Day 281

The Fosters headed out of Beaver Creek fairly early as weather threatened and Jamie needed to be back for "Horse Time" at 4pm (it was a 5-hour drive out to Beaver Creek a couple days earlier). It was a white-knuckler again, snowy, slushy all the way, very busy chain-up areas, but fortunately no 2-hour delay at Idaho Springs. The only stop was for coffee at Bread+Salt, a favorite little place in Frisco (exit for Breckenridge). Oh, we also stopped at the quilter's house in Monument to pick up a quilted Christmas quilt... It was party time at Flying Horse Foundation after bringing in the minis (3 horses, 2 donkeys) for their dinner. And they played Elf on the wall during card-making and cookie-decorating! Matt and Jamie attended Matteo's band concert at ECA right after horses. Interestingly, the concert was held in the same sanctuary where all of Jamie's It's a Wonderful Life rehearsals and filming took place.

Hot chocolate bombs by Fina. They're stuffed with hot
chocolate makings, just drop in hot water.

A little decoration at Flying Horse Foundation.

Matteo's Christmas Concert at ECA

Sand Tart creation continues...

Day 280

Nana and Papa enjoyed the entire day roaming around Beaver Creek. And eating! They had a very unique experience at Hooked, a seafood place right in the midst of the main shops and restaurants area. We shared a whole kinmedai which was prepared in about 4 different raw ways and 3 hot ways. The versions came out one at a time, Really fun. And very good. The fish melted in your mouth, raw or cooked. We also tried their Crimpster creation which was also very tasty, reminiscent of turducken, CRab in shrIMP in lobSTER. All the photos are here.

Inside the Georgia O'Keeffe cookbook

Kinmedai

Day 279

Check out the wrapping paper Tracy got! Nana got the kids going on some e-learning activities before she and Papa headed out to Beaver Creek, CO for a couple days of getaway. The drive took almost 2 hours longer than normal due to construction at Idaho Springs (mostly) and snowy weather (some). We're staying at the Beaver Creek Lodge, a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel since just last year. The hotel opened in the 1980s.  It's also part of the Kessler Collection, founding members of Marriott's Autograph Collection. Don't miss the Alpine-Antlers restaurant in the hotel, not a huge menu, but uniquely tasty items. Be sure to read through all the various menus and plan accordingly. All the photos are here.

 

The indoor theme is rock climbing.

Day 278

More e-learning. And not many photos, sorry. Matt jetted off to Atlanta for work. First business trip since before COVID. Jamie had an interview with Matteo's school (ECA) about teaching earth science and chemistry part time. 

Her Mom was mirroring her off camera to the right.

Day 277

Monday. School. This is the last week of school before Christmas break, and for most of the kids some shortened days at that. Nana, Lexi, and AJ finished the sand tarts (cookies); they'll be neighbor Christmas gifts and some internal sampling as well, I'm sure. Matteo helped make the dough yesterday. Papa started Deuteronomy (Moses' farewell address, as Prager puts it), the last book of the Torah, with Dennis Prager's lectures - only 50-ish hours to go (about 240 hours total plus two books with three more coming, God willing).

 

Meat for a month.

Found at CostCo!

Day 276

Huge breakfast burrito meal first thing in the morning. A special Beanie Baby package arrived for Nana and Papa from Megan and Jamey. And Nana got all the Christmas cards prepped. There was just enough snow overnight for the kids to pile some up for a small sledding hill. The big event for the day was an evening trip to Forest Bend Farm. We had a great time there despite the 10-degree weather. Hayride, hot chocolate, s'mores, cookie decorating, zip line, pet the goats, popcorn, etc. And mistletoe! Quite a few pictures below... Tonight's movies: Ava (another bad-@ss woman) and The Holiday Calendar (it has Christmas magic!).

Poofie and Tinsel

Matteo making sand tarts.

Torah time!

Forest Bend Farm