Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday.  We started with 15 at the table for Thanksgiving.  I think Thanksgiving is our favorite day of the year and we love to invite anyone looking for a group to share Thanksgiving with.  This year we thought we had 20, so I made the table 18 feet long, then with 5 cancellations we ended up the same size as last year with a 14' table... SO we had a little extra room.... No harm done.  We killed and ate two turkeys raise by one of our Co-op members.  My first time to de-feather and gut a turkey.  That was interesting.  The turkey turned out great and supported our philosophy to get our food as fresh and clean as possible.  Turns out those lovely big breasts are not natural, so we had a little less white meat than we might like, but thinking of the alternative (eating the hormones that make the turkey breasts grow) I am happy with our choice.

Tunnel Drive in Canon City

Mom and Dad came up for Thanksgiving and we walked Tunnel Drive here in Canon City and went up the Cog Railway up Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, and of course had to stop at the Olive Oil and Vinegar tasting room.... My favorite place in Manitou Springs.

The river and Royal gorge train
from Tunnel Drive

On the Cog Railway

On Top of Colorado

 December was a whirlwind as usual.  I had a lot of database work and we had a couple Christmas parties etc... the usual.  The weekend before Christmas we headed down to Albuquerque, and spent the weekend celebrating with Kelsey and Sara.  My parents, of course, got in on the fun as they are back from Japan. Josh (Mike's eldest) and Carla just happened to be in Albuquerque that weekend too so we got to go have a visit with Carla's Mom and Step-dad at their spectacular house in the foothills of the Sandias!  If I can find some photos I'll share.

Since Monday Josh and Carla were flying back to Phoenix, and we were driving down the same day, we stole the baby Kaylee for the drive.  They were worried that she would be ornery in the car for that long, but I guess it's true, children act differently for their parents than for other people... She didn't squirm once and was perfect the whole way... And I had to take a moment to thank whoever invented those baby foods that you just squirt into the baby's mouth, no spoon, nothing.... Wonderful especially when you are in the car.

We spent Christmas week in Phoenix.  Carla (a blood tech at the hospital) works nights and had to work both Christmas eve and Christmas day night, so since it was all us adults and a 1 year old we decided it would harm anything to move Christmas Eve and Day to Thursday/Friday rather than have Carla be struggling to enjoy the holiday.  So Christmas Day after Carla slept and got up (1pm or so) we decided to take the boat out for a bit.  Gorgeous Day, half an hour from their house, about 2 other boats on the lake.  Carla even decided to don the wetsuit and go for a ski.. How many times can you say you went water skiing on Christmas Day!  Unfortunately after a long shift and little sleep her strength didn't allow her up and shortly she became nauseous.... Still proud of her for being the only one to give it a try!

Our Christmas Day (Friday) found Mike and Josh tackling a broken waterline problem in the yard.  Turned out it was the neighbors line, just leaking on Josh's property.. Oh well, we keep saying when the Mosers get together we should have a project.  I was amused as the weekend before when my Mom invited us over for breakfast, I snagged this photo!

Unfortunately, we had hoped to do some hunting or even shooting on the weekend, but Josh got a headache and so we stuck around close to home.  Still a great visit for us!  Late Sunday, we headed back to Albuquerque for the night and Monday Convoyed to our ranch with my parents, and Monica (my sister) and David drove down from Northern Colorado to spend New Years together.  We played games starting Monday night and didn't stop until Monica left late New Years Day.  Aside from Monica coming down with a stomach flu on New Years Day, that was a fun visit too.  After my parents left on the 2nd, and I had to get back to work.... that was a hard transition.  I still wanted to play.

But now 2014 has started and we have BIG plans.  We have been converting our kitchen to gluten free for the past few months, and that has gone well so we have decided to go all out Paleo.  For those who don't know, Paleo eating is eating like a neanderthal man.  The theory is that many things we are eating today are not native to humans and our bodies really are not well suited and have not evolved to eating them.  In a nutshell if you are eating Paleo you are not eating gluten, or any grains, no dairy, no legumes, no white potatoes, and no sugar.  What you do eat is meat and vegetables, fruit (esp berries), seeds and nuts, including eggs and quality fats.  We are starting with a 2 week cleanse and ready to go.  We want to be strict for at least 9 months or a year and allow our guts to heal.  Then most people relax a little and you just listen to your body to see what you can add back.  So that is one big effort for our focus.

Our second big effort currently is that we are starting a new stock trading class with Revolutionary Trading.  I've loved their style for the past couple of years since we have discovered them.  We decided to be part of their elite trading class for the first quarter of 2014.  After we decided that the time was right for us now, they announced that this will be his last year, and perhaps his last quarter teaching, so I'l doubly excited.  This starts at the end of the month and I am trying not to commit to anything, so we can stay dedicated to these to ventures... Yep, pretty difficult for me.

So all told if we can focus on Trading classes, eating Paleo and keeping up with my work, that is enough for the next few months!  Hope you all are having as much fun!