glenn and I headed over mid morning and once we got organied, we settled in for a game of 5 Crowns - Rayna and Matias had never played the game and we all laughed and laughed as we tried to teach them, assuring them it was an EASY game but they had a tough time getting the concept - ha!

Dinner was excellent!  Shrimp, steak, wild rice, green beans and pumpkin bread!

As you can see, Jaime had her house decorated for Christmas - it's stunning!  Gnomes everywhere you look!

They haven't decorated the big tree yet but it's on the list!

We continued our card game after lunch - Jaime won with super low points.  Matias and I took the honor of the highest points!!

We enjoyed pumpkin and apple pie while we finished our card game and then it was the mandatory pictures!

We sure enjoyed our time at Jaime's but certainly missed Jills and Jessi's families!  Pictures of them coming up!