Christmas in Sioux Falls area

We spent Christmas with Ron's daughter's family who lives by Sioux Falls. The dogs always greet you when you arrive - it's hard to take their picture, but I succeeded here! Embracing the frigid weather, we walked through the Christmas-tree-lighted park to see the beautiful Sioux Falls, which had special illumination for Christmas. The wind was so cold it took your breath away, but the walk was worth it! I took a picture of the girls and Ron, and another one of Katelynd and Jana. Myra was a trooper, running as if it wasn't cold at all! We had a lovely time visiting. Snow fell quite heavily Christmas Day, so it was definitely a white Christmas! We left early Wednesday for home; the roads were really slippery and the ice fog coated the car antenna so it swayed wildly; the windshield iced up and I tried to clear it with blue juice - a big mistake, it smeared everything up. So anyhow, after some jittery driving in the fog behind the snow plow, we made it to Mitchell in 2 hours, the sun came up and the roads were dry and clear all the way home. Whew! Well, next post will hopefully be from warmer climes! Until then.

Early Christmas

We had Christmas with Sue's kids early this year. So we decorated right after Thanksgiving. Check out the VERY tall tree we axed from the forest!

I decided to try to make a garland out of real pine boughs. I took branches from all 4 Ponderosa pine trees on our land (we don't have very many, I discovered!) and cedar and junipers in the back yard. They had little berries on them so they were awesome. Check out the garland and table decoration I made - all thanks to Martha Stewart's website!

The kids came over and we had awesome steak sandwiches by John and soup; then we opened our gifts and Santa's stockings. At first I could not figure out what the tripod thingy was - can you guess?

The next day it was really snowing - we have about 6 inches. I was chairman of the quilt show and it was well attended despite the snow. I entered my Christmas quilt, finished it just in time! Here it is.

Next post may be from Arizona - we are looking forward to the warm weather!