Christmas in Boulder

We have just returned home from one of the best Christmas holidays ever.  We were hosted by Christine at her home in Boulder and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We went to Christmas Eve services together and then put a beef tenderloin on the Weber.  The next few days we spent skiing Vail and Keystone, as well as hiking some incredible trails within walking distance of Christine's house.  There may have been some hula hooping and frisbee throwing going on as well. (Pictures to follow in another blog post.) We ate at The Buff restaurant for breakfast one morning and at the Walnut Brewery for dinner one evening.  We saw True Grit and loved it.

It is quite likely that this will be on next year's Christmas card since we seem to have a difficult time getting together in one place with everyone's schedules, but we'll see. Thought you would enjoy seeing what we looked like when our ski trips first began.  Steve still has those RayBans tucked away somewhere.  I wish I had kept those Adidas jackets.  They would probably still fit C and L.  We thought we would try to recreate this photo after lunch at Keystone and completely forgot to.  So here are the alternative pictures. 

The
      Boys
              and
                    the
                         Girls!
 

Louise's Graduation from NC State

What a great weekend we had in North Carolina.  I just cannot wrap my mind around the fact that our youngest has graduated from college.  The ceremony was held in one of the buildings that Louise had a number of her classes in which really made it special.  As you can imagine, not as many students graduate in December, so it was a smaller but more intimate ceremony.  Lovely.
We went to one of our favorite restaurants on Friday night. ( Firebirds ; where Christine spent many hours seating customers.) Since Steve's folks are so close to Raleigh, we spent the night with them and woke up to a great home made breakfast that Marcella whipped up and then it was back to Louise's apartment to take some pictures before the ceremony.

This one Steve took as she was walking out.  One happy girl!
We celebrated with a late lunch.  The grandparents were able to join us for the day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
And today Louise arrives in Texas.  We will have a couple of days hanging out here before we hit the road for Colorado.

Hope y'all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Phytel Party

On Saturday night we hosted the Phytel Christmas Party.  It was a new experience for me, not because we hosted a party, as we have done that scores of times.  This was unique because we had it catered and had an event planner come and place furniture and bring LOVELY floral arrangements. Oh my word.  I am now spoiled.  The only thing I had responsibility for was making sure my house was in order and decorated for Christmas which I had done the weekend after Thanksgiving.
So on Saturday morning Steve and I went on a long bike ride and then went out to lunch at a great little Tex Mex restaurant. On the day of the party!  Never have I been able to do that before.
All this blissful anticipation of entertaining in such grand style is a credit to the one and only Marilyn!  She is a dream and an organizational genius.  I am her biggest fan.

I know I can't get used to this kind of entertaining, but I sure am thankful for the experience.  It was a blast.

Thanksgiving recap and weekend activities.

It been a fun week.  Christine was here for a really relaxing and fun visit last week.  She and I did venture out to the Galleria to hit Zara's, which is pretty much a must for anyone in their 20's and 30's.  I can see why my girls love it so much. Other than that, we kept it pretty low key.  Christine and I did take lots of pictures for a blog post on Runza's, but I can't get them off of the camera.  Hmmmmmm.  Need to figure that out. Still working on it.
On Wednesday, Louise flew in and we jumped into full Thanksgiving mode, making  a pecan pie.  We were up early for a quick breakfast and then the big food prep.  Even though there were only 3 of us here to eat it, we went ahead and made all the favorites, just in smaller portions.  Yum!  We ate early enough that we were able to heat up some leftovers by late in the evening.  Thursday, Friday, and most of today (Saturday) will be taken up with football games.  Louise and I do plan to sneak out to a movie this afternoon.  It is time to get out of the house! And if we see an open parking spot at the mall, we may even brave that for a bit.  Somewhere in the mix, Louise needs to finish reading a book on Shakespeare and write a paper.  Ugh!
Oh, and we did start decorating for Christmas.  I enjoy Thanksgiving so much  that I wouldn't want to decorate for Christmas until that day is complete, but now I am in the mood.  It is even cold here in Texas, which makes it that much better.  Hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to all the preparations for Christmas.
As a side note, Cookie and Pepper are officially SPOILED.  Two weeks with Christine and Louise and they are convinced they are royalty and our couches are their thrones.

Friday = Christine's Arrival

It is hard being so far away from all of children. If we want to see them, we have to fly to where they are of have them fly to us. The good thing is that all of them can get here direct without having to worry about missing connections etc. DFW is about the best airport in the country.
So, tomorrow Christine will use a "freebie" ticket and come for a long weekend. Since she has taken care of the ticket, I think I will have to treat her to a trip to Zara and the sale racks of Anthropologie. We are also on a mission to buy a couple of baby gifts for two of Dean's friends who just had baby boys. (When my boys were little the clothes for them were not nearly as adorable as they are now.)
We will spend Saturday night watching the Huskers football game and eating homemade Runza's. Google that. We were introduced to them when we lived in Nebraska and they are about the best comfort food ever. Maybe I will get Christine to help me photograph the preparation and finally put together my first food blog. (Lindsay Widdle, you are my inspiration.)
Then, next week, our baby will fly in for Thanksgiving. First Thanksgiving EVER that all the Schelhammer's won't be together. Louise will be an only child for this one. I think we'll put her to work making pecan pies!

Elk Camp

Over the past few years, I have grown accustomed to spending some time alone in the fall, while Lefty heads to Montana for all sorts of hunting. (Pheasant, Antelope, Mule Deer, and Elk) After a few years of seeing the pictures and hearing the stories, I decided I wanted to see what all the excitement was all about.
So, a couple of weeks ago, Lefty asked me if I wanted to come up to Elk Camp for a few days and maybe help him get the cabin stocked with food and beverages. Well, with my love for grocery shopping and meal planning, I jumped all over that offer and he booked me a ticket to go in a day ahead to do some shopping and organizing. I made a very complete shopping list and about the time I left the hotel to begin, Lefty called and said he was on an earlier flight and would be able to help me.
We hit Costco around 10 a.m. with two carts. One hour later, we were off to Albertson's to pick up the rest of the things that we couldn't buy at Costco, and one hour after that we picked up Tom and Jim at the airport and we were on our way.
It takes about an hour and a half to get to the road where we have to cut off the highway. Then....it takes another 45 minutes to go the last 5 miles on a dirt road that has deep ruts and rocks sticking up all over. It is a breeze on the atv's, but in a truck pulling a trailer, it is treacherous. But, we made it.
The cabin leaves a bit to be desired. Electricity is available only when the generator is running. It isn't particularly dust free. The mattresses look like they have been around a LONG time. And there are a few furry friends that scoot around at night. And, I discovered there wasn't an overabundance of cooking utensils, pans and such. But, we were not deterred from beginning our adventure and having fun.
The next morning we were up @ 6 in the morning to get to a location in a pasture where we hoped to see the elk moving back up through the property after their night time grazing down in the valley. But, the weather was so warm and beautiful that the Elk just weren't moving around. They were staying in the high elevations. A bit disappointing for the guys.
The next few days, I chose to stay at the cabin while they went out tracking the deer, elk , and antelope. I prepared meals, read the latest Vince Flynn novel (the best one ever), and started the new John Grisham. I drank way too much coffee and tidied up the place as best I could. And, I enjoyed the views!!!
Here are a few pictures to give you a feel for what it's like. Can't wait to get back there.

Switching it up.

When we moved to Texas, we knew we would need to get used to the heat. We did, sort of. But not to the point where we wanted to get our exercise out in it, so we purchased a treadmill. It was a great decision. We have clocked hours on it and will continue to, but now we back up to the Campion Trail which is part of the Trinity Trail system here in Las Colinas. It is a really nice, wide trail which we have enjoyed walking on for the past week or so, but we decided it would be even more fun to ride bikes on it and be able to cover more ground. So we went out and test drove some bikes in the parking lot of the bike store. Can you just picture that? I can't believe how bikes have changed since the last one I bought. They are so light and comfortable to ride. This is going to be fun!