Hidden Haven Homestead

I have finally gotten the laundry done and everything put away from the Christmas weekend. I left early Friday morning and met Sharon in Lexington. Since both of our hubbies are truck drivers and were in a snowstorm in Denver she rode with me. We first went to Megan's and dropped off some decorations I had for her. I showed Sharon around the area. I drove her to Dry Falls up on Highlands road where you meet the backend of your car with the front end while going around the curves. She loved the waterfalls! They are called dry falls because you can walk underneath them and not get too wet, except from the spray when the water hits the rocks below. We then went and did some shopping and on to Melody's home to spend the night. We ordered pizza and had Megan and her 2 children come over to eat and talk. They ended up spending the night so we could all leave bright and early for Tennessee. Everytime Megan started falling asleep we would hear the words "Oh Crap". She would remember something else she forgot to do or get. We laughed until we finally fell asleep. Had a nice drive through the Gorge to Maggies. Took everyone a long time to unload the back of my truck as I always go overboard on gifts. But this year was inexpensive as we did the secondhand shopping or homemade theme. The kids roasted hotdogs outside over the bonfire while Brannon cooked hamburgers on the grill, it was a good lunch. After lunch the kids went out in the woods to cut down a tree to decorate for the birds. They came back with 2. One little one that the small kids chopped down and one a little bigger that the bigger kids chopped down. Then it was inside to string popcorn and make ornaments to hang on the trees. There was always a game of air hockey going on in the game room and the granddaughters gave us a concert. They sang and dance several numbers for us. Everyone played the game whisper. It was a hoot to have someone start by whispering a sentence in someone's ear and it gets passed on to the next until it get backs to the person that started it. We never got the sentence right... Guess we know how rumors get started huh! Gabby got a baby pig from her aunt so they had to bring it with them to feed and keep it warm so we all had fun holding and loving "Charlotte". Brian called us from Iraq and talked with everyone. When Megan finally got to talk with him we ask her to hold the phone out and we all sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and had him and us in tears cause he wasn't with us this year. Had a ball opening presents this year! Melody wrote a poem for Maggie about what being her sister meant to her and gave it to her with pictures of their dad when he was a child. Brought Maggie to tears in a good way. The girls loved the shadow boxes and nannies cookbook was a big hit. Of course Brannon and I exchanged Elvis gifts like we do each year. Since we both hate Elvis we try to outdo each other on the gifts. I gave him a newspaper of the day Elvis died complete with colored pictures of Elvis inside along with a Elvis record album. Here is a picture of what Brannon gave me and I think he won this year as how can I get rid of anything that has my granddaughters picture as part of the gift!!! Megan even got in on the Elvis this year by giving me a picture of Elvis on wood. I think next years theme should be re-gifting! Maggie and Brannon bought a Elvis plastic wig at Halloween so they could put it on their girls Kristine and Raigun and turn my precious grandchildren into Elvis lookalikes! Poor girls. They put the picture in a beautiful frame but did they have to turn them into Elvis??????