From North to South, From Cold to Hot.

It was a week full of Christmas and snow, just as you would expect.  On Monday I went up to Salt Lake to meet with my friend Kimi for her birthday.  Here she is shown with one of her 3 daughters, and her grandson.  We are at another daughter's cafe, the Art Garden in Murray.  It's a charming place with a store attached.  The daughter shown here does the bookkeeping for her sister.

Here are the guests, Kimi, Margo, Kim's sister, me and a little bit of Shirley.

This picture has fuzzy light but shows Shirley better.  The funny thing is that the lady behind us looks a lot like Jann who started our art group.  The lady came and apologized for 'photo bombing', but we told her we loved it because she looks so much like a dear deceased friend.  A happy accident, and just maybe Jann was there, if she been with us still, she would have been.

I love the look on Kim's face as she opens my gift.

They are boxes about the size of cigarette boxes for her to use in her crafting classes for shadow boxes. 

Here she is with another gift.

Since I was already in Salt Lake, which is halfway to Erda, I ran out to make a Christmas visit with Aunt Joyce, since she didn't want to do anything for Christmas.  We had a nice visit and dinner at Applebees.

Also celebrating that day was Briahnna, happy birthday darling girl!!

On Tuesday I finished up shopping and wrapping gifts, as did Dad, then in the evening we went to Brady's folks house to celebrate Christmas Eve.  They had a some super fun games, that perhaps I should adopt.  This one was opening socks. The device in the middle had the strings attached to the boxes running through it so it was not evident which one you where choosing.  How fun.

Reagan opens hers.

The whole group

The result of the Great Sock Give-away of 2024.

Then they played the unwrap the cellophane ball and gather goodies.  This is the one I am thinking of adopting.

The kids had a ball. Pun not intended.

Here's a picture of all the Summer's grandkids.

Meanwhile in Idaho there was a whole houseful of Grinches, including Max. Enjoying Christmas Eve.

Back home and Christmas morning, Dad gets the center of an antique wagon wheel that's been made into a lamp.

Then Dad gets out the firewood.

and starts the fire.

Then he put together a partial version of his race car set, that he also got for Christmas.

Doesn't it look lovely and cozy and all ready for the grands to appear.

The oldest grandchild present is Titan, and it does indeed look like he has surpassed his Aunt Darby in height.

The race car track was so interesting, that after brunch it even kept Mac from running into make lego creations for a while.

Brady shows off the glasses that Maddie made for him using her copier gun that she got for Christmas.

On the left you can see my friend Mary who came to celebrate the day.

Madi is a maker, look at this cool garbage truck she made of Legos.

The girls visit as Reagan takes care of her 'live' baby doll.  It was fun to watch. 

Here I am with some fun gifts.  It was definitely a Wicked Austen Christmas for me.

My friend Mary gave me two cute Austen related books, and Emily and Dad gave me Wicked stuff.  Emily a Wicked School sweater, and a Wicked Little Golden Book, and Dad gave me a Wicked sweatshirt and a Wicked Stanley Mug. Yep, definitely supporting my personal fandom. 

It's hard to tell that I am wearing my cute red and white sweater that I got for Trevor and Nell, and Dad wore his too.  Made the day a bit more festive.

Here Darby shares Dallas playing a song he wrote.

Here's the man.

... and here is what he made her for Christmas, it's a collage of the fun events and travel they did together over this past year.  Pretty fun eh?

Other electronic guests were Trevor and Spencer for a short facetime visit.  Gotta love that.

On Thursday I worked at Treasures, while Dad got everything ready to head north.  Yep, after work this is where we headed.  Best bed and breakfast ever! The treats here are delightful, and the company is delicious.

In fact, the place is affiliated with a Sauna place that has a cold plunge too.  Lucky us. Dad holds a couple of books they have on display.  

Charley carries her towels up top.

Here they are in the sauna.

Ohmmmm. 

Next there's a shower then ...

It's time for the cold plunge. Brittany channels her inner yogi. 

On Saturday Dad and the kids headed off to the slopes, leaving me to junk to my heart's content at the huge Antique World Mall in Boise. I took pics of display ideas like this one.  I have a cart just like it, and its full of buttons.

Also ran across this stitchery that was done by an antique dealer in our mall. Not quite as amazing as it sounds, though, Mike designed and stitched one of them then a company who liked his work had them copied by women in Asia.  I've seen lots of them in my Mall, and I also have a pair of original Christmas socks he did for me years ago.  Mike passed away a couple of years ago, so it was a fun blast from the past.

When I finally finished walking the mall, which is triple the size of Treasures, the check-out line with two registers was 30 people long ... of course I can't stand, so I went to the car and had a snack and played on my phone for a half an hour. When I got back in the store the line was virtually gone.

Meanwhile, Dad, Kai and Charley went skiing at Bogus Basin. 

Did you know that Newsweek did a poll and that Bogus Basin won first place in their Ski resort preference survey?  It was followed by two Utah resorts, then Sun Valley was fourth.  Pretty cool people here.

Kai and Charley ready to go.

Cool kids!

Break time.

What a great day!

Back at home, Charley shows off her great style!!

Other people had a chance to play in the snow too, they just had to go to a cabin in the mountains.

Becca did a tour on our family Messenger group chat. 

Here's Brady out walking the dog in the snow.

Pretty cute cabin 

On the flip side of the weather are the members of Trevor's family in Mexico.

Making new friends.

I love this mother daughter picture.

The Papa.

The workers in their group

Making food for the crew.

Here a cute worker bee.

More workers

still more,

Hi Penny

Muscle building.

Here's our Eleanor.

On Sunday evening Kai was Mikes Su Chef ...

and they made latkes and amazing grilled veggies.

Most beautiful latkes I have ever seen ....

The grilled veggies were yum too, and we had sour cream and applesauce for garnish.  We also had smoked salmon, and it doesn't get better than that.

After dinner, as we waited for the candles to burn down ...

Dad read Hershall and the Hannukah Goblin.

Then we spun the dreidel together, with peanut M and M's and

Charlie won!!

We followed up with a movie by Adam Sandler, and starred in by his whole family, called 'You are not invited to my Bat Mitsvah'. So Happy Hannukah, I'll be seeing you all on the final day of Hannukah!

And here we are in stair steps, three generations.  Thanks for our stay Britt, it was amazing.