Christmas Weekend

I feel like my Christmas celebration started on Wednesday night, before Christmas. (It started in regard to giving us a white Christmas.) I found myself flying home from Portland (delayed in the air over DIA for an hour) in a heavy snow storm. I was thankful for my new 4x4 Truck on the drive home. At some points, I was driving in snow up to 6" deep on unplowed roads, down to Colorado Springs. My 90 minute drive ended up taking nearly three hours and I got home after 1am. Thursday morning we awoke to single digit temps and everything was white.

Christmas Eve, Cassi, Sean and Aften came over for the night. It was fun having eight of us in the house for all the festivities.
We had such a wonderful Christmas celebration. After some of our famous Sausage Balls and enjoying our stocking stuffers, we paused to read the Christmas story from the book of Luke. Keeping the celebration and exchanging of gifts in perspective of the birth of Christ, God's gift to us, was most appropriate.

The drive home from DIA.

Audra likes to keep the birds fed through the winter.

After a coffee on Friday morning, Audra and I drove through Garden of the Gods.

The kiddos were pleased with their Nook Tablets.

Generally they were pleased with the whole morning.

Tyler and his motorcycle gear.

Audra in her "girly" motorcycle gear.

Tyler is happy about the holidays for all sorts of reasons... Home from TBI, Good Food, Sleeping Late.... etc.

Dad got some new dog covers.

Audra and her new hunting rifle.

Everyone had Monday off, so we loaded up and skied Keystone. The day was beautiful and the skiing was pretty good.

New Truck and Saturday Christmas Shopping

It's been a fun weekend. We started off with an exchange of vehicles. It has been 10 years since John drove a pickup and it was high time to move back to a truck. We decided on a Dodge Ram 2500 4x4. It is a beautiful, white truck that will haul the bikes around and be a fun commuter. Additionally, we (Audra, Bryce, Katie and John) spent all day on Saturday, Christmas shopping up in Denver. We enjoyed a great lunch at Papadeaux Cajun Kitchen and several hours in the mall in south Denver.

Sprint Event at Beaver Creek

About a month ago, the State Director for the Colorado GOAL Academy called me to inquire if Audra and I would like to attend a Sprint Wireless event up at Beaver Creek, Colorado. I am on the Board of Directors and he wanted us to represent the school. The school is one of the largest Sprint customers in the state of Colorado. Sprint is a huge Winter Olympic Sponsor and they had a large presence at the Birds of Prey, World Cup Event. Of course I said, YES, and we spent three days up in the mountains skiing with Olympians and being treated like royalty. Our condo was 20 yards from the lift and the people were waiting on us hand and foot to buckle on our boots, etc.... It was ridiculous. Maybe, you might recognize some of the names below.

We had an fun morning of skiing with Jonny Mosley, Gold Medal Winner in 1998. He led a group of about 6 of us for three hours.  Audra was one of two ladies and had no problem hanging with the boys!!!

We also got to hang with Seth Wescott (Gold Medal in 2006 and 2010). Seth was really normal and enjoyable to hang with... a great guy.

At the base, we cheered Body Miller on, as he won his first downhill in four years.

Beaver Creek is really a beautiful place. We enjoyed as much of it as we could.

.....yes, we enjoyed the hot tube as well!!!!

And of course, Audra had the band fighting over her!

Thanksgiving Trip - Lane Family

Next we loaded up and drove from San Antonio to Brownwood. It was great to see Mother, along with several siblings and their families. Clay and Jessica, Jim and Amy, Jacque and Fudd, Jay and Craige were able to join us to celebrate Thanksgiving. Being that Mom lives out on 70 acres, the kids have the run of the property to hunt and enjoy the outdoors. Additionally, there were card games and the traditional, spirited game of 42. It was great to catch up with everyone and great to know that God's blessings are on everyone's lives.

Thanksgiving Trip - Mathis Family

It was a great trip to Texas for a full week of family and fun. We departed Sunday, November the 20th, and drove straight through to San Antonio.... just a short, 900 mile dash. Sunday night through Wednesday, we stayed with Gary and Judy, enjoying great food, shopping and a trip up to the Blanco property. We were able to enjoy Kendra's new baby, Riley, and the other four, little cousins. Chris and Holly hosted a great evening of feasting and family fun on Tuesday night. Of course, there was wonderful Mexican Food. The weather was really nice, as we avoided the heat and humidity.... with a well, place cold-front by Mother Nature.

Halloween

As with any other Halloween, Audra had to purchase the two, massive bags of candy for all the Trick-or-Treaters that would be coming by the house. Mostly, Audra loves the little 2-5 year olds...... Also for the first time in years and years, we purchased a pumpkin. Katie got the honors to carve and create. She did a great job!!!!!