After a full day of Sing-A-Longs and Winter Parties at the elementary schools, we shut the music door for two full weeks!!!! Yahoo!!!! We started the vacation with a 37th Birthday Celebration for Curtis then Christmas with the Veals including: Lessons and Carols, Plano Symphony Christmas Concert, and presents!
We pulled back up to the Frisco house at 9:30 pm, loaded the car, and we're off for the 700 mile drive to El Paso at 5:00 am. (No rest for the weary). We made record timing by taking the back highway through the GuadalupeMountains National Park instead of Interstate 10 the whole way, and pulled up at 3:30 EP time! Mary had the most wonderful dinner planned with Pork Tenderloin and a giant homemade carrot cake for Curtis's birthday!
Our 4 days in El Paso were filled with fun, food, and family...and a bit of relaxation. Our first day, we visited the newly renovated ElPaso Zoo. The weather was beautiful all 4 days.
On Christmas Eve, we visited The Chamizal National Monument to earn another Junior Ranger badge!
The boys learned all about cooperation and kindness to our neighbors and friends. Great stop if you're ever in El Paso and it's FREE!
After the Junior Ranger badge, we set up our annual gingerbread/Lincoln log community.
We had a yummy dinner then went to the Candlelight service at Curtis's home Church, University Presbyterian Church. The church had desserts and treats in the centrum after the service. We headed home, read our First Night Of Christmas book, ate our final piece of the Advent Calendar, set out our stockings, and anxiously awaited Santa's arrival!
Christmas Day, Carson was up and atom at 5:20 am. He was not very happy to learn that he had to wait for everyone to get up to see what Santa brought him.
We ate breakfast, opened presents, Cole serenaded us with Christmas songs on the piano and everyone was exhausted by noon...well, I'd say the adults were exhausted by noon....
Mary had planned an amazing dinner with marinated flank steak, homemade mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans, so there was still a lot of work to do.
Some people cooked, some people played with new toys and some people loaded up the minivan for our next departure. You can probably guess who was assigned to each chore. Dinner was amazing, and we were all ready to crash.
The boys gave hugs and kisses to Grandma Mary, Grandpa Stan, and Uncle Steven, read their new Star Wars and Wimpy Kid books and went to bed. The alarm was set for 4:30 am. We were so thankful to spend Christmas with our family in El Paso. We love them so much!
We pulled into Pagosa, got all checked into the Wyndham, hit the Walmart for groceries, and put the lasagna in the oven. Within an hour, Grandma Becki, Grandpa Les, Grandpa Jim, Aubt Laura, JD, and Austin had arrived!
I've never seen this much snow in my life! Wolf Creek had 258" of so allready this year and we were all ready for some amazing powder skiing!
Grandpa Les, Grandpa Jim, Uncle Steve, Isaac, Curtis, and I skied the first 3 days while Grandma Becki and Aunt Laura played with the kids in the snow.
By day 3, Cole, was itching to go skiing and he ROCKED the slopes!
Did I mention how cold it was? 15 degrees for a high on the mountain!
By the end of the day he was all over the mountain!
Day 4 in Pagosa everyone had to head back to Texas except us, so we got 3 more glorious days in the snow!
We decided to hang back and spend a day in Pagosa sledding, ice skating, and rented skis for the boys for day 5.
Pagosa Springs is absolutely breathtaking....kind of like a fairy tale.
Day 5 was NYE and going to be Carson's 1st skiing fun. I failed to mention that we visited Wolf Creek the coldest week of the season. By the time we pulled up to the ski area, it had reached a balmy -7 degrees! Brrrr!!!! Someone was NOT very happy about the layers and stiff boots....I told him, "skiing is a little bit of cold, a little bit of pain, and ALOT of fun!"
We played on the Nova lift with Carson...this was just about having fun on the skis for him....who can pass up a $5.00 lift ticket for 5 and under?
Two runs and Carson was freezing and frustrated, so he and Daddy went to the lodge for some hot chocolate while Mommy and Cole hit the slopes.
By mid afternoon, Carson had successfully skied four more runs, and was loving it! Success!!! We'd taken turns with Cole and his final run he was skiing the trees! One more day and he'd be on all blues! Overall, I'd call it a success!
Everyone was pooped when we got back to the condo so we decided to ring in the New Year at 7:00 and crash.
The next morning, the alarm was set for 3:30 am for our 800 mile drive back to Frisco. We departed at 4:00 am Colorado time and pulled in at 7:00 pm Texas time....14 hours in the car.....we'll call it conditioning for our summer extravaganza. We are so thankful for these amazing two weeks with our family and cannot wait to see what 2016 has in store for the Schettler family! God is good!
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