Merry Christmas!

Christmas was interesting for us this year.  The months of build-up for the big day were pretty well squelched by a NASTY stomach flu that decimated the whole family just days before Christmas.  We lost a lot of good men through Christmas Eve and missed out on a lot of traditional activities.  The good news is that we had a good time with Grandma and Grandpa while they were here, and the children had a very happy, spoiled Christmas.  Happy Holidays everyone.

Christmas Eve

The big day is almost here, and you can cut the tension with a knife.  Despite being in a recovery state (see Christmas post), we managed to have some fun baking cookies for Santa and building a ginger-bread village.  Jennifer and Delaney had to sit out our traditional Garlic Mike's Christmas Eve supper, so we'll have to make up for it next year.  Hopefully Santa is good to the girls this year... 

Dear Santa....

Meredith's handwriting is really coming along, so her letters to Santa are getting better and better.  Such fun to document her letters over the years.  Merry Christmas Meredith.

Holiday School Performance

So many fun things to see and do during the Christmas season when you have a little blond in Kindergarten.  Meredith's music and movement class has been working on a Christmas performance for several weeks that we finally got to see.  Her class did a really good job, and they held it together really well for a bunch of kids ready for Christmas break.

Holiday Preprations...

It's officially Christmas time in Gunnison.  The lighting of the Christmas tree downtown and heading out into the hills to cut our Christmas tree make it for real.  We found an awesome tree this year!  Last weekend, the girls got to see Santa while we were visiting our Uncle Jesse on the front range, and took this year's special photo for the archives.  Delaney gets to be more fun all the time and is starting to appreciate the holidays.

Turkey Time

Happy Thanksgiving!  We've had a busy week and wanted to share some of our memories with you.  Some of you may recall that one of our annual family traditions is a turkey shoot, which this year we actually had good weather for.  Meredith dusts off the Red Ryder BB gun (you'll shoot your eye out) and the family practices their marksmanship on a turkey of many colors.  The best part of the trip this year was being reported to the authorities as a suspicious vehicle...

On Wednesday we headed to the Front Range to spend Thanskgiving with the family.  We've been toying with the idea of getting Delaney's ears pierced, and actually did it.  She was bummed out for a little bit, but now she's even more of a little beauty than before.  Meredith was definitely more excited for the ear piercing than Delaney was.

Had a nice visit with our family for several days and appreciate everything our gracious hosts provided.  Lots of good food and good company, and we even managed to sneak a little Christmas shopping in for our girls.  We try not to forget how fortunate we really are.

Elk Hunting