Family + Snow = Perfect Christmas

What a wonderful way to spent a Christmas holiday; with family in the snow! Just a few pictures of our holiday trip.

We are on our way to the Lake Tahoe area, to stay at a little resort in Hope Valley called Sorensen's. It is a darling little place, a bit on the rustic side and off the main tourist list of places to go. We created our own sledding, sliding and boarding runs. And we didn't have to fight the crowds!! It snowed the whole time there except for the last day. Perfect!!!!

This is the office and little cafe.

We saw that someone had built a snowman. It's a very good snowman, but of course we had to build a snow dragon......

Can you see it taking shape?

We think he is amazing!!! So did the other guests. We even had the owner knock at our cabin door to tell us good job!!!

This is the little cabin we stayed in. Little being the key word. But, it was so cute and had everything we needed, with LOTS of wood stacked in the little outdoor entryway and ready for the stove. There was a kitchen/living area on one side and on the other side was one bedroom with two queen size bunk beds that to even reach the bottom 'bunk' I had to climb the ladder. They were HUGE! Kinda scary to sleep under a queen size bunk bed that huge above you.... Tayler also discovered another queen size bed on top of the area between the bedroom and kitchen. That one he claimed for himself, he could look down into the kitchen area or bedroom area. Watch out below for flying pillows!!!!

Some artistic person created these little bears climbing on the trees, out of moss. I thought they were so clever, I want one in my yard.....Jessica come make me one!!!!

The last day was spent at Kirkwood; them skiing, Tayler snowboarding and me inside having coffee.........................this last day was without a doubt the most beautiful day for them to ski, total sunshine and not a lot of people.

Merry Christmas to all

This is a before picture of our day-after Thanksgiving table. It was wonderful to have Jess and Matt and his parents along with Sherie and her family and a family friend, at my home for dinner. I put a table in my sun room so we could all eat together, I couldn't fit the food on it, but we could fit around it very cozily.









Just a couple of pic's during the eating.


















Here is my tree. It is entirely decorated with German ornaments, with the exception of a couple of homemade ones. And a few candy canes.






















These little guys I got in Oregon at a favorite store of mine. They had things from Norway, Sweden and such. After 20 years the store closed and is no longer there, very sad. These little guys just make me happy when I look at them. Their beards are made from Iceland sheep fur and the felt hats are from Sweden sheep fur. I really hate to put them away after the holidays, so I try to find places to have them out all year long. After all, we need things around us that make us happy! Plus, I really think they want to be out instead of packed away.








I have a little bit of decoration in the sun room. The penquin is one I had painted a few years ago and decided he would join us this year.









This little bear topper is very old. Corinnea made her plus about 5 more many, many, many (how many?) years ago. She likes being on the little tree, heights scare her.









See, it is a VERY little tree.

Miss Kitty likes HER tree. She says, "thank you for pulling it up for me".

She doesn't get to go outside, so this is her treat for the year, little does she know it is not real.

This is just a side note. One of the reasons I love where I live, in the country, is this! This hawk, amazing huge, was in my backyard. I was standing under the tree and listening to it's call. I could hear another hawk answering him. He was eyeing the little birds bathing and playing in the bird fountain!

Hope you enjoyed my up-date and that I didn't bore you too much.

Merry Christmas to all!

News from Chloe

Clara and I finally got to visit each other!! Our caregivers have both been so busy with doing things to their homes and have totally ignored us. We are not really complaining, but it was good to get out of the house. They did take us to this amazing little place for breakfast, but there were'nt any flowers on the table for us to eat; we just had to sit and watch them eat! They did let us sit on the table and talk to the other people that were having breakfast; they all thought we were so cute and kept saying ahhhhhhhhh, how sweet. When they found out we were from Germany, they were amazed! This little breakfast place is in a old historical town named Placerville up in the foothills of the Sierra's. It is an old house and you can actually sit outside in a kind of enclosed patio and watch the snow fall in the winter time.




Here is a picture of me and Clara sitting on the table watching all the people.






This is a picture of us with our caregivers and an aunt who is also named Clara ........they were happy to meet one another. Aunt Clara would like to have a friend like us.





After breakfast they took us to one of their favorite places to visit, Apple Hill. They let us watch the fish, but Clara was worried that one of the fish might jump up and bite her. She had heard that fish like little critters like us.....I told her she was safe as long as she didn't look at them....I told her, "don't make eye contact."

We had a very fun day and were so happy to see something new instead of all that noise and moving things around and painting that was going on at each of our new homes. We are very happy where we are, but we do miss our friends. Clara misses Antonio very much. I miss Henry. Until we get to go on another adventure, goodbye for now, keep crafting.

What I've been doing - Part 2

After two weeks of painting, cleaning and putting her beautiful home back together (renter damage), we decided that it was time for a break and since it was her birthday, we were justified in running away! I took her up to a wonderful place called Apple Hill. It is miles of apple farms with all kinds of different things to see, eat, buy, eat, pet, eat....well, you get the picture. It is in the Sierra foothills and a wonderful place to go to recoup. One of our favorite places is the High Hill Ranch, their apple donuts are to die for! And, they are healthy because I said so. They have a pond that is stocked with fish where children can try their hand at fishing. The morning we were there, the fish were jumping out of the water like crazy! One even jumped and 'walked' across on his tail, yes he did! I kept trying to get a picture of it and after several tries I finally got two.



I don't know who was more interested in watching them jump, the little kids or us. I'm sure we were making too much noise each time we saw one jump. It doesn't take too much to make us happy!

We decided we wanted to 'pet' the fish, and we did! Have you ever done that? It is so cool, they just floated there and let us pet them! Of course, when I tried to actually pick one up he slipped right through my hand. Mommies were standing there with their children watching the crazy ladies trying to pet the fish.......no, we were not a good example.

Since it was her birthday I treated her to breakfast; coffee and apple donuts. Big spender I am! I also told her I would pay for all her treasure's she picked out, as her birthday gift. Apples and pears and peaches oh my! Pumpkins and cider and donuts to try! Silly gift and she loved it. She is also very easy to please. I think just getting out and in the fresh air and beautiful countryside was what we both needed. And, we had a lot of laughts and saw some VERY interesting people.

These people were the MOST interesting, they gave me permisson to take their picture and post it! (I hope they don't find by blog) They have FOUR dogs, in pouches. On their backs and fronts. Their story is that the dogs won't let them shop, so they put them in the pouches while they shop and take them out when they stop for a break.

We saw them again before we left and the dogs were out and playing and running around. I thought is was hilarious, Sherie thought they were 'weird'. The dogs were cute and funny, you could tell they were SO used to this. The mom was very friendly and was flattered that I wanted to take a picture, they were totally happy in their differentness!!!

Anyway, we had a wonderful day out and were ready to go back and get to work. Her house is looking GREAT................

What I've been up to - part 1

A couple of weeks ago I was in Lake Tahoe for a few days. The lake is amazing. The time there was too short, I wanted more. Cool days, clear nights; no cooking or cleaning, good food, no cooking or cleaning, oh did I already say that?! Some of my friends and I did a two hour tour on this boat. It was too short, I wanted more, sound familiar? I loved just sitting in a bean bag and no noise but the water lapping against the boat. If the people would have not talked I would have liked it more! But, I wasn't a grump about it. I let them have their fun too.




This is me, the face being in a shadow is a good thing.







I took this picture of the sails by lying down under them and taking the picture looking up. Don't worry, I didn't look weird, I was in the bean bag, even one of the other guests asked me to take one with his camera. I think it looks cool.

This picture was taken through the boards looking down into the lake. It didn't look to me like it was enough between me and the lake...but, I wasn't scared, it was too pretty and peaceful, except for the people that were talking........

At the resort where I was staying, a large group of quilters were there too. They were so cool about showing us what they were quilting, I was so impressed with their art and to me it is an art. They are there each year and the resort has their quilts hanging in each room instead of pictures. AMAZING!!!! There were many I would love to have. Ok, thats my part 1 up-date, this took all my energy to figure out how to put pictures in with my story, so I'm going to have to rest before I do part 2, it is a fun one!!! Ever seen a fish fly????

tagged

Boy have I messed this one up.....here is my facts, I hope.

1. I have some days that I feel invisible.
2. I would rather be outside than inside...however...
3. I love being in my sunroom with a book when it is raining.
4. I am quiet but have my 'loud' days.
5. Flowers make me happy.
6. Love being with people but can be uncomfortable in a crowd.
7. Am very flattered that Thorngren tagged me......

I've been tagged by Thorngren

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.

4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Well I don't know how to link to my tagger yet, but I'll learn for the future.

Here is my

Definition of nonsense

Things of relatively no importance or value.......that will probably be a perfect description of my blog. I will try to be interesting but, no promises. My attempt to start off with a cool picture was a challenge to say the least. This one of the roosters has a story, I will make it short; there is a LITTLE town named Fair Oaks where the chickens and roosters run wild and control the traffic in town, where the main street is only 3 short blocks long. They have been in control for at least 40 years. They started their campaign small with just a few being brave enough to walk the streets. Now, they are large in numbers and even have a annual holiday celebration in their honor....during the spring they parade their young in the parks and warn you of impending doom if you get too close to their babies. Well, that's my post for now. I hope to have some crafting things to show in the future days...