Decorating for the holidays

Generally we get ALL the Christmas decorations down from the attic, and I create as much of a mess as possible as I decorate the house. This year I'm trying a slightly different approach. Calling it the "ease into the holidays" plan. Yesterday afternoon I put up a little tree (with little decorations) on the landing upstairs.

Today (maybe) we put up the outside lights.....

Happy Birthday, Ken!

We celebrated Ken's birthday tonight with 'Mickey Tacos' and some pretty wonderful cheesecake. Hailey liked grandpa's tacos, but she was REALLY interested in that dessert!

Back from vacation

We are back from a two week vacation in Mexico. Spent the first week with our friends in Mazatlan – swimming in the ocean, eating great food, visiting some not-the-normal-tourist sights, walking miles on remote and beautiful beaches. It was a very fun week with Gary and Kaaren. They are wonderful hosts and great tour guides, especially in the yellow 'UW-VW' Van!

Rumor had it that Pacifico Beer Company put on an extra shift to handle the added demand.

Then we flew to Acapulco for another delightful, but a bit more laid back, week. Acapulco city is BEAUTIFUL – very large, lots of hills and stunning views. We hired a driver for one of the days to show us the sights -- saw the cliff divers (look closely at middle pic), town’s main square, flea market, Johnny Weissmuller’s (aka Tarzan) hideway, etc, etc. We loved the city but were glad to get back to our quiet hotel about 30 minutes away.

We went from swimming in the ocean one day to shoveling snow (and ice) in the driveway 24 hours later. We even came home to a surprise snowman in the backyard!