twosmallcones

Well I don’t know where to start. The last couple of days have been magical. Sixteen inches of new snow greeted us on Thanksgiving morning. Would that deter the would-be Turkey Trotters? Not in this town! Hundreds of folks filed down to Main Street to partake in the annual run. Not to brag, but we took down our competition from last year and snagged 1st in the stroller division. At the start, the announcer said, “well I spray painted the turns this morning but you can’t see them now (it was snowing hard), so go down River Street and turn right at the mimosa station.” Everyone laughed, but it was not a joke…

Catching snowflakes.

Relentless Thanksgiving snow!

After the run, we got right to cooking. Homemade pumpkin pies (pumpkins from near where Robyn grew up), fresh homemade bread (possibly the best Robyn’s ever cooked, which is saying something), a giant elk roast (my first archery bull), sweet potato and cashew casserole and a warm broccoli and cranberry salad.

Searing the elk roast.

Local and tasty elk! Nailed the cook too, which I was pretty proud of.

Robyn’s masterpiece.

All from scratch!

The final product.

It’s hard to describe why this Thanksgiving was so awesome, but a lot of it had to do with the little man in our lives. He’s more and more expressive every day. The things he says make us laugh-out-loud nearly every hour. Of course he’s challenging as well, but those challenges melt away with each smile.

Thanksgiving selfie.

The day after Thanksgiving will always be our Christmas tree gathering day. Today, we nailed it. Cruising past Sun Valley and on to Corral Creek we literally cut down the first tree that looked good from a distance. Out in the open, covered in snow, we asked Arco, “is that the one?”. “Yeah!” he said.

Fifteen minutes later, Robyn was pulling Arco down the road in a sled while I blasted Christmas carols and lashed the tree to the roof. Back in Sun Valley we stopped at Konditorei, an Austrian inspired bakery, to get a pile of bacon (that Arco destroyed) and a selection of pastries. A quick loop around the lodge, throwing snowballs at swans, and we were back to the car.

The chosen one.

Tonight? The tree is up, Arco is swinging on the swing we installed in the living room, and Robyn and I are anticipating a little quiet time to hang our favorite ornaments. Each year we get a new one, inspired by a place or current event in our lives. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope to catch up with you all in a meaningful way soon.