Compound Living

Monday, December 25, 2023

Christmas 2023 (Eve/Day)

Here are a few of the pics from both days. All the pics are here.

Christmas Eve at TimberCreek.

Saturday, December 23, 2023

You know... What comes before Christmas Eve? Christmas Adam! Turned out to be quite the day! Nana and Lexi got started early on Sand Tart cookies. Lexi and Jonny are almost done with their Christmas Village Advent Calendar (from Kiwi Crates) - only two more days of items. We had a huge Family Dinner this evening, 16 people, and an even greater time with the topics: 4th Sunday of Advent: Peace, reading the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew, and playing Christmas Trivia. It was a hoot. And Jonny brought the house down with his robustly delivered answer to the last question of the night, "Turbo Man"! Oh, and Sam requested Chicken Piccata, so we had that with all the trimmings (Wine Lover's Rice, Caesar Salad, and Cheesecake).

When it's time to B-Reel...

Thursday, December 21, 2023

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).

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

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

Sunday, December 17, 2023

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.