Christmas Chaos

Being home over Thanksgiving weekend allowed us to get all of the Christmas decorating completed. All of the boys were good sports and helped out when asked. We started decorating the tree on Saturday, but D-man got called into work so we finished it on Sunday. T-man informed me that he didn’t like our themed tree because it is too organized. He prefers our more “chaotic” tree with ornaments from all facets of our lives. 

There were more walks, show watching and eating leftovers. We even made ice cream cookies on Sunday evening. The beauty of this time together is that we can actually be together. When we are all working and doing school from home, we are all here, but aren’t together. 

Here’s to surviving the next few weeks as we head into Christmas. 

The nativity is making an appearance after many years of 

Neglect. We didn’t want the pooping man to be lonely. 

Not sure what they are doing, but they are participating 

Oh how they love the big blue ornament 

Um....... 

Loving the lights 

The chaotic tree 

Turkey Time

This is only the second Thanksgiving we have spent in our Louisville home. In the most recent years, we have been in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Seattle and Minneapolis. While we are missing family this year, we worked hard to embrace the situation. D-man was excited to finally be having turkey on Thanksgiving Day after a three hiatus.

We watched our TV shows, enjoyed making the meal together, chatted with family over Zoom, played snooker and played cards online. 

Marshall made a delicious turkey with stuffing and gravy, I made green bean casserole and  D-man and I made homemade rolls and mashed potatoes. T-man got the table ready, poured the wine and found the electric knife for the turkey carving. We talked about what we were thankful for - T-man for family and the ability to learn; D-man for his health and living in a free country. We laughed about jello salad recipes in the VFW cookbook. 

Getting the bird ready 

Jiblets or giblets?? 

Brining Nebraska to Colorado 

Potatoes! 

Yum! 

Getting the table ready 

These actually turned out well! 

The table ready with the good China 

Small but special 

Thankful 

Karlen zoom gathering 

Peavy zoom gathering 

Mini ping pong while the adults play snooker - there were some laughs with this! 

Trying to remember where we were on Past Thanksgivings 

How much our dinner cost 

It was definitely not the Thanksgiving we planned, but we had a great day and a made the most of it. 

Snooker and Crumbl Cookies

This week, we tried a couple new things - snooker and Crumbl Cookies! With the boys off from school, they had some free time and and we sent them on some errands which included picking up cookies at the recommendation of coworkers. I have to say that we made a good decision picking those up! They also completed some returns, took library books back, walked to a local coffee shop a d just spent some time together. 

We also learned the game of snooker (a birthday gift for Marshall). I’m pretty terrible and T-man went 4-0 against Drake yesterday. Will be fun to continue practicing our skills throughout the winter. 

Delicious! 

Ready to play!

Runza Road Trip

We continue to look for different activities to keep us busy during Covid. This weekend was no different. Many times, that activity is simply getting in the car and picking up Target curbside orders or grabbing drive through coffee. T-man accompanied me for these errands on Saturday morning. While not a good thing and not a new experience, we watched the Huskers lose again. Fortunately, D-man and I put together care packages for the There with Care organization during the game so we had something else to keep us busy. 

On Sunday, we had a wonderful breakfast cooked by Marshall before putting up the Christmas lights. I loved that we all helped out and it looks wonderful! D-man and I then drove up to Longmont to get Runza and made a stop to pick up a couple trees to finish off the front porch decorating. I loved that our trip was his cherry at dinner. We also played a game of Euchre on Sunday night. We watched all the episodes of Ted Lasso as a family within three nights

I am continually thankful for such wonderful people to be stuck at home with. We laugh. We support each other. We try new things together. I obviously can’t wait for life to return to “normal,” but our Covid reality is not bad. 

Lights on the tree this year 

Always a big help with the lights 

Runza happiness 

I’m getting in the holiday spirit 

Stay at Home

While the stay at home order doesn’t change our day to day much, it makes it evident that Covid is having more of an effect across the area. Life at home: 

Working from home with the heater 

Happy hour outside

Using the heaters..... 

Mad at the Covid 

Turning 50 in the Beav

While it was not the 50th birthday trip we had planned, it was still a wonderful weekend away celebrating Marshall. We were reminded again why traveling to the mountains during mud season is a treat (no crowds) - even better when there is a pandemic. We took both Thursday and Friday off for a truly long weekend of celebrating. We arrived around 3:00 on Thursday and enjoyed happy hour, take out pizza and cards. 

It was a beautiful day on Friday (only fitting that someone born on Friday the 13th has his 50th birthday on a Friday) so we enjoyed time in the hot tub, walking around the village, drinks by the fire pit (thanks to the PV siblings) and unwrapped presents before the birthday scavenger hunt. While my surprising skills are not great, we did manage to have a wonderful catered dinner for the 50th celebration. It was an extra treat that the Smileys were able to join us and the Wrights for the birthday celebration. Many laughs and a special night toasting a wonderful man was enjoyed by all. 

Saturday was COLD and windy so a perfect day for watching football and golf (not likely that Marshall will be saying that he’s watching the Masters on his birthday again). More games, hot tubbing, takeout and a birthday cake wrapped up the day. Sunday brought a lazy morning before snowshoeing on Vail Pass before heading back home. We are so fortunate that we can travel to such amazing places to help an amazing man bring in the next half century! 

Ready for the scavenger hunt 

Happy birthday weekend honey! 

Happy hour at the fire pit 

View of Beaver Creek from the condo 

Starting the hunt 

 

“Even-ing it out 

Cheers to you babe. 

Lamb shanks! 

The sweater vest is back! 

Out to get our food on Saturday night