One of our projects was making Phyl two flannel shirts. At first, I was more of an advisor and prepping pieces for Phyl to sew.

About halfway through the second shirt, I asked if I could just go ahead on my own and Phyl was happy with that. Rather than buttonholes, Phyl opted for snaps, which Dave did for her (yay!).
Success!

This year, we recreated our long-ago tradition of celebrating New Year’s Eve with great appetizers, champagne/beer, and movies.

I made Bavarian pretzels with beer cheese sauce. Phyl made Happy Hour Mushrooms and sausage crescent bites.

Meanwhile, in Bakersfield CA, Carol (Phyl’s sister) and Jerry celebrated with Pete the Possum. (Eek!)

Phyl and Dave’s place used to be a dairy farm. There are several outbuildings, this one is called the creamery:
We bundled up and went to see the warren of 7 rooms and 1 large workspace. This is a vast storage area but also where Dave works on various projects.
There are two more large spaces in the attic although it’s a steep climb to get there. Not as scary as Dave made it look:

Phyl and Dave live just a mile or so from Deer Lodge, a town of about 3000 people in southwest Montana. Two grocery stores, 3 restaurants, a couple of fast food places, a movie theater (open Fri-Sun and totally staffed by volunteers) and my favorite …

Quilters Corner.

Late on Christmas Day I flew to Missoula and stayed at a nearby hotel. The next morning Dave and Phyl drove over from Deer Lodge and picked me up.
Yes! It’s freaking cold here.

Dinner was at the Leah (Lenin’s sister) & Jeff’s and ALL the Del Castillo’s were there plus me and Justin. Presents were piled everywhere!

Jeff made the best-ever prime rib using the sous vide method followed by some smoking and searing on the Egg.


Sorting and distributing the gifts takes quite while. Carson thought every gift tag that started with a C belonged to him which meant he had a huge pile .. for a while.

I told myself not to open the jigsaw puzzle box, but I did. Then I couldn’t leave it alone. I even forgot to eat sometimes (that’s a miracle). Every spare minute, I was looking for a piece to fit in. The minutes became an hour, then an afternoon, then …

four days went by and I was done! 1000 pieces. Then a little panic set in – what Christmas tasks have I ignored and must get done in the next 3 days?