From our family to yours ...

Thank you to everyone who sent his or her seasonal tidings, photos and updates. Our mantel runneth over!

A very Merry Christmas!

May the joy of the season stay with you throughout the New Year, and may 2009 bring you much health, happiness, success and wealth.

With much love,
Regan and Andy

Welcome to our well-decorated home. We're crazy, but fun.

An off-color laugh

Given how everything is going with the economy, I found this hilarious!

Thanks to my father, Larry Foster, for sending this along.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

When a strange wind blows ...

I lived in Chicago, I'm used to wind.

Even though Chi-Town took its "Windy City" moniker from eastern legislators who were annoyed by Chicago politicians' boasting in favor of the 1892 World's Fair, there's no end to the gale forces that blow down Michigan Avenue.

Still, I have never felt wind like that blowing across Colorado Springs tonight. At 2:55 p.m., the National Weather Service recorded wind speeds at 47 miles per hour. It's about double that at 9:15. When I took Jack outside, the zephyr hit me across the chest while I was walking. At one point, it actually pushed me backward. My 85 pound dog physically couldn't move; and when I got back into the apartment, I was actually able to see the fan shaking.

In short, it's unbelievable.

What really strikes me as strange about this gale-force wind is something I can't quite figure out. I don't know if it's the mineral content in the Colorado soil or the totally dry snow blowing off of Pikes Peak, but the wind smells metallic - almost like aluminum. It leaves the same taste in the back of your throat, the same sensation you get when you bite your tongue to bleeding. The wind also sounds like a high-pitched cry; a child's wail or a wounded animal.


All of which makes it even nicer that as I write this, I'm snuggled to my husband and pets under a pair of cozy blankets.

As the song says: Baby, it's cold outside.

Waiting for Santa Claus ...

True story: I got home from work the other day and this is what greeted me. For obvious reasons, I call this picture "Waiting for Santa."

If you'll please indulge me, it got me to thinking of what Andy and my "kids" would write, if they could write letters to Santa Claus.

This is what I came up with.



Dear Santa,

This year for Christmas, please bring me a plush duck with a squeaker, a new tennis ball and a rawhide bone. I have been a very good boy this year. At least I think I've been a good boy. Now I'm not so sure. I've been a good boy, right? Oh, please Santa, tell me I've been a good boy. Please, please, puh-LEEZE say I've been good!!!!!

Love,
Jack

Dear Santa,

You WILL bring me a can of tuna and catnip. End of story.

Sincerely,
Boo-Boo.

Dear Santa,

Play? PLAY!!!!!! Play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play. Fall over. Sleep.
-T

If only in my dreams ...

My family is big on tradition around Christmas time.

One of our favorites is the Christmas Eve dinner. Each year, my mother would spend Christmas Eve day in the kitchen: roasting a goose, baking bread, boiling red cabbage, making a seven-ingredient salad (apparently lore says seven ingredients are lucky) and homemade ice cream pie. Dad would spend the day hunting with the boys and then make escargot.

Kinda explains why I love to cook, huh?

Anyway, the feast was a standard for my family. We would top it off with fine wine, coffee and family presents Christmas Eve. Then fall asleep and fart our way into Christmas morning.

Today I was at the grocery store, checking out the exorbitant price of goose and feeling nostalgic. While I was doing that, the store musack decided to play Mariah Cary's version of "I'll be Home for Christmas." For the first time, it made me homesick for Iowa.

We're not making it to either Iowa or Illinois this year, so we're coming up with traditions on our own.

That said, in honor of home, I'm re-establishing a long-gone blog specialty: A recipe. One of my mother's specialities, as a matter of fact, and a favorite taste of the holidays for both Andy and me.

Incidentally, when my brother Kelsey was flying over Iraq, these were the only things he wanted sent. They all melted together, but the Navy boys didn't seem to mind.

White bark Christmas Cookies a la Sherry Foster

Ingredients:
* 2 pounds of white candy bark
* 2 C peanuts
* 2 C slivered almonds
* 2 C rice crispies
* 2 C miniature marshmallows.

Directions:
1) Melt bark in a double boiler over high heat.
Note: If you don't have a double boiler, put about 2 inches of water into a sauce pan and set it on the stove on high. Put the bark in a second sauce pan - slightly smaller than the first - and put it on top of the larger pan with the water. This will create the same effect.
2) Mix the melted bark, peanuts, almonds, rice crispies and marshmallows togethere in a large bowl.
3) Drop the mixture in roughly walnut-sized balls onto a greased cookie sheet.
4) Allow to sit up until firm.
5) That's it! Enjoy!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Andy and I had a cool opportunity today.

We were invited to his boss's house for a Christmas tree cutting festival. It's something of a tradition for some of the dealership: He invites a select group out to his spectacular property for a bonfire, cider, ice skating and cut-your-own Christmas trees. After the harvest, we all retired to the house for appetizers, drinks and camaraderie.

Andy and I have a fake tree - in part a nod to my inner tree-hugger and in part a fact of life when you lived in Chicago and didn't exactly have a surplus of cut-your-own trees - so we just harvested limbs leftover after trees were cut down. I plan to fill an outdoor planter with the greenery and possibly make a wreath from the leftovers for the boss's wife. I liked her a lot!

Anyway, unfortunately I didn't remember to take the camera out of the car, so I don't have any photos to post right now. I did, however, take some really cool pictures of the boss and his daughter whacking away at their tree on the boss's camera. Hopefully, he'll email some to us, including the shot he got of Andy and me in front of a gigantic Aspen scarred by mountain lions!

(A nod to Justin, Kristy, Sandy and all my photographic friends: I got the pictures from between the branches on the odd side as the boss was looking over his daughter's shoulder. She was wielding Andy's small hatchet. So, in short, I was in the way of where the tree fell, but got a really cool series of shots. Just as though I learned something from the talented photojournalists with whom I have worked.)

In short, it was an awesome day and we had a great time rubbing elbows with the elite of Mercedes-Benz of Colorado Springs. Cool to be in the inner circle and *hopefully* good for Andy's career.

If nothing else, I got to hum "Oh, Christmas Tree" and Joanie Mitchell's "River," while meeting a bunch of cool people.

What's your holiday tradition?

Bright lights, small(ish) city ...

A lovely, well-lighted lane at the resort's West Entrance. The capitalization is theirs, not mine.

As of the 2007 census estimates, 376,427 people call Colorado Springs proper home. Not exactly a massive metroplex, but, as Andy puts it, "Not exactly small," either.

So suffice it to say that Colorado Springs is a lovely mid-sized town. Small enough to feel quaint while still being large enough to have its share of growing pains.

And it's own five-star resort.

The resort is called the Broadmoor. If you're not familiar with it, the Broadmoor is toted as being the longest-running five-star in the country. It spans 3,000 acres on the city's western side, part of it abuts Cheyenne Mountain. According to it's Web site, the resort features: "an award-winning spa; fitness center; two swimming pools; three outdoor hot tubs; ... six tennis courts with camps run by hall-of-fame member Dennis Ralston; children's programs; 24-hour room service; and 25 specialty retail shops." Every year the resort plays host to a USPGA Senior Open tournament on its three 18-hole golf courses.

In short, pretty nice digs.

This tree was amazing! Just one of hundreds that the Broadmoor landscapers caked in tiny white lights. Too bad the photographer (me) couldn't do it justice.

As it turns out, every Christmas they do something called "White Christmas." This is a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society of Southern Colorado as well as a really cool opportunity for them to drape their sprawling grounds in white holiday lights and play host to the city. It took more than 250,000 strands of lights to create the desired effect this year. You read that right: Strands. Not lights themselves. Doubtless there are millions of white twinkle lights sucking down power every night on this incredible display, but the folks at the hotel obviously can afford it.

Anyway, Andy and I went to check it out under the new blanket of snow. The effect, as you can see, is stunning.

Another gorgeous, tree-lined lane. The cool thing about White Christmas is, the grounds are usually off limits. During the holidays, however, they're open to whomever wants to stroll and enjoy their quarter-million-plus strands of lights.

Winter wonderland!

The winter wonderland that is our dog run. Two yearling mule deer bucks have set up housekeeping at the bottom of the hill.

It's snowing in Colorado!

I know, I know. Big surprise, right?

Snow-shrouded evergreens sure are beautiful. And just in time (to melt!) for Christmas.

Now, normally I would not be so excited about a real snow, but this year is not normal. Here's the deal: We got dumped on (for the Springs, that is) on Sunday. A full, fluffy six inches of heavy, wet snow fell on the city. It basically created a gigantic catastrophe for the community, since no one here knows how to drive in snow. But we made it through with no fatalities, per se, and lots of cars in the ditch.

Here's why I think this snow was great. It was all gone by Tuesday! No joke, this is what winters are like in what is essentially a high-elevation desert zone: Heavy snow and cold weather one day ... 60 degrees two days later.

Andy once again demonstrates his photographic prowess with this detail shot of snow on an evergreen branch.

So, it's snowing again today. Unless it clears off by this afternoon, that probably means lots of trouble for me doing my traffic reporting but I don't care.

'Tis nobler, in my mind, to take a cue from Jack and just embrace it. Since it'll only last a few days, I say "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Our Alaska-born baby frolics in his natural environment. This is the image of pure joy!