HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. This blog entry is quite long. I'm kind of playing catch up from Thanksgiving all the way through Christmas.
So let's start with Thanksgiving...
I think Thanksgiving is becoming my favorite holiday. I just absolutely love getting the Thanksgiving meal ready and I cannot wait to have family close by next year so that I can share my love of cooking with them. I saw a picture of a turkey blanketed with bacon and I knew I had to try it. The basket weaving I learned in elementary school sure paid off! I never thought I would be weaving bacon though.
There is Mr. Turkey looking quite impressive in the roaster and ready to go in the oven.
A few hours later and my masterpiece was ready to devour! I don't like to brag but, OMG this turkey tasted heavenly. I will never do a Thanksgiving turkey any other way.
No Thanksgiving is complete without a pumpkin pie. This one is pumpkin and cream cheese swirled.
Now on to December.
HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY GARY!
I felt creative so I tried my hand at making a birthday cake. He loved the golf theme.
SIERRA NEVADA WINTER VACATION
Bagger was not happy that we were packing to leave him for a week. He parked himself in the suitcase and demanded to go along. He ended up enjoying a nice week with the neighbors instead.
The first stop on our 14 hour drive was MUIR WOODS. This is one of the many Redwood forests in northern California. This particular one is a few miles from San Francisco. Seeing the Redwoods has been on my bucket list for a long time. This forest was so enchanting. The trees were absolutely magnificent.
After hours upon hours in the car we didn't want many pictures of ourselves, but we had to document that we were actually there!
Here is a cross section of one of those big boys!
Unfortunately it rained the entire time we were there. I wish I could have gotten some better pictures but these trees thrive in the soggy weather.
There is Gary standing inside a Redwood.
And me!
Apparently FDR has been to Muir Woods.
Just a little side note, you can click on any picture on our blog to make it bigger :)
I have never felt shorter in all my life.
NAKOMA VILLAS GOLF RESORT
We finally made it to our destination! Nakoma! It is a beautiful golf resort with Frank Lloyd Wright inspired villas. It was the off season though so Gary and I did not get to golf. We walked the course and hiked around it quite a few times though.
This is the front view of our villa.
And the back.
And that building on the hill is the clubhouse.
The villa was built around a 3 sided stone fireplace. The whole thing was a big circle.
Fireplace.
Living room. And there was a little kitchenette right next to the living room as you walk in the front door.
Then on the other side we had a nice jetted tub with some weird birds. And also a beautiful open shower with a rain type shower head. You could also see the fireplace from the tub.
This was our first walk around the golf course and the trails around Nakoma. There were tons of deer around this place.
Gary being goofy and pretending/wishing he was golfing.
Nice one babe, right down the middle!
This strange neon green moss grew everywhere. It was really beautiful on the trees.
Looking out over God's beautiful creation.
Brace yourself for the multitude of deer pictures...
Deer tracks through the snow.
This was in Plumas National Park. We wanted to hike but it was way too snowy and we don't own any snow clothes. I guess 2-1/2 years in southern California will do that to ya!
Beautiful lake filled with birds in Plumas National Park.
More pictures of our snowy wonderland vacation.
Woody
We had a view of a lake off of our back porch.
Hot tubbin in the snow!!! So fun!
We played snowball P.I.G. I beat Gary.
We enjoyed our secluded winter vacation but had no idea the of how dangerous the drive home would prove to be. Thank God we got new tires on the car. We had to plow our way through mountain roads that hadn't been touched. We ended up driving through a crazy blizzard. These pictures are actually when the roads were getting better.
We made it to Donner summit. 7239 elevation. At the base of the mountain CalTran was pulling people over to make them put chains on their tires. Scary stuff. Gary did a great job getting us through it. We really had no choice at that point. It was the only way out of those mountains.
We finally hit a low enough elevation where the snow just disappeared. The traffic on the left is all to go up that snowy mountain pass to get to Lake Tahoe. If only they knew what they were headed for.
We made it home alive! This is the Mormon temple on our street. They really go all out decorating for Christmas. It is really something amazing to see.
We missed our pup! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Gram Whetsel got us a dancing, singing dog. Bagger was not so sure about him!
Gram also got him some boots so he could step out in style! He hated them! But doesn't he look so cute!
Another year has come and gone. We wish you all many blessings in the new year!
