After our travelling festivities, we stayed closer to home, and were the gathering place for the family this year. The long weekend made for good visiting, lots and lots of games, and much laughter and yummy food. We've also gone hiking and enjoyed performing the pre-holiday rituals of cookie baking, decorating, music and film enjoying and more. It was a joyous time for sure. Why, we even had a top notch round of Charades, wherein my children learned about Maurice Chevalier when they had to act out/guess "Every Little Breeze Seems to Whisper Louise".
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| This tree lies in the North Fork of the Feather River, up on Caribou Rd. I took a drive up the road one chilly morning. |
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| This is the tree back on February 8th of this year, during the second big rain storm. |
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| I love my Christmas tree. |
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| Our friend Cathy came from Colorado for an overnight visit on her way to her Dad's for Christmas. |
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| Her puppy, Willow |
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| She gave us a kid goat roast; my first taste ever of goat, and I liked it a lot! |
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| A gift from our little family down the hill, who made them for us. |
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| Matt and Jeffery prepared to hike energetically |
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| Group selfie from Rock Creek. Kyria and Matt will be hiking up and over and down the Tobin Ridge; 13.4 miles. |
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| I have gone 2.5 miles and turned around. Jeffery will go another mile or so, and then come back down to meet me below. |
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| I love this "black rock" section of the trail. |
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| Power tower warren. This is just part of it. |
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| The insulators were glittering in the sun. |
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| It spurred me to sing "Oh Christmas Tree" along my way |
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| Power tower "art" shot |
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| Fool's Gold glitters in the sun |
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| Kyria photo bombs me |
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| One of the many games of cribbage. We also played Quirkle |
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| This was Saturday night; the eve of Christmas Eve (it was a bit confusing); when we had our big dinner |
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| Grant's lime pie; a tradition |
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| Eating pie |
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| Eating pie. |
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| Sunday morning; Christmas Eve breakfast made by Matt and Kyria. |
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| Waiting to head up to the White Cliffs of Tobin for a leg-stretch and breath of fresh air. |
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| Dick's holly bush has lots of red berries on it this year. |
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| Kyria and Jeffery took a hike up this hill; straight up. |
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| Cookie and gift swap with Uncle Grover. |
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| Cookie and gift swap with Autumn, Oakley, and Bentley (and their parents) |
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| Christmas morning. Santa came! |
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| A deer arrives |
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| Two deer; both with horns |
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| Kyria gets her stocking |
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| Matt gets his stocking; the goof ball. |
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| Looks like Christmas is over for another year. (Uncle Grover gave Jeffery a belt this year, and the card reflected that) |
Ho ho ho! Hope you all had warm and wonderful "holly daze". The best to everyone in the new year coming!!!
