We spent New Year's Eve at Becky and Denny's. Part of the evening was filled with Christmas carols courtesy of Dan on the accordion, Denny on the guitar, and Diana playing the autoharp. We watched the New York celebration of the arrival of 2011 and were home by its arrival here in the CST zone.

Here's my amaryllis 4 days after planting. It couldn't wait to stand up straight before it bloomed!

Today is Sierra's 24th birthday! Here she is with 2 of her hometown friends, Abby and Megan. What a great life she's had so far!

Here's Charlie squirrel watching in the snow. There were at least 6 squirrels tormenting him from above. They were scolding and teasing him from their perches. When I went out to see what was going on, he had that look, "If I could just play with them for a little while, it would be so much fun!"

Kristin gave me these 3 amaryllis bulbs for Christmas. One was already trying to grow out of the box. I planted them and took them in a cooler to work where it is warm with plenty of natural light. I'm hoping that it will straighten up before blooming. I'll be surprised if it gets there, it looks like it won't be long til the blooms are popping out.

Here's Rich napping in his new camo snuggie but maybe you can't see him...... Who is responsible for this Christmas gift? Who perpetuates this addiction to camouflage? Not me!

For Chirstmas morning breakfast, Sierra made Grandma Dot's famous french toast. It's something we don't have very often since it is bread coated with pancake mix and fried to a golden brown. But it always bring back fond memories of Grandma and a very smoke filled kitchen!

We decided to do our Christmas gifting this evening. Kristin & Tyler were to have dinner with his Mom tomorrow and Sierra decided to pick up some holiday hours at Starbucks. Here's Kristin with one of her gifts. Rich and I worked on this together and made one for each of the girls. They loved them!

Chase is very patient and puts up with our dressing him up in this Santa hat. I imagine he's wishing we hadn't found it again this year! Sierra had a job interview today and just has to confirm with them on Monday. She was very excited and we took her out for a celebratory dinner at Aristocrat's.

This package came in the mail today. I did not follow the clearly specified directions of "Do Not Open Until Christmas" Shelby sent me some more beads for my Pandora bracelet. Thanks Shelby!

Sierra drove home this week for a dentist appointment. She like my hair cut so much that she wanted hers done also. Kim was booked up so her partner Kathy was able to squeeze her in. After that, Kim, Sam, Sierra, and I went out for pizza since we hadn't seen each other for quite awhile.

I had fun making these little treat packages for friends at work. I covered both packs of gum and tic tacs and snuck them into their mailboxes while they were out working. As far as I know, no one figured out where they came from. To give credit for the digital work, these wrappers were a freebie from Tracie Reed found HERE

Working on Christmas gifts! Can't tell what they are yet, I'll come back and finish later.

I just found out about this today from Shelby. Here is her account of what happened to her:
All's well that ends well.......I guess......Tuesday morning some idiot decided to run me off the road. I went this way then that way then round and round then topsy turvy. I am living proof that the Lord helps you when you call upon Him. I was able to climb out the window without a scratch. My only ailment was a bump on the side of my head the size of Texas. I still have a huge bump and a rather large bruise but that is all. Thank you, Lord!!

Here's my 2 office mates at a "Holiday Cheer" party of girls from work. Our host supplied the main dish, lasagna and we all contributed to the rest of the dinner. I brought a Key Lime pie, these girls brought the wine!

I call him "Smokey". The neighbors moved last summer and just left him. I've been making sure he gets something to eat when he stops by. He sleeps in our old garage where there's an old laundry basket with a blanket in it for him. I'm such a sucker, he'll probably be inside before the winter is over. Our cats already know him. I have photos of him as a kitten when he and his siblings would come over to visit. I think he is the only one of his litter left.

Wayne's famous chex mix arrives in the mail, YAY! He makes the best and we appreciate it's arrival about this time every year.

Sierra sent me this photo taken from a phone camera. It isn't the greatest but it will have to do. The team didn't get their awards on the podium on Sunday because they were told the ceremony would be after the Elite Women's race was over. Instead, the awards were given out before that race.  Third place medals were also given to another team by mistake. In the end, the team received their medals right before they had to get in the van for the drive back to Portland. Sierra and Allie have been friends for a long time via BMX racing and college team mates for only one semester since Allie arrived at Marian this fall. Sierra is graduating so this is their last event together as Marian University Cycling team mates.

Today, when we left Bend, it was 50 degrees at 5AM. We are heading back to the deep freeze at home. Here we are at the Salt Lake City airport . Our flights were mostly on time with an hour delay in Minneapolis.

The 14-time national champion Marian University cycling team earned its best-ever finish at the 2010 USA Cycling Collegiate Cyclo-Cross National Championships in Bend, Ore., over the weekend.

The 12-person Knights team earned a third-place finish in the Division I Team Omnium behind Lees-McRae and Fort Lews College. The Knights tallied a school record 129 points with 73 from the women and 56 from the men. Last season, the Knights finished fifth in the cyclo-cross championships.

Freshman Kaitlin Antonneau finished second in the Division I Collegiate cyclo-cross race with a time of 40:14. Senior Rebecca Finley turned in a 13th-place finish in the collegiate event, while senior Sierra Siebenlist earned a 14th-place finish. Sophomore Jackie Kurth turned in a 17th-place finish, while sophomore Allie Dragoo finished in 19th place to round out the women's event.

Junior Adam Leibovitz earned the Knights' top finish in the men's event after he turned in a 15th-place finish. Freshman Alder Martz finished in 16th place, while sophomore Weston Luzadder finished in 22nd place. Junior Joe Kukolla finished in 40th place, while juniors Peter Deucher and Isaiah Newkirk along with freshman David Yohe turned in solid performances for the Knights.

I took a lot of photos today and I think this is my favorite. This is Sierra's team mate Weston, racing in the men's U23 event. He got 16th place we think, the results aren't posted yet. The course was muddy and wet but the temperature was around 50 so it wasn't as bad as it looked. By the end of the race, the wind had come up and the sky was turning dark so we were glad to head back to the hotel.

We left this morning for Bend, OR at 6:20, stopped in Denver, Portland, and then the last leg into Bend was on this little plane. We hadn't been on one of these for a LONG time!

Sierra got her National Road Championship ring today. Last May, Marian won the National Road title for the first time in the team history. They have always been the powerhouse champions on the velodrome so this is an coveted victory for Marian University!

A new 'doo for me today! Kim took care of me and also made penciled me in 6 weeks from now so I won't have an excuse not to keep it trimmed. This pic will have to do until I can find someone to take a better one!

I've been doing quite a bit of cleaning and consolidating biking items. Rich caught Camo atop a bin of sunglasses today. She and the other "girls" haven't been outside much lately and winter really hasn't started yet.

Kristin found out that she got the job she had been wanting! I offered to pay for a celebratory dinner for her and Tyler and they took me up on it! I believe they went to Napolese and she sent me this photo Tyler took on his phone.

Here's the second day of cyclocross racing this weekend for Sierra. Today, the race was at Brookside Park in Indianapolis. Sierra got 7th today and she looks like she is enjoying her day in the mud and snow as usual! The team was happy they got some snow to race in before traveling to Bend, OR for nationals on Friday.

We missed the snow in Indianola but in Indianapolis, they got about 4 inches just in time for this cyclocross race benefiting St. Mary's Child Center. It was held at Ft. Benjamin Harrison State Park in Indianapolis. Sierra got 6th in the elite women's race. Jeff Leibovitz was kind enough to send me this photo of her.

This beautiful arrangement of festive boxes came today in the mail from the Lane family. I haven't opened any of them yet but the descriptions of the contents sound yummy!

I got an email today announcing the pre sale of a new Cirque show in Des Moines - Dralion (Drah-lee-on). I love Cirque du Soleil and got us some tickets immediately! This show is said to be a "harmonious blend of Eastern and Western acrobatic prowess" I'll wrap up the tickets and give to Rich as a Christmas gift, the show is in March.

This bag is full of something for someone for Christmas! Of course, I can't tell you what and who............you will have to guess!

Here are all my November pages, nice and large for viewing!