Recently, we made a couple of out-of-state trips- one to visit my mom in Arizona and another to celebrate the 100th birthday of my sweetheart's father's mother.....in other words, his grandmother. Here in Colorado, the mountains are being piled high with snow; however, the lower elevations are left 'high and dry.' So dry, in fact, that getting 'shocked' in a grocery store is quite common---just reaching for a can on a shelf will give you a quite alarming 'PING' of pain! Arizona, of course, had no snow for the holidays.....
Denver International Airport did its festive best with this beautiful poinsettia tree....
And Ohio, on the other hand, had a bunch of snow.....we were excited to see it as we landed last weekend!
Our first stop in Ohio was Cracker Barrel....a familiar sight....at this one in Dayton, OH, we enjoyed the old-timey oven piled with old-fashioned goodies. We had a hearty dinner by the fireplace and headed to our hotel for a much needed rest.
Many of the family members who planned on coming to grandma's reunion could not make it. They were going to drive from Virginia to Ohio; however, the roads were icy and blowing snow made driving impossible. We had planned to surprise everyone that we were coming....most of the family lives in Ohio, so those 'Colorado folks' were assumed not to attend, especially so close to the holidays. How sad we were to learn that the surprise instead was that most of the people we wanted to see were not going to be there. But the most important person was, of course: Grandma!
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| Pretty good for 100 wouldn't you say? She had her hair and nails all done....In this photo, her two daughter, 3 granddaughters, and 2 great-grand-daughters! |
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| The nursing care facility where she lives had a fabulous tree in the main entrance....really pretty! |
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| After the festivities of the day, we drove around and looked at houses in Ohio and searched for pretty lights....this one was spectacular and the snow made it even prettier |
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| About 29 years ago, I lived in Ohio in this neck of the woods and I took my two daughters ( the third was not born yet ) to the local mall to ride the little train. I was curious if the train was still there, so we drove over to find out. Guess what? It was....and yes, I cried. |
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| As cute as it always was....for 25 cents, the girls could ride around about a half-dozen times....they'd smile the entire time |
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| It was a quick trip, so on Sunday, we headed back to the airport and boarded our plane back to CO....the runways were still quite snowy and icy |
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| Back Home........lots to do yet....but Santa will soon be here! |
