Where does the time go??

Looking through the stuff in the bowels of my purse that used to consist of candy/gum wrappers, grocery receipts, and stolen pens but now mainly consists of yarn labels, fiber scraps/tufts, crumpled knitting patterns, and paper scraps bearing blog notes, I realized that I haven't written a blog entry about any of the clever stuff I've jotted down.

So, I guess you'll never see my essay about why Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE day of the year--any year--EVERY year because it involves Mom's gravy, Matt's smoked turkey, the usual pies, and the people I love the most--but especially this year when the celebration also involved a pile of 12 puppies, 3 llamas, several goats, and sheep.

It was pretty much a dead heat as to who was cutest--Harper, the flirty male llama, Alex and Meredith, or the pile of puppies



My tirade about how much I HATE to decorate for Christmas, but love it when it's done and so (aside from laziness) do not take the stuff down until almost February will have to wait until next year. Musings about the chaos of Christmas Eve and the thirst brought on by the ton of deer jerky and summer sausage I ate are lost to the ages. I'm sorry to have deprived the world of all that, but I do have photos.
Anyway, this would be the chaos.



And, this would be thrift store and as-seen-on-TV silliness



Kelly thinks we are laughing WITH him in his new beekeeper duds

Grandma Schneider bought the kids these great blankets with their own photos on them. Meredith's was a photo taken in Yellowstone Park and Alex's was taken on his climb up Longs' Peak in Colorado.

For the record, the ski trip to Red River we took after Christmas was everything we hoped it would be.

As is our way, we left Tulsa early in the morning at a time everyone else would say was the middle of the night and arrived in Amarillo for a early lunch at the BIG TEXAN--

It was as corny and kitchy as you would expect for an iconic Texas tourist trap.

After a detour to WalMart we were equipped with spray paint for our visit to the Cadillac ranch.

In Red River we stayed at the Deer Lodge in a dinky, but charming built-in-the-late-30s cabin where the space between the door and the frame was almost big enough to stick a finger through, and the kitchen sink leaked in what was pretty much a steady stream that required a mixing bowl catching the drips to be emptied on a regular basis. It had a microwave and coffepot, but no electrical outlets in the kitchen area to plug them in to. . . and the foolish act of using the hair dryer with the lights on caused the breaker to blow.

We spent a day at the Enchanted Forest Cross Country ski area. I've been cross-country skiing before and really loved it. However, it's been 20-some years. So, after the cursing occasioned by my stepping into the skis on flat ground subsided, I promptly traded in my rented skis for snowshoes. Snowshoeing was fun and something I'd really like to try again, perhaps at an elevation just a bit lower than 8-9000 feet.

Kelly graciously waited a LOT while I fumbled for camera equipment and air to breathe.The kids managed to get around on cross-country skis without the benefit of lessons. Meredith LOVED it, Alex a little less so. (I think Meredith was probably better at it, and that explains that).

The kids snow boarded one day at Angel Fire and two days at Red River. They liked Red River better. They could walk to the lifts from our cabin and didn't have to wait in long lines.


The latest any of us stayed up was 9:30. I think the evenings were my favorite part of the week -- having the four of us all together in one room, each with a book, must be a little bit like heaven.

There has been knitting, AND spinning, AND weaving, all subjects for a separate post.