What Do You Bring?

It is a question I have now contemplated twice since living in our Louisville home. The first time, we had more time and didn’t have to leave (2013 flood). 

Yesterday, we did have to leave and had very little time. And even in the midst of it, it didn’t seem real. I was super proud of all of us and how we all jumped in to get out the door in a calm and orderly fashion. 

The boys each grabbed a couple things - their Star Wars alarm clocks and computers; for T-man his baby blanket, a pocket knife from his granddad and a nerf gun (“so he could remember them all”). D-man grabbed his 2022 Guinness Book of World Records and cards from those close to him. 

After grabbing our photos and memory boxes for the boys, I had a backpack and grabbed some sentimental Christmas ornaments in the hopes of preserving some of our holiday tradition. And I grabbed a couple pieces of special jewelry. 

Unlike many of our neighbors and close friends, we are relieved and fortunate that we have our home and things to go home to. There are so many emotions right now and that is ok. We are all allowed to feel conflicting emotions. 

My grandma’s bracelet 

What we brought 

One of my storage boxes. 

Pictures 

How Quickly Things Change

I’m blogging because I want to capture the moment - kinda like I did for my stroke. The ups and downs of life are what it means to be human. Of course, I could do without this down right now. But. We are all together and safe and had much less trouble getting out compared to many. And as I write this, our house is ok. But there are home up near the hospital that are on fire. 

We started the day off with a trip to Longmont to get our TSA precheck application completed and stopped at Runza (duh). As we drove back home, there was a big “cloud” in front of us. I thought it was a dust cloud. D-man thought it was a regular cloud. We determined it was a fire and D-man looked it up and the fire was contained (or so we thought). 

As we got close to home, my friend called and said the scene at the local Target was apocalyptic with people screaming and she couldn’t see in front of her. And as we got closer to home, it got more creepy and real. The wind was whipping. The trash bins were blown in the street. 

We stopped by the golf course as D-man was supposed to work at 1:00 and he went and quickly helped put away the carts. When we went to leave, the car was dead so we jumped in the neighbor boy’s Jeep to get home (we were not going to walk home in the ash and wind). Even then, I thought we would just be staying in to avoid the smoke. How wrong we were. 

We got home and Marshall said that they were evacuating Superior. And then it became more real. We grabbed what we thought we would need and some sentimental items. What do you take? How do you put your life on your one working car? We took passports, papers, pictures, jewelry, memory boxes for the boys and a suitcase each with clothes. We grabbed computers and in a backpack, I places some Christmas ornaments off the tree. 

(I had to rewrite the above because I lost it somehow). 

I will write the rest of our story tomorrow. We are safe and we have each other and so many friends. We are loved and feeling the love. Our home looks to be ok as of midnight from reports of people who have been in the neighborhood. We can only hope that it stays that way. And yet, we will go to bed with heavy hearts as we learn of more and more devastation in our community and those close to us. 

The “cloud” 

Leaving our home 

Our street 

Getting out of neighborhood

The poor cop directing traffic 

The boys’ school is through that smoke

Playing checkers at Cabela’s 

And we saw the this flying through the air when we left Cabelas’s  (16 miles away from our home and the fire). And look what it said… “I will rebuild” - and we will. 

Van Gogh Exhibit

Santa brought us tickets to the immersive Vincent Van Gogh exhibit. While I don’t think the boys were overly excited, it was a really nice evening out. In general, I would not say that we are an art appreciating family, so this made the art more approachable and fun. It is truly amazing that he only started painting at age 27 and died at age 37 - 10 years with over 2000 paintings completed. During the last 70 days of his life, he painted 70 paintings. 

We headed out around 4:15 and picked up D-man who was out with friends quite luckily only about 5 minutes from the exhibit. 

We watched the loop two times and then headed to Gaetano’s Italian restaurant (an old mob hangout). It’s one of two Italian restaurants in what used to be Denver’s Italian neighborhood. It was actually a perfect spot as Marshall and I have a tradition of going out for Italian food around Christmas. 

The outing also made it seem a little more like vacation - bonus! 

T-man checking it out 

Immersive 

Boys 

Very cool how they had the floor as part of the display as well 

What a great question 

The Colorado Peavy Christmas

After a 9-hour travel day from Phoenix, we arrived in Louisville around 7:00. We picked up Mod Pizza and the boys headed downstairs so Marshall and I could finish up wrapping gifts. I had already wrapped several presents, but Santa was good to us this year and we had many more to wrap. 

I think the boys had a good Christmas with some fun gifts under the tree. T-man got a 3D printer, a fun building kit and a shower speaker. D-man got a phone, lululemon pants and a puffy coat. They both got the not so exciting gifts of underwear socks, and shampoo, but also some other small gifts I hoped they enjoyed. 

While opening gifts, T-man stated it was weird to have it dark outside, but for me, it like Christmas Eve. We had a lot of laughs about the number of chargers unwrapped and just a really special night with the four of us. 

Santa arrived 

Obligatory picture in front of tree 

Checking out their least favorite gift 

Coug gear 

Presents 

big gift bag 

Legal Driver

At 8:00 on December 13th, we secured a learner’s permit for T-man. He wasn’t too excited for driving and getting behind the wheel during finals week was not going to happen. 

We did get him out over the weekend and he was very happy after his outings. He was nervous about going, but Marshall did a great job and obviously made it fun for him. He even took us to our holiday party on Sunday evening. Now, if we can only get into the car from the driver’s side……

Christmas Day

It isn’t every Christmas you can go swimming or get in the hot tub, but this Christmas we did. The Marshall kids were patient and waited for the big kids to wake up and we all opened stockings on Christmas morning together. We had a nice breakfast of cinnamon rolls and egg casserole with sausage and bacon. 

The rest of the day was busy with various activities and capped off with a prime rib Christmas dinner. A perfect way to cap off the evening. 

The boys and I went on a tour of lights in Gilbert thanks to D-man’s research. There was an entire street that was decked out and synced to music. All three of us got our videos going - super impressive! 

During our drive, T-man mentioned how Christmas Day after 12:00 isn’t really that special to him. And if you consider all of his Christmas’s, we almost always travel on Christmas Day. We obviously didn’t travel last year and the year Bob passed away, we didn’t travel until a few days after Christmas. But, it means we don’t have any Christmas traditions after opening gifts. And from the lack of picture, it’s true! 

However, iit was great to be together on Christmas and share this memory together. 

Watching SNL Christmas episodes together 

Christmas dinner 

The adults waiting on the kids 

Toasting the occasion 

Raising a glass

Homemade ornament for the “tree”

Lights display on our drive 

Couldn’t be more true this year 

Our “home” for the week 

Saving Christmas

Well, Christmas didn’t need saving, but we Peavys worked hard to make it merry at the VRBO. 

On Thursday night, we headed to the light display at the Salt Water Flats. To everyone, this was a disappointment, but it was great comic relief. The music wasn’t synced to the lights, the lights were random and the 3D glasses didn’t do anything special. But, we all had a good laugh about it and D-man did some research and found a block around the corner from our VRBO that had an impressive display synced to music. According to Jaima, D-man saved Christmas that night! 

On Christmas Eve, it was pouring rain and we all hunkered down inside - except for all the swimming and time in the hot tub. There was also games and cards being played and lots of cooking/baking - Christmas cookies, Chex mix, grasshoppers and chowder. D-man and his cousin also built a Michigan football stadium gingerbread house. Mom and Sean finished the Christmas puzzle I brought, and Jacki, Jaima and I brought Christmas joy when we delivered our matching pjs to all. 

I even decorated our “tree” with the Christmas lights I brought and we ate Christmas Eve dinner by “candlelight” (thanks to the flame less candles I brought). My sisters and I stuffed the stockings after sending the older cousins off to track Santa. 

As we ate Christmas cookies and had grasshoppers, a Marshall cousin stated it “finally feels like Christmas.”   

This had been our first Christmas Eve away from Colorado in 14 years and the boys were great sports. Time with family and lots of laughs make it Christmas no matter where you are. 

Salt water flats lights 

Cards 

Go Blue gingerbread house 

Puzzle time 

Chowder 

Christmas Eve swimming 

Christmas Eve hot tub 

Annual pic in front of the “tree” 

Ready for Santa 

Karlen Christmas 2021