Our First Mountain Christmas

 I'm closing out 2024 with a recap of our first mountain Christmas. Both kids came home so that made 6 adults, 5 dogs, and 2 grandbabies for 6 days. It was perfect and busy and filled with precious memories.

Gram had the best help in the kitchen!

Cute and enthusiastic!

                                        

Lots of goodies came out of that kitchen

With all the busy-ness, we still managed to keep everything balanced

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care (and packing tape because the stocking hangers can't handle stuffed stockings)

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there

Little ones sure do put the magic back into Christmas

Teaching 'Old McDonald' to her baby cousin

Their interactions were such a joy to watch

                                       

Do you see what I see...

                                           

My in-laws came for the day to soak in great grandbabies

They are very stoic and don't show a lot of emotion so I was tickled to capture this shot

So glad we were all together

Made time for an impromptu family photo shoot

Hide and seek 

                                 

produced lots of giggles

                               

As did driving lessons

                               

Time was made for trail explorations

And Skeet lovin'

And spoon lickin'

Wood splitting

Lap snuggles

And deck stories

And as we closed out our Christmas, our girl spotted Santa's Reindeer taking a well deserved break after their epic journey

Popping in Before Christmas

I always enjoy decorating for Christmas. Most of the decorations I have, I've had for 30 years or so. And I love pulling them out every year. My cookie cutter nativity is the first thing I put out each year.

Being in a new house this year, I'm having fun finding new places to set things, but it's also a challenge. I don't want to spend any money so I'm trying to use what I have. I have a lot of wood decorations. The old ranch house didn't have any wood so I gravitated towards wood to bring that warmth into our home.

This new home is filled with wood and my decorations don't stand out as well, but I still love them and want to use them. 

                                           

I made this valance over 30 years ago and it's been over every kitchen window for Christmas, in every ranch house we've lived in, since I made it. 

But there is not a window over the sink in this house since the sink is in the island. The window in the kitchen measures 105" and I never had a window that large. I love this print and believe it or not, I still had 2 yards of it in my stash.

 So I dusted off my sewing machine and made a matching valance so that it would span the windows. I love the wood windows in this house and I love that my old Christmas decorations are still a part of our holiday.

                         

DH was away for 4 nights, tending to our cows so I started my Christmas baking. 

I made Whiskey Praline Pecans, Toffee, sugar cookies, Gingerbread Cowboys, Christmas M&M Cookies, Oreo Truffles, and Pretzel Rolo Pecans.  Cranberry Sour Cream Pound Cake and cinnamon rolls will be made tomorrow. Mini pecan muffins will also be on the menu.

                                         

I also made 3 more Whopper reindeer - I've been making these for over 20 years and each year I say that I'm not making them anymore because I've already made them for everyone, but each year, new people come into our lives and they are always so tickled when I gift them one. They're silly, but the seem to bring a little cheer. 

When the kids were growing up, one of our traditions was that I would wrap 12 Christmas books and put them in a basket. Then each night they would take turns unwrapping one and that would be the book we would read that night. I'm hoping the kids will continue that tradition and since they will all be here for Christmas, I thought we'd do it for a few days while they were here

                                    

I've not had a fireplace in over 30 years. The mantel here is pretty substantial and my little decorations look kind of lost, but as I said, I'm just using what I have because I love it. That wreath is the first wreath I bought when we celebrated our first Christmas after we were married - 37 years ago. 

 

.That's the only garland I have in the house because I cobbled every single one I had together for the deck. I've never had a deck and the first time we saw this house, I pictured lights on the deck at Christmas. The steps up will have to wait until next year...it takes a lot of garland.

Everyone uses this door so I used the last of the garland here

The kids are both coming for Christmas so we will have a houseful with 8 for 5 or 6 days and I am SO tickled to have them here! I've been planning menus and prepping what I can ahead of time. I cooked 6# of ground beef, 8# of chicken, and 3 roasts to make Barbacoa.

And now that DH is back, we finally went in search of a tree

And we found the perfect one - a Pinon!

It was fun to cut one on our place to commemorate our first Christmas here.

 I may have gotten a little carried away because it's a challenge to decorate a tree this big when you're 60. Not to mention that it took me ALL day and about 100 trips up and down that ladder. I took Advil to get ahead of my knee. LOL

I probably won't be posting again before Christmas so I want to wish the Merriest Christmas to those of you who celebrate. May this season be filled with all the things that bring you joy!

What We've Been Up To

 One morning we watched 2 elk sparing right off the deck. I didn't have my good camera charged so I wasn't able to capture it very well, but DH and I were so delighted to watch them

They played for about 20 minutes before they meandered off into the trees

And a few days later a herd of cow elk with their calves wandered down

                             

About 10 minutes later, 8 does joined them.

No, we don't have a feeder out, just water for the horses and a tub with some mineral/salt. 

We really enjoy beginning our mornings with the locals, but we actually DO get some work done around here. For the most part, our days are still and sunny with highs in the 50's and 60's. That seems unseasonably warm for December, but it allows us to continue to chip away at outdoor projects. We just bought a load of pipe so fence building season is getting closer. We've seen elk sign in the driveway so they are crossing the electric fence we put up temporarily. Time to get a real fence put in.

DH installed a hoist in the storage building

And  we drove and welded some pipe to the 4 skids on the new chicken coop and are gathering supplies to build the yard around it. That pipe is 5' deep - I don't think we'll need to worry about the chicken coop going anywhere.

We cleaned out the hay barn 

That was a dirty job - I could barely lift my arms the next day after all of the shoveling

and brought in some winter hay

And DH shoveled out the alley and parks the  skid steer there.

DH's brother-in-law is an order buyer for cattle and he asked if DH would video a set of heifers for him so we left early one morning and headed to a ranch on the other side of the mountain

We tried (and succeeded most nights) to stay awake to watch the 10 rounds of the NFR. I worked on binding a quilt on night 1

And still hadn't finished on night 10...I do more watching than binding.

We've also been working on replacing an old water line. DH and a neighbor have been working on it a couple of days a week, but I fill in every so often. Fixing water leaks and running water lines is much more challenging here than it was in the desert flats

                                                  

Skeet's our official project manager

Working in this fresh mountain air sure does make us sleep well at night, but it makes me too tired to stay awake long enough to write blog posts and in the morning we always seem to have company 😉

Americana Hourglass Quilt

After 4 months, I finally have a finished quilt to share🎉 I'm still not sewing, but I'm finally finding some time to work on bindings in the evenings and slowly (very slowly) but surely, that translates to finished quilts.

 In October 2021, I gifted this quilt to dear friends. You can read about that quilt HERE

I loved making it and wasn't ready to stop making those fun blocks and playing with those wonderful fabrics. So what's a girl to do but make another quilt! Some hourglass blocks were traditional and some were scrappy.

I love pulling fabrics for projects and this may be one of my favorite fabric pulls ever

At one point, I saw where Jo, of Jo's Country Junction, had designed a clever border for one of her quilts and I thought it would be perfect for this project. You can find her post HERE. I made my border just a little differently by making the hourglass border blocks completely neutral. I wish I had added another round on the border, but I love the idea so thank you Jo! 

At 85" x 95" I was tempted to back it with a 108, but I used this print instead.

 I've had this in my stash for...goodness...probably close to a dozen years and I had at least 10 yards of it. Years ago, there was an awesome quilt shop in the little town of Brady, Texas and I'd stop every time I drove through there. They carried quilt store quality fabrics and they were $3-$5 / yard. This was one of those fabrics and it is absolutely perfect for this quilt. Sadly, they are no longer in business.

This is my first finish since we moved. I'm trying to find good places for quilt photos

I'm such a creature of habit and had spots that worked well where we lived before. The old dilapidated chicken coop was such a great backdrop. Alas, the little chicken coop that is here, isn't going to work and it's built into one of the horse stalls in the barn. We'll tear it down and put up a new coop in a different spot. So, these photos will just have to do for now.

I love a scrappy binding

I love this color combination of reds and tans and blues so much that I'm not ruling out another quilt in this color scheme. Heaven knows I've still got plenty of fabric. There's something classic and timeless about an hourglass quilt

Our barn here is stucco so I can't use it for full quilt photos, but the deck makes a great canvas and I don't even need to drag out a ladder.

60° in December and a finished quilt? Yes please!