Our Christmas Photo Albumn

John & Whitley at Loveland Ski Basin about 20 min. west of our house.
Me, Val, Hannah and front row is my other sister Amanda
Granny & Grandad enjoy all the grandkids home this Christmas: Kelsey, Tucker & Whitley

CHRIST-mas.....

One has to stop and ponder what month it is when the stores start to pull out their Christmas wares in July. However, the sounds of Christmas still never seem to catch up and ring out until Thanksgiving. Without fail, the last week of November fills our cars, homes and offices with the sound of Christmas.

From the time we were knee high to a grasshopper, the yuletide lyrics and hymns stretched our vocabulary and repertoires. I can remember Whitley's version of anything "evergreen" rolled off her tongue sounding something like this..."kiss-us twee" and how she used to giggle at the animal sounds to the "Manger Song". I can remember missing both of my front teeth singing, you guessed it, "All I Want for Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth". This year I wondered if there was just one song that could possibly capture what our Christmas was like.

A front runner was "Home for the Holidays" as I spent Christmas with my family in Illinois for the first time in almost 15 years or "Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer" as Whitley's Grandma (my mom) endured 2 separate surgeries on Christmas Eve., but as I reflected on all the interesting events while home, I decided a revised edition of "The 12 days of Christmas" would be more fitting. Since we started opening gifts on the 18th.....I thought our song should sound something like this:

On the first day of Christmas (Dec. 18) my true love gave to me a pair of clogs from Sweden.

On the 2nd day of Christmas my father gave to me, 2 airlines tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden.

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden.

On the 4th day of Christmas my mom bought for me 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden.

On the 5th day of Christmas my dad gave his girls 5 minus 1 golden coins!!!!! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden!

On the 6th day of Christmas my mom gave to me, 6 nail biting hours while she was in surgery, 5 minus 1 golden coins!!! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden.

On the 7th day of Christmas my family gave to me 7 times as much as last year, 6 nail biting hours of surgery, 5 minus 1 golden coins!!! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden!

On the 8th day of Christmas my parents gave to us 8 different gift cards, 7 times as much as last year, 6 nail biting hours of surgery, 5 minus 1 golden coins!!! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden!

On the 9the day of Christmas the Grinch gave to me, 9 cancelled flights back to Denver. 8 different gift cards, 7 times as much as last year, 6 nail biting hours of surgery, 5 minus 1 golden coins! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden.

On the 10th day of Christmas the Grinch gave to me, 10 trips to the waste can, 9 cancelled flights back to Denver, 8 different gift cards, 7 times as much as last year, 6 nail biting hours of surgery, 5 minus one golden coins!!!! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden.

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to Whitley 11 hours of ski lessons, 10 trips to the waste can, 9 cancelled flights, 8 different gift cards, 7 times as much as last year,, 6 nail biting hours of surgery, 5 minus one golden coins!!!!! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a pair of clogs from Sweden!

On the 12 day of Christmas my true love gave to Whitley, 12 more hours of skiing!!!! 11 hours of ski lessons, 10 trips to the waste can, 9 cancelled flights, 8 different gift cards, 7 times as much as last year, 6 nail bittng hours of surgery, 5 minus one golden coins!!! 4 slices of taco pizza, 3 kisses goodbye, 2 airline tickets and a-pair-of-clo-gs-fr-om-SWEEEEEE-DENNNNNNNNNN!!!!

Now, if none of this makes a bit of sense to you I can explain. I really did get a new pair of 42 cm., custom made clogs from Sweden and I love them! My father and Val purchased 2 airline tix for Whit & I to fly to IL. Actually, the offer was for John too, but "Mr. Postman" initially had volunteered to work Christmas this year to give someone else the day off, and they ended up closing the plant down after all. Yes, he (John) was sad to see us go so I got 3 kisses at the airport on my sendoff to Illinois. As for the 4 slices of taco pizza...they were small slices okay! My favorite pizza is Casey's taco pizza so I love to order up a pie when I get back to the Heartland, just a much as John does when he heads to PA.

Well, the 12 Days of Christmas has that mighty crescendo of "5 golden rings", and the only thing I could think of was the 4, fifty- dollar gold coins that my dad gave to each of his girls (My step mom Val, my sisters Amanda & Hannah & myself)...so the only way to state it correctly was to say 5 minus 1 golden coins!!! (which equals 4, right?)

Okay, this song is not as complicated as the second half of our 12 days of Christmas were. Why I didn't even have enough numbers to mention the two explosive fires w/in two days of each other, in the little rural town I grew up in. The one on Christmas Eve. was equivalent to a 5-alarm fire in the city!!! An old factory that had been converted to a storage shed, which housed antique cars, tractors, boats, motor homes, etc. exploded and could be seen for over 6 miles away! Anyway, not room for that in my song, but I just had to tell ya!

Now the 6th day of Christmas was actually Christmas eve. My mom was admitted to the hospital the day I first came to visit her (which was the 22nd) when we noticed she was turning yellow an jaundiced. On top of things, she had terrible stomach pains. On Christmas eve. they finally performed 2 separate surgeries: 1-they removed 3 gallstones the size of golf balls and her gall bladder and 2- they had to place a stent because a piece had broke off and was stuck in the bile duct and pancreas. It was really sad to see her in such pain. I tried to lighten her spirits and told her Santa must be really slipping because he had mistaken her gallbladder for some naughty person's stocking of coal!

The 7th day of Christmas was really Christmas Day and my did it seem like we got 7 times as much. As we surveyed all our gifts, we counted 8 generous portioned gift cards to 8 of our favorite places;; THANK YOU!!!

The 9th day Whit & I were actually trying to return back to Colorado. Two days and 9 cancelled flights later, we made it......the scenic route via route from Peoria, IL to Dallas/Ft. Worth to Colorado Springs, CO and two hours by car back home; PHEW!!

The 10th day I literally made 1o trips to the waste can as I believe I contracted food poisoning from a pecan-coated chicken salad from TGIF that I purchased on the fly in Dallas. That was the worst meal I had ever had in my life and I don't care to ever go through that again.

The 11th day John took Whitley for the first time skiing. All the years, she did not want to go, but for some reason she was game this year. On this day they played in the snow for about 11 hours and had a great time.

I designated the 12th day of Christmas as today the 29th, as this is John's last day off from a 5-day mini-vacation. They had so much fun, they hit this slopes again, this time, with good friends Grant, and his daughter Isabella (Izzy). Aside from being 10 below in the high country and John dropping his ski on Whitley's nose while she was lying on her back in the snow (OUCH!!), they wiped off the blood, dried off the tears and weathered the cold for 12 hours of fun in a winter wonderland!

All silliness and chorusing aside, I was reminded by a kind man from Dallas who empathized with our traveling woes on Christmas day, when he said, "But despite all the delays, changes and frustrations, Christmas still happened today, didn't it?"

Without an answer required, I sighed and recounted all our blessings, all the memories made and the peace of knowing that hope began with the birth of a little boy, born in a manger, named Jesus." Yes, not even a blizzard or King Herod could stop Christmas!

We hope that your holidays were special in some way; be it in a hospital bed, or in an airport terminal or in your homes and places of worship; MERRY CHRISTMAS to each of you!

Home Impovements Phase 2 almost a "wrap!"

Top Picture: This is the loft and temporarily our bedroom while the master bedroom is gutted and repaired. The wall behind the bed used to have a 60 in. big screen tv in it that we sold.

Picture #2:This picture is also the temp. m. bedroom. The wood door in the corner is what you walk into to get to the new laundry room. When the master bedroom is complete, the loft will become a home office.

This is the far end of the new laundry room. This whole room used to be storage, but as you can see from the Rubbermaid containers, this was all the space that I needed for stowing things.

This is about center of the room. I asked John to custom build these shelves to fit 4 laundry baskets so that clothes could be separated by color. With a family of three and the invention of front loaders, I only do four loads every 2 weeks!

This is right as you walk in the laundry room. I use this side to stow my sewing machine and craft supplies for scrapbooking etc.

On the long wall, I've asked John to build me a doll rod system that you can slide on rolls of gift wrap and ribbon. Then I can just pull it off and wrap at the counter!

As you can see I need a finish coat of paint and hardware for the cabinets still.

These days wrapping up constructions projects feels as good as wrapping Christmas presents. We pasted a picture that started with the kitchen in an older post here on our blog. Phase 2 was to build a laundry upstairs across from the master bedroom. Well, that is now almost complete! I have to put a final coat of paint on cabinets and John will install the knobs and handles on them after that. I also ordered a wallpaper border that has little wahboards and irons on it to run across the backsplash. Then a few throw rugs will make the space real homey! John found some bases that go under the washer and dryer that will raise the height and add an additional drawer underneath for storage and then it's a "wrap"!

Now that the hole in the wall is patched, where the bigscreen tv used to be, we moved our bedroom into the loft temporarily. This now clears out the master bedroom so phase three of construction can begin. This is redoing the master bath and master closet as well as piant and flooring for the m. bedroom itself. This area was the hardest hit from last winter from an ice dam that migrated into the house. Once the ice dam migrated far enought in, the heat from the house started melting it and it literally started to "rain: in between walls and through the ceiling. It will be nice to get all that moldedy stuff out and replaced!

Well, that's the construction update for now. Stay tuned for details in the upcoming months. the goal is have upstair done by spring and the kitchen done by summer!

Snow, Sniffles & Surprises

In Colorado, we call this kind of snow "powder". It's the kind of snow you get when it is really, really cold and yet it still manages to snow. It's the kind of snow that crunches beneath your tires and falls from the tree tops like glitter when the wind blows. It's the kind of snow that ski resorts and skiers love!!

We didn't fare too badly at the house...just under a foot of the fluffy stuff. However, above 1oK ft. they measured the snow in feet, not inches. Some places received over 5 ft. in 48 hrs.! Now John & Whitley can finally hit the slopes. They practiced on a few hills in the neighborhood last night so she could get the feel of things before they tackle the big runs.

With the cold weather ususally comes the sniffles. Actually, it's probably worse than that but I couldn't think of another word that began with "S". This morning I thought it might be strep and I suppose that would have worked but, that would have been really bad news. Shivers is another word I could have used as I have been running a fever all day and get the shakes if chilled. This is not the weekend to get sick as I am just three nights away from my last exam. It is really hard to think about Mendelian Genetics and ribonucleic acid when I'd rather be curled up under the covers trying to sleep this thing off. Please say a prayer for me that I get through these next few days.

I wanted to end on a positive note with a "surprise". It is probably in some ways better now than later to be sick but atleast I will be well for our trip back home to Illinois. My Dad purchased airlines tickets for Whitley & I to come home for Christmas!!!! This will be the first time in almost 14 years that I have been home on Christmas Day. It has been even longer since my sisters and I have been together as well, so we are all excited. Part of how the years got away from us is that John works at the Post Office and you are not allowed to schedule leave in December, for obvious reasons. Although he has had Christmas Day off over the years, he usually has to work the following day. The Denver Bulk Mail Center does run 24/7/365 so this year decided he would volunteer to work it and take his turn working Christmas Day. The good thing is that Whit & I will be home late Christmas Day to join back up with him and then he has the next couple of days off to spend with us!! It really is a surprise that we are going as I really had not planned on it!

Well, this might be my last blog for awhile, and possibly this year. There is lots to do between now and Christmas. Our new laundry room should be done this week and things back in order by the weekend. The next phase is to move our bedroom to the loft and start demo-ing the master bath and master closet. John wants to take a little break and than go back at it after New Years. It will be nice when it is all done and the dust is settled, literally!

Until then, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!