Day 268

Wow, Saturday could not have come soon enough. A lot of energy went into e-learning and foster care this week. Would you drive 40 minutes one-way for a dine-in lunch? Nana and Papa did just that, a quick trip to Fiesta Mexicana in Woodland Park, CO (just a couple miles inside Teller County). And it was delightful. Jamie did another Parlor Car Chat this morning about the Fillmore and Western Railway that he and Matteo visited in 2014. Here's the video recording of the Chat. Jonny and Papa watched 48 Christmas Wishes before dinner.

Trevor always went for the biggest possible.
And it fit in their house!

Dining in at Fiesta Mexicana in Woodland Park, CO.

Two foster care families meet.

Video on YouTube

We're not at all sure where this was, or when...

Day 267

We made it to, and through, Friday! Jamie took the two older boys shopping a little (no success, but Starbucks!) and Tracy and Lynn got stuff for Crossfire Ministries (collecting through our church). Tracy also hung up the new stockings for any foster babies around at Christmas, like the two this year.

Self-made breakfast

We almost got the game finished. It's hard to get game
time in with 4 players with different e-learning schedules.

At Target... The ammo is a roll of TP!

We're set now for "visitors."

Great therapy!

Day 266

The TimberCreek Kids packets are done! Check out that list of sign-in times for e-learning. Good thing Fina and Matteo are entirely on their own and AJ needs only a smidge of reminder. The three littles on the other hand... AJ had us get out a new Monopoly version we'd not payed before. We didn't get to play more than a couple rounds, but it's definitely different enough to be interesting. And very appropriate for election season. 

Day 265

Today was more e-learning and more TimberCreek Kids packets for Sunday pickup.

Keeping all the devices going is a challenge.

Mod Pizza with friends, virtually.

Day 264

Day 2 of e-learning (this time around). Papa cooked spaghetti for dinner. We found a 2013 pinot noir in the cellar from Chene (Edna Valley, CA). Nana and Papa went there in 2017 and had a delightful time in the proprietor's home (they weren't fully set up yet). They're very well set up now, and you can stay the night in the 3500sf house! Can be an event venue as well. Here are pics from that day's wine tasting travels (Chene starts at pic #20). The pinot turned out to be quite good, despite pinot not being a family fave. In addition to schooling, Tracy and Lynn were shopping, prepping, and organizing the Christmas Packets going out to all TimberCreek Kids (pics on that tomorrow). And check out Jamie's little 30-second video that hit the Give! Campaign today.

Day 263

The theme of the day was "Back to Home for School." All the kids were on e-learning starting today and ostensibly through Christmas break. We'll see. <RANT>Have I mentioned how destructive all this shutdown business has been?  I can only trust that there will be justice eventually.</RANT> Once we got all the logins figured out, correct software installed, and the schedules understood, we were golden. The kids really seem to get it. I guess we'll see tomorrow how well we actually got it.

Highlight of the day!

Nana reads to Sandy.