12/25/10

Merry Christmas!








Wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a great 2011. I thought I'd post some pics of our decorations. The girls collect antique or antique looking Santas and I do too. I try to find them at garage sales or Goodwill, etc through out the year. I've really found some great ones at garage sales. Thought I'd better get some pics before they start taking their Santas or Val wants to take her Dickens Village. The tree looks very tall and skinny which it is but that's the kind we like to find. I never did get all of the ornaments hung on it.
We have always hosted Christmas eve and have a tradition of having cioppinno and apps. We always have another soup option since quite a few people don't like 'seafood' soup. This year I made Italian Wedding soup and it was delicious. The cioppino was very good too. We decided to change the gift giving this year (thanks Val) and make it a 'stealing gift game'. One $10.00 item per person was all that was needed to participate. It went really well and was fun so we'll do it again next year. It was neat to see people strategize and go for things they wanted. We had a good variety of gifts but the most sought after were the gourmet coffee and the 'scratchers'. We'll open gifts, snack all morning and head to Stan and Bea's for a 'Mexican fiesta' this eve. Meredith has to work tomorrow so she'll leave this afternoon. Wishing everyone 'heavenly peace' in the coming year, less stress, and lots of happiness!

12/22/10

Happy Birthday Valerie!


Happy Birthday to Valerie, Dad's brown eyed girl. This picture is at the age of three at Halloween (she won the costume contest. She spent the day driving home from North Dakota. We're ready with a Hickory Nut cake and will celebrate more tomorrow. Oh, forgot to say...Val is 27 today!
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12/15/10

1st CB ski trip of the Season

We took a short trip to Crested Butte this past week for some early season skiing and to see Meredith. Grandma had never been there and she had a great time. We skied two days, got some Christmas cards sent, and played a lot of cards. We also met Mere's roommate Danica. We stopped by Camp4Coffee at both locations where Meredith works to have some of their delicious chai. Arn and I also got our xmas presents for each other!
We each got a Cross Country ski pkg. so we can go when we go to CB or just around Monument at the golf courses and hiking trails.



12/1/10

Best Tree Ever !




Yesterday we got the best tree ever! We've been cutting our own tree for quite a few years now. You just have to go to the Forest Service office downtown and pick up a permit for $10.00. The day was blue skies and sunny but chilly. I wasn't going to say anything about missing Maggie on this trip (she really enjoyed going tree hunting), but it was the first thing Arn said when we started the search. We found the best spot. So great that I saved the map and got road markers so we can go the same place next year. It was a little trail that was beautiful with lots of our favorite types of trees (tall, skinny, short needles). I want to go back in the summertime and walk the trail to see where it goes. Also, getting it into the stand and into the house was a breeze. It was even straight with the first attempt.