Christmas at the Flying W Ranch

Nana, Papa, and friends Judy and Gary headed up to the Flying W Ranch this evening for what turned out to be a fabulous event. Lynn has wanted to go to the Flying W ever since we got to town, but the place was destroyed by a forest fire (2012) before we moved to Colorado and finally re-opened in 2020. I don't know what the old place was like, but the new place is nothing like I expected. The dining hall and concert venue is incredibly large, beautiful, and modern (well-done "rustic"), the meal was quite good (and pie!), and the entertainment, well... It was great! A western-style Christmas music show, 5 headliners (The Flying W Wranglers) on stage and a 7-piece orchestral ensemble on the floor in front. The music was fun, great selection of pieces (from classical to Rawhide to Joy to the World), and masterfully performed! The visuals on-screen behind the musicians were a wonderful addition, too. It's located a few miles north of the Garden of the Gods. Two more reasons we have to go back: they have a narrow gauge railroad, and bison!

Rise Christmas Choir at Focus on the Family

Antonio is a member of the Rise Christian Performing Arts group's Christmas Choir which sang today at Focus on the Family. Below is a photo of the group (thanks to Monica Paul) and a video of one of their songs in which Antonio is featured (at right).

Santa Fe, NM

Nana and Papa did a little getaway trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico from the 17th to today. We stayed at the La Posada de Santa Fe - very cool! It's located right in the old downtown area so we walked everywhere. See the photo captions below for the various places we visited. What sparked this trip was Lynn spotting a Santa Fe Desert Chorale concert at the Basilica which, by the way, turned out to be magnificent. There was lingering snow on the ground since before we got here, but highs in the 40s and low 50s made things very comfortable with a jacket. By the way, Raton, NM is just about halfway in between Santa Fe and Colorado Springs, but we found several closed lunch spots. We had a nice little lunch both ways at Pappas Sweet Shop. All the photos are here.

La Plazuela restaurant at the La Fonda hotel

The Plaza was very well lit for Christmas!

The Shed offered very authentic local foods.

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

All manner of great sculpture along Canyon Road.

Geronimo is a great restaurant on Canyon Road.
We took a chance with a Joseph Carr wine from Paso Robles.
Quite good, especially given its affordability.

Coyote Cafe. Also a super place to have dinner.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Santa Knows Hebrew (Sort Of)

Let's make it clear... This was Nana's idea. The name tags on Nana and Papa's gifts to the Colorado kids are written in transliterated Hebrew. The wrapped presents have been out and about for some time now. We'll see who, if anyone, figured it out... One of the names actually occurs in the Hebrew Bible.

In the Midst of Advent

Gifts arriving from California! Family Dinners with an Advent flare. School projects coming home.

Twelve Days of Christmas!
Makings for 12 very different Old Fashioneds

Antonio's hydraulic hand

Later in the evening; more like Family Dessert.
3rd Sunday of Advent - Joy (in our list). More here...

Unbound. Eye of the Falcon.
Seventeen Forty. Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Spirit of Christmas

The title of this post is also the title of a concert we went to this evening. Antonio was part of a 20-voice teen choir in Rise Christian Arts. They sang at the Ent center along with the Colorado Crossroads Youth Orchestra.

Tracy recently made a batch of cookies
for her precept group at the hospital.

Santa dropped off a bag a little early...

Nana made this for "Ugly Sweater Day" at school.

At the concert.

That's Antonio at far right!

Fina's plants made it home for Christmas break.

An Elf Birthday Breakfast

This is what an Elf birthday breakfast looks like... The Littles could hardly contain themselves last night after helping set it up.

The real Buddy showed up.