Holiday fun continues

Goodness the fun continues. Lisa and Charles have come and gone - boo on the gone, but we had a lovely time with them. How sweet they were to drive the 5hrs over here!

Penny meeting Grand Aunt Lisa

Secret Stash baby. Penny's first time (as well as Jay) good munchies and an electric ball.  (I think Dad was a little concerned about the side effects).

Wandered around CB. Absolutely no new snow here. What's up with that?

New sock monkey purchase

Grandaddy checking on Penny

We took Penny out for a walk in the woods. You can barely see her in her little snowsuit. She fell asleep -bored I think.

Mark and Chris went skiing yesterday. Came back happy, tired, and, in Chris's case, painful leg muscles due to too tight boots. And yes there is snow on the mountain...

Penny already wants an e reader

The week is going fast and the end of the year is near. We'll keep relaxing and enjoying every minute.

Princess Penny and Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!  Warm and fuzzies with the family here - which is the best present of all. Penny received more presents than anyone - how amazing...

We have white stuff on the ground, but no snow coming out of the sky - for a few days to come. The big snow you may have read about in Colorado did not make it our direction. The mountain makes snow too though, so skiing is still happening.

Christmas dinner in the oven, picking up boxes and wrapping paper everywhere, and anticipating Lisa and Charles coming tonight. Weather is cooperating for road conditions, thank goodness...

Wishes for all things good and I'll be back with the next holiday installment.

Christmas anticipation

My walks in the woods have been quite magical. Diamonds sparkling in the snow, animal tracks everywhere, and complete silence - except for my crunching boots. We could use some more snow, just not when family is traveling here late this week.

Christmas things are fairly under control. So excited family is coming and baby Penny in the house! We have extra special family coming too: Lisa and Charles are trekking over from Santa Fe to spend a couple of days with all of us. Fabulous!

We made it into CB for a little last Xmas shopping and lunch of course, Ryce is back open - hurray!  Some hustle and bustle going on, such a pretty time of year. And we took a photo of, get ready - drumroll please, of Occupy Crested Butte. There were actually 3 people - one's out of frame....

Holiday shopping and snow

Snow falling here - 4 inches last night, just enough to cover all in blanket white but not enough to interfere with travel. Sooo beautiful. I am making great headway with the holiday "stuff" and time draws ever closer til family comes.

UPS must be thinking I've gone crazy. Mountains of packages are arriving in our new "outhouse" drop. Not ours specifically, belongs to the whole development, but I, apparently, am hogging the whole thing.

a trick of exposure - our tree

Love the light, the season, the reflecting snow. I've been walking on my normal route through the woods, so nice, but started out sooo hard. Been away too long evidently... Not a good sign for ski readiness. Which will happen soon, I think - honestly still nervous about the whole skiing thing - this season will tell the tale. Mark bought me a fabulous new outfit with the off- season summer sales. At least I'll look good while falling on my X#&+%.

Strangeness indeed in our world - when you see a tag in a shirt that says "designed in France, made in  Mexico" what is that supposed to mean? Better, worse, I'm confused. Clever marketing at the very least. (I didn't purchase anyway) I hear lots of holiday buying everywhere is going on, but also lots of returning - already. What does that portend?
But, on the other hand, do we not love Amazon - I bow down to that monumental institution of endless variety and excellent execution. Thanks Heather for the prime!

Back home and anticipating Christmas

Bye, bye baby Penny. See ya in a very short time. (Oh, and those parents of yours) Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming! In spite of the fact I have no idea how it has come to be mid-Dec, I'm anticipating with joy our family Christmas, coming oh so soon.

clearly not disturbed I was leaving

The tree is officially in the house and decorated. For three weeks it sat outside in sub-zero temps while we were gone, waiting for us to finally give it it's proper due. In amazing condition -fresh and pretty. Big success this year with the tree cutting - and as Mark pointed out - $8.00 cost (for the cutting permit).

My wonderful birthday present of family pictures from Tiffany, from her fantastic maternity/newborn photographer have come back. So terrific - I'm sharing a few. Family has gotten just a little bigger this year...

Online fingers have been working overtime on this Xmas shopping gig. Am I alone or are we all doing this? Things have certainly changed. Holiday stress is still there though, everyone hang in!

December and Penny

I'm back after a huge delay. Been very busy with Penny Lou and here another week before home to Star Mt. Somehow I've been in Virginia every time the month has changed, for the last 4 months. No wonder I'm disoriented. The race is on to Christmas - and I haven't done a thing.

My report consists of Penny things: she loves her hands, has not discovered her feet yet, loves the sound of her own voice, appears to love her "Nana", and it's amazing what cones back after more than 30 years not taking care of babies. And Penny appears to be brilliant, of course. After watching a science show about the on going search for the 4th dimension with complete non comprehension, I'm sure Penny will be the one to discover the truth of the matter.

Went Xmas shopping with Tiffany  - you gotta do it, get into the holiday spirit - be jostled by the crowds, fight for a parking space, scratch your head over what to get sister Jane. For the record, I have no sister Jane, but you get my drift... Tiffany and Chris are putting up all their Christmas decorations even though they're coming to our house for Xmas. I'm glad, it's pretty and holidayish. Speaking of Xmas, Mark reports our tree is doing well, lashed to a post under the deck outside. (See previous post on tree cutting). He's only there for the weekend and then back to Detroit, so next weekend when we're both back, the tree will come inside for decorating. And be cut down in size - right now it's about 20 feet tall -  way too much to handle.The forest service wants you to cut the chosen tree all the way down to keep it from trying to grow back in a weak, misshapen way. Yippee, more firewood...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Used my new mixer to make a family tradition - cinnamon rolls. I'm trying to help out for our Thanksgiving and not burden the girls with everything we insist is necessary for the dinner - since it will be at Heather's (a three yr tradition) I know you all have equally draw a line in the sand traditions, so no laughing over my baking, freezing, and then packing those darn rolls in my suitcase. Mark just rolled his eyes - yes it will happen.

Snow still on the ground here, although not in Gunnison but definitely in CB. We zipped up to have lunch (Mark's idea - who was even going to be open ?) But he was right and Ginger Cafe was it. People coming in, mountain shuttle bouncing through the streets with skis in the outside storage!, and an uptick of tourists arriving for the holiday weekend time. CB mountain opened today, don't know how good that was, not much snow has fallen (Mark says 20 inch base and mostly only green runs open).

And we have a XMAS TREE! And it was totally legal this time (not explaining that.)Yes it's early but the tree is outside roped to our deck until time to pull it in. Up Carbon Creek to find the tree before the snow makes the road impassable. Smarter this time.

We are traveling back east for Thanksgiving and then I'm staying to help out with Penny. I'll have my computer this time to post. Wishes for a wonderful holiday for everyone. Don't eat too much (of course I will).