Thanksgiving #3

 I know - 3 posts for one holiday??  But I have to take advantage for Thanksgiving and Christmas because they're the 2 "givens" that we will all be together!

So here's a couple random photos from the day!

I guess too much turkey for these 2!!

I don't often get a smiling Robby so this picture is special!!

Friday morning, we went shopping - it had been many years since all 4 of us have been together to shop as usually Jaime has to work!  We grabbed our coffee and hot chocolate from Human Bean and headed to Co Springs!  The shopping was great - no long lines - I didn't have much to buy since I was almost done but did find what I was looking for!  After lunch at The Macaroni Grill, we headed back home for some down time before the evening meal!

Since some of the guys and kids had gone to Co. Springs too and had a late lunch, they weren't hungry at all so we just decided to do leftovers again!  No hardship there with all those yummy dishes to eat!

Then it was game time - oh how we laughed and laughed at some of the things we had to do in this game!

I'm not sure anybody won at the game below!!

But Papa surprised us all in this round where you have to bounce a ball and hit the fourth cup1 time before the timer goes off - Papa did it the first time and then did it 3 more times !!!  Unbelievable!!

After even MORE dessert, we called it a night!!  What a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving Family Pictures

 What would Thanksgiving be without the mandatory family pictures!  

The Keppys' - Jessi was NOT happy with the t-shirt that Evan wore - ha!

The Smiths

The Savages

As you probably noticed, Jaime has her house all decorated!  I went over and helped her one day since she's been working so many hours at the pharmacy!  Their house looks amazing!!

Here are the cousins!

And since we had extras at the house, we didn't have to set a timer on the camera for the group pic!

We are SO BLESSED to be a part of this awesome family!

Thanksgiving #1

 It's TURKEY DAY!  Time for all the family and guests to gather at Jaime's for food and fun!  Another day to be so thankful for all the wonderful blessings we have in our lives!

Our family consisted of the 16 of us and we also had Bev (Robby's mom) and her boyfriend Gary join us along with Rayna and Matias' 3 roommates - they are a family, Angela, Ryan and Enso!

Once again, we had plenty of great food to eat!

Look at these 2 soon to be teenagers - STOP GROWING UP!

Our 3 beautiful daughters!!

It's always a little crazy in the kitchen trying to get everything ready at the last moment!  Luckily Jaime has a HUGE kitchen which makes it so nice!

And the line has started!!  We have gone to using huge heavy paper plates - sure saves on some of the dish washing!  Our typical meal was served along with a fruit tray and dip and egg rolls brought by Angela - they were delicious!

Yes, we know you have food in your mouth boys!!  They never cease to make me laugh!

Here's one of the tables.

And here's the other one!

It was wonderful weather outside and several times we had to open the door as it got too hot in the kitchen!  I always love taking a picture with the girls!

After clean-up the afternoon passed WAY too fast - we did eat a little later than usual as Gary had to work that morning so the Keppys didn't arrive till 11:30 - but somehow we still didn't get around to serving till about 12:45!

A walk was in order late afternoon after desserts - once again Jessi outdid herself on those and they tasted great!!  Some of us walked down the driveway in the snow - yes, we had 3 to 4 inches the night before!

Family pictures up next!

Fun in Denver

 Sunday morning Jessi, Jill and I headed out for coffee!!  It's pretty rare there are 3 of us to go out together so that made it special!!  We went to our usual place and even got to sit inside!!  They made a mistake on Jill's peppermint hot chocolate and made it a peppermint mocha so I got to take that home to Glenn!  We had a wonderful time talking and talking and talking!!

Jessi and Jill decided to take the two girls shopping - I opted to stay home with Gwyn and Parker!!  They love to play cards!!

Then we headed to the park to play a little basketball and climb trees!

This picture was taken the day before - I found Papa a Christmas hat as we've decided he looks like Santa Claus!!

Papa also helped Gwyn on a school project - filling in the turkey by using anything but colors or paint!!  They used different kinds of food and it was cute as can be!

We also took Jessi and Gary out for their anniversary dinner - we used to do this years ago and then we stopped and just gave them money because it was too hard to find babysitters!!  Now that all the kids are old enough to stay by themselves, we can start the tradition back up again!!  

It was a wonderful dinner!!  Jessi shared her sangria sampler with me and I shared my dessert with her!  The meal was excellent!!

Glenn and I headed out midmorning to my endocrinologist appointment - that went well and after a jam packed weekend, we headed back to the mountains!! 

Parade of Lights

 We all bundled up late afternoon on Saturday and headed to Southlands for the parade - we took a couple of vehicles and found parking easily enough and a great spot to watch, right towards the end.  The parade didn't start for a while so we had to keep warm!!

We watched quite a few dancers before the parade started so that was fun!!  And I loved these decorated vehicles!!  WOW!!

Here's Evan in the band - playing the saxophone and wearing his sunglasses!!

Gwyn enjoyed the parade and liked getting her picture taken with this character!

And here comes the van!!

It was an awesome parade and even though it was cold, we were fine!!  And then we ended up going to Dairy Queen for ice cream - go figure!!

It was a fun evening and then we went back to Jessi's and Jill's also spent the night!

Basketball Games

 It was a jam packed Saturday as we headed to Denver about 7:30am!  The nice thing is:  no stop and go traffic!  We headed to the Keppy's place - Jessi and Evan were working so we followed Gary, Gwyn and Kenzie to the basketball court for a game!  Gary is the coach for this team of 5 and 6 year olds - and he has another coach to help him, along with Evan if he's free!

Doesn't Gwyn look cute?  She even chose #8, my favorite number!

The only practice they get to have is 1/2 hour before the game!

Yes, Gwyn is the tallest - the other little ones look like they are preschoolers compared to her!  Unfortunately the other coach didn't show up and Evan was working with Jessi so poor Gary had to coach alone - the coaching went fine and he did a great job but the hard part is the equal playing time AND the wrist bands that they had to keep changing every time they subbed!    It was hilarious to watch the game as these little ones don't seem to know a lot about it yet - they sure did try though and it was fun to watch Gwyn play!

After the game, we stopped at Chick fil a to get a bite to eat on the road to Ft. Collins - I was totally impressed with this place (we rarely are in Co. Springs to eat at the one there).  We drove through the drive thru and a guy took our order and payment and not even 60 seconds later we were handed our meal - and it was VERY good!!

We made it to Ft. Collins in good time and got ready to head to Parker's game!

He went on into the game to practice (the actual court is in a mall - I know, strange!!) so we walked around a little bit to see the decorations and stepped outside by the ice skating rink!  I saw this moose and knew I had to have pictures!!

Then it was back inside to watch the game!  Parker did a great job and even made 2 baskets!!  Yay Parker!

He played well and it was easy to see how much he had improved from 2 years ago when we last saw him play!  They didn't win but still played great!

Back to Jill's where we got ready to head BACK to Denver to go to the parade - Jill, Aleah and Parker also came down in their car so we had a great showing!!  More on that to come.....

Lefsa Making

 Has it really been almost 3 weeks since I've blogged????  WOW - but when you're retired and tend to stay home a lot, there isn't much to write about!  I've stayed busy, believe me, and the house has been completely decorated for over a week, the Thanksgiving meal is all planned, and all but 2 gifts are bought for Christmas!  So I HAVE been busy - along with my volunteer job at the Food Pantry and the homeowners association which has been really keeping me busy lately!

Now it's time to blog again!!  I had decided that I was ready to make lefsa again - sister Patty had taught me how and I had all the appropriate equipment but I just remembered that the last time I had made it (only once since I had been taught), it seemed to take FOREVER to just make one batch!!  But I was willing to make it because I was darn hungry for lefsa!

Between texting and face-timing Patty, I got the batch going - and yes, I can't believe I didn't take good notes the first time - but I sure did this time!!  It is time consuming - that I will admit!  

But the end result is still worth the effort!

I shared with Jaime and Jessi - Jill is gluten free so can't have it - and of course that left plenty for me to eat my fill!

This is how I eat it - heat it up in the microwave and put homemade jelly in the middle and roll it up!  Oh my gosh it is good!

I often thought that paying $25 for one batch (which makes 12 to 14 pieces) was SO expensive but once you have made it, trust me, it is worth every penny!!!

Am I making a batch for Thanksgiving?  Absolutely!