It’s been a Christmas whirlwind around here the past 10 days.
We started at the Schobel cabin in the big woods of Wisconsin by cutting down and decorating a Christmas tree.
Followed by Paga Jane (Grandma Schobel) schooling the boys in Ping Pong
And multiple games of Foosball
We watched Lawrence Welk re-runs which the kids totally loved and I’m sure have been searching Youtube for more episodes.
There were card games and a family slide show with some seriously fashion challenged pictures from the 70’s and 80’s, if only I had thought to take pictures of the slide show…..
There was also sledding where Paga (Grandpa Schobel) tested out his new hip. Thankfully it seemed to pass the test, although I’m pretty sure his surgeon would be cringing if he knew. But the kids – big and little – had a blast.
And we went swimming and out to dinner and to church and trains sets were set up and presents opened and food eaten, and then more food and then the tree fell over and after eating some food we decided to set it back up and then had a snack.
But the best part of all was this…
And then we were off to the ranch. This is what it looked like outside the Salt Lake City airport where we had to make our connecting flight to Casper.
This is what it looked like inside the Salt Lake City airport as flights started getting cancelled and the Casper flight went from on time to delayed to off the board for awhile.
This is what it looked like inside the Casper airport….
But thankfully we did eventually take off and everyone was all smiles once again.
The next morning at the ranch we awoke to the first significant snowfall so far this winter which was welcomed with open arms.
And then it was Christmas Take Two with more presents and food and games.
And Casey, of course, made her famous taco dip.
And there was dancing on the tables when Grammy wasn’t looking…
This is charades….I have no idea what they are doing…..neither did they but it was extremely entertaining.
Old friends stopped by…
And the best part….
Then because cattle need to eat no matter what holiday it is, there was feeding every morning.
Heifers enjoying their morning cake and hay
Cows lining up for cake
Heading in to the feed grounds
Morning conference call cowboy style
Dad filling up the cake feeder
And as if all that weren’t enough, to top it all off, the Vikings beat the Packers to make their way into the play offs!
And the Broncos won too! And also get to go to the play offs!
Thank goodness they weren’t playing each other. I’m afraid that might disrupt the time space continuum or at the very least make it extremely awkward for family members to be in the same room together.
Yes, it was a very good Christmas indeed!
And I’m thinking my New Year’s Resolution needs to be to give up food……but then again Joe is cooking pizza and it smells pretty good so I’m having second thoughts on that one.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with as much family, friends and laughter as ours was. Wishing you the very best in the New Year.
Pretty Work 