2017 Christmas

This year the girls were with their other families for Christmas and Mom and Dad were with Robert and his family so Mark and I went to Texas to see his mom and dad.  Most of you know that Mark's mom has had some health issues these last few months and it was a much needed visit to be with them. 

We spent 5 days with Mark's parents and 3 days in Odessa and enjoyed our time visiting with his sisters, brother in law and Henley and Blaine and Joyce and Paul.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see Delaney and Zack because they had to be back in Austin by the time that we arrived in Odessa.

All in all it was a great Christmas and we were happy to see many family and friends that we could.

Beautiful Texas sunsets every evening

Loving on Henley's pups

Of course Mark had to get his Whataburger fix!

Christmas Lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens

Okay- truth be told here.  This is actually called "Blossoms of Lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens" but come on...these are clearly Christmas lights at CHRISTMAS time so I'm calling it what it is...Christmas Lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  SO there.

My next-door neighbor was unexpectedly given 2 tickets at the last minute and asked me if I was interested in going to see the display with her and as it happened, Mark was in North Dakota and I was free for the evening.  I think you can see that they did an amazing job of decorating the gardens.  I took some pictures but they didn't turn out very good so I borrowed these from the internet so that you can see just how pretty it was. 

2017 Berthoud Christmas Parade

Let's face it.  Christmas in a big city is excessive; everything is bigger, brighter, flashier and MORE CROWDED! 

A few years ago we went downtown to see the Denver Christmas Parade and we couldn't see anything because of the 100,000+ other people who came to see the parade. 😕 Actually we saw the tippy-tip-tops of the floats because we climbed up on top of a wall so that we could see something but it definitely wasn't what we were expecting; and we got there almost 2 hours early and still didn't get a decent spot to view the parade. Not only were there lots of people there but 3 major protests groups were roaming up and down the streets shouting at the crowd with bullhorns to the point we couldn't hear anything but them. 

So this year we decided to go to a smaller venue to get a little dose of holiday cheer and after some internet sleuthing I found the perfect place- Berthoud, CO! We figured that with a population of 5100 people we were pretty sure we might be able to get a front row seat to the parade.  And we were right!  

This was a true small-town celebration.  There were home-made floats, high school bands playing Christmas songs off-key, hot chocolate stands, plenty of farm equipment with a single string of Christmas lights strung on them, kids on their horses with garland and lights hung on the saddles and halters, kids collecting candy that the parade participants were throwing out to the crowd, Santa, the Town Square Christmas Tree lighting, choirs singing under said Christmas trees, and a snow carving contest to boot. Was it small? You betcha! The parade lasted maaaaaybeee 15 minutes but the parade entrants were having a ball and we sure enjoyed the simplicity of the whole event and were glad we found this little gem.

2017 Nöel Logs

My friend Christine has an annual tradition of making Nöel Logs for all of her friends.  She was born and raised in France but moved here when her parents immigrated here when she was 7 years old.  Her mother made these cakes ever year until she passed (about 15 years ago) and Christine decided that she would carry on the her mother's holiday baking tradition in her honor.

The process is pretty involved and took her almost two days to make them.  On the first day she made the center cake that serves as the log.  

The next day she made the icing which is an art in of itself.  Finally it was time for the construction that I sorta helped her with.  

Oh, and did I mention how DELICIOUS they are?!?!

2017 Thanksgiving

This was our year to have the family with us for Thanksgiving.  Since Henley is a teacher this year she had the whole week off so she flew in on the Saturday after her classes ended.  Delaney and Zach flew in on Wednesday, Blaine drove in on Wednesday and Mom and Dad drove in as well on Wednesday so we had a full house!

We spent Thursday doing the usual- watching TV, eating, cooking, eating and hanging out.


On Friday morning we went to Top Golf and had a ball. 

We came home, got into some warm clothes and headed up the mountain to Breckenridge.  Mom and Dad stayed home because Mom wasn't feeling up to it and was concerned that the altitude might aggravate her heart rate.  We first went to Breck Distillery where the kids took the tour. We ended up walking around downtown Breckenridge and enjoyed the Christmas lights that they had just turned on for the holidays.  We ate dinner and then headed down the mountain.

Henley and Blaine left on Saturday morning and Delaney and Zack left Saturday evening.  The last time they came here for Thanksgiving there was a big ice/snow storm and they almost didn't make it home on Sunday with delayed flights and such so they all chose to leave on Saturday just in case the weather was bad again. Fortunately the weather was good and everyone arrived at home and didn't have any weather delays this year.

It was a great visit and we are always happy to have all of our family here together!