Hummingbird Friend ©

Howdy!

(Copyright 2013)

Holidays ©

Thanksgiving and Christmas all at the same time!!!

We always look forward to the holidays, knowing that the kids will start to show up for visits in the months of November and December.

We have the tradition of doing Thanksgiving with Kyle & Jen on Thanksgiving and then rushing right into Christmas the next day!  Thanksgiving Day is the huge dinner with cooking, baking, playing games and just being thankful for the family and the time together!  The turkey was so golden brown and juicy this year, which in turn made so much rich brown gravy!  And the pies once more were a hit!

After too much food we decided to go to a late movie ("Lincoln") so we could all stay awake since the kids were planning a late shopping trip or an early shopping trip for Black Friday.  They had a plan and were on a mission!


The Friday after Thanksgiving we were off to start our Christmas celebration.  The first gift was for Jen--a Red Jeep Tour in the Red Rock of Sedona.  It was something that she has wanted to do for many years and I remembered!  It was the sunset tour--we were gone for about two hours in the beautiful red rocks with the sun shining.  The weather was unseasonably warm in the high 70's!  What more could you ask for--warm sunshine, beautiful scenery with lots of fun and laughs with the kids!


This is the gift that will keep giving (the mission that the kids were on)--what a great idea they had, giving us a new BlueRay with Wifi so we can get movies instantly on Netflix!

Then there were the games, and more food, we checked a few studios at the Hidden in the Hills Art Festival, and then there was more food!

It was all good with a lot of laughs and fun but my favorite and special time with Kyle was the hanging of the lights on the big Honey Mesquite in front of the dining room window with pictures taken by Jen.

Kyle in his favorite color hoodie--one of his Christmas present this year.  It seems like so long ago we were at the airport waiting for the airplane to arrive but the time together goes so fast and it is back to the airport to wait for the departure of the airplane!  And it is always hard to say, Bye, Bye!

Two weeks later it is time to start the celebration all over again this time with Eric and Jan!  We started out with a special lunch for Jan at Pizzeria Bianco, something she had been waiting to do but we had never been able to find the time.

And then it was off to their first Christmas gift--BOWLING!

It was pretty fun and silly but it did make us all laugh!  Great shoes--

The second day we did our tradition of cooking an ethnic dinner--this year it was Thai.  Sweet and sour pork, chicken panang, pad-sae-iew, sticky rice and coconut mango cheese cake.  The next evening we were off to the beautiful Desert Botanical Gardens to see the luminaries and listen to the different musicians playing throughout the gardens.

As with Kyle and Jen the time with Eric and Jan also went too quickly.  But not before I had a favorite and special time with Eric putting up the luminarias that we purchased at the Botanical Gardens!

(Copyright 2013)