The above was taken on Christmas Day 2009. It was a fabulous way to spend Christmas. We went out to Roscoe to spend some quality time with Mamie and Grandaddy then made the road trip up to Pagosa Springs, Co. We spent 6 nights at our family condo just the 2 of us. The days went like this:5:45: wide awake, can't sleep...sneak into the kitchen, get a cup of coffee, and sit by the window to watch the sun rise, read my Bible, be quiet, be still, reflect...
6:45: wake Caleb up with breakfast, lay in bed and watch the Today show with coffee in hand
7:30: get on our ski clothes, Caleb de-ices the car
7:45: on the road to the mountain!
8:15-10:30: SKI
10:30-11:00: hot chocolate break
12:30: Burger, chips, and gatorade at Raven's Nest (on the mountain=genius idea, you have to have a lift ticket so those Moms that don't ski can't hog tables all day!)
1-2:30: SKI
2:30: hot chocolate/beer/tea/reeses/oatmeal creme pie=take your pick for this break!
3-4:30: SKI (Julie actually never made it past 3:45 or so!)
5-back to the condo, get in the jacuzzi tub
6-scrounge up something for dinner
7:30-I'm exhausted and can't stay awake.....
Of course there were a few changes, but the above was pretty accurate day after day. It was fabulous. We went to a cozy 'lil Christmas Eve service to remember the reason for the season. I cried when the little brothers that were 3 and 5 sang "Away in a Manger"in cute little suits--I told Caleb I now have a new goal for our children :). We also took Wednesday off (skiied 4 of 5 days) and laid around the condo, played 4 games of Monopoly, 2 games of Scrabble, and ate lots of bad food including a quick store run for jalepeno poppers! That night we went on a REAL sleigh ride and you betcha all day long I was singing "just hear those sleigh bells jinglin' ring ting tinglin' too, come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you...giddy up! giddy up! giddy up let's go...let's look at the snow..", okay, you get the picture. The sleigh took us up to a cabin for a prime rib dinner (on paper plates, there was no running water up there...good thing I didn't need to find a potty!). One of the sleigh ride drivers was cracking us up during dinner, he had no idea how loud he was talking and was very socially awkward! So, that was fun. Ahhh...what a fun vacation. We did wake up on Christmas Eve to realize that our heater wasn't working--and just remember, it did not get above ZERO the last 4 days we were there. Caleb ended up calling maintenance at 2 am and he got it working! Our own 'lil Christmas miracle!
We drove back through Roscoe on our way home and got to have a cozy Ratliff Christmas. I grew up making pallets (sp?) on the floor with all my cousins and I LOVE it...Caleb's still transitioning to having 12 people in 1200 square feet :). We had a great time playing games and catching up. I LOVE Roscoe at Christmas, it's just never really Christmas to me without time in Roscoe. So, Caleb indulges and is slowly starting to love it as well :).
Then it was back to the grind of work......
But, it was still BOWL SEASON which means to me, it's still the holidays until the BCS championship is over.
I won't go into details of the game, as we all know how it ended. However, I am so proud to be a Longhorn. Even though we lost, look at the example of Colt McCoy in his post game interview:
"I love this game, I have a passion for this game, I’ve done everything I can to contribute to my team and we made it this far and it’s unfortunate that I didn’t get to play. I would have given everything I had to be out there with my team. Congratulations to Alabama, I love the way our team fought…Garrett Gilbert played as well as he could play, he did a tremendous job. I always give God the glory, I’d never question why things happen the way they do. God is in control of my life and if nothing else I know I’m standing on The Rock"
What a great example of the sovereignty of God right after your dreams fell through your hands. Giving God the glory. Thank you Colt, I will name my firstborn son after you and your predecessor....Colton Vince Wood. What a ring! Haha...just kidding :).
The decorations are now put up, we're getting back into the swing of working out and eating healthy, etc etc--those "new year" things! We also have discovered rock band. And we have our own band called The Woodpeckers with our own hand gesture and everything.
And on that note...
Rock On. Hook 'Em Horns!
