Christmas in Oklahoma!

Your mom and I made a long overdue trip to Oklahoma to visit family for Christmas. It'd been a couple years now since she went out there and even longer since I'd seen everyone. It was about time, and so we made a real trip out of it and spent a week there before we hopped to Colorado afterwards to see more family. It was a great way to take some time off, do some traveling, and be with family for the holidays.

We had an evening flight to Tulsa and got to watch the sun go down from 30,000 feet in the air. We landed late in the evening excited to start our trip and see everyone.

Mark and Sharon are very involved with their church, and for the holidays the church hosts a massive event called Christmas Train, where they tell the story of Christmas as you ride a genuine steam-engine train through this large camp they operate called Dry Gulch. Mark volunteers to cook a big batch of soup or stew to feed some of the other volunteers for the event every night, so he started early that morning cooking with your grandma's help. She's worked for many years with the church at Dry Gulch, as well, though this year she took time off to visit with us while we were there. 

One thing I adore about their home in Oklahoma is that it's full of life. I guess you'd consider them all pets, but it's a fun mix of animals that have a lot of room to do their thing. This is Slide, a precious dog that is also very bashful with people she's not familiar with. She got that name from Mark because she sort of "slid" her way into the family after being dumped nearby by folks who didn't want her. This is about as close as I could get, and you can see the uncertainty about me in her face, but you could tell she was a sweetheart.

Of course the burro Sassy is still doing well. She makes a good morning alarm, wailing for her breakfast with that particular cry only donkey's can make. Slide keeps a watchful eye on her much of the time.

The first night we were there it began to rain ice. It hadn't done that there in a long time, and it makes for a very interesting look as everything gets sheathed in crystal. The lawn cracked as we walked around and every now and then the ice would overbear a tree limb and send it crashing down, splintering and cracking all over the place.

Your Grandma Sharon keeps hens, also. It seemed really nice to have five fresh eggs practically every morning.

She said she'd name them if she could tell them apart! You can see they are practically indistinguishable from each other, except for one that for some reason or another at night needs help to jump up from the floor of the coop to the perch where they all sleep. Adorably, Sharon always makes a point to visit the coop at night and help that one join the rest.

And this is Lilly, an amazingly soft and pretty cat that they've had for a while. It has a nub tail after being chased by a vicious dog some time ago, and from the stories it's clear she's quite the bruiser herself, but she was still as sweet as ever with us and roamed around inside and outside at will. Must be an ideal cat life! 

It just so happened that a new brewery with a growing reputation was having a grand opening celebration for their new facility in Tulsa when we were in Oklahoma, so the family was gracious enough to come with me and let me visit for some tastes and a tour. It was neat getting to show them one of the things that I'd really been interested in lately, and they both enjoyed some of the more interesting beers this place puts out. It was a good introduction to the scene, and they especially liked one beer which was a Belgian golden ale aged in whiskey barrels.

Another wonderful thing about their place is the space. They live on about ten acres which was beautifully frozen part of the time we were there. They have this pond along with a stream cutting through part of the property. At night it's so serene and relaxing. Your mom and I slept like stones the whole time!

Our home away from home.

As long as I've known your mom, she's raved about this Chinese restaurant where she grew up. Every time we go out for Chinese I ready myself to hear about how good the egg rolls are at Shing Kee and how we must go there together some day. Well, we made some time to go the Monday of the trip, forgetting the cardinal rule of Chinese food places: they're closed on Mondays! Heartbroken, we settled for another place, leaving the legend of Shing Kee to be explored some other time.

We got to see a lot of the places that Sharon and Mark spend their time together and I met a lot of new family. Driving around one neighborhood there were deer everywhere grazing as it began to flurry.

And as we got back to the house, one of the horses on the neighboring ranch was interested enough to come over and greet us. Later we'd pack up and head to Mark and Sharon's church to see their Christmas program. It ended up being quite the professional spectacle, with stunning music, singing, and dancing. 

One night, at your mom's insistence, Sharon entertained us with some old photos of her and all her daughters growing up. Much like your mother, your grandma has no idea how beautiful she is and was disapproving of practically every photo of her she saw. This was just one of the particularly striking pictures she showed us.

Your mom's niece Brooke and her fiance Nick recently had a baby boy, Killian. It's been tough, though, because he was born very premature and so has been in the hospital for many weeks now. They go to visit as often as they can, but the hospital is quite a drive to Tulsa from where they live, so it's been hard on them. We got to visit the baby with them and spend some time with them before Christmas.

Two of the most beautiful, loving women I have in my life. It was Christmas day and I was feeling so fortunate to have such people to call family, and I couldn't have asked for a sweeter mother-in-law.

On Christmas we got some time to play with Serena, Brooke's adorable daughter. She is certainly a hoot, with energy to spare. 

It was a great Christmas gathering! From the left: Mark's mother, your mom's oldest sister Pam, your grandma Sharon, Mark's sister-in-law, Pam's older daughter McKenzie, Brooke, Pam's younger daughter Ashton, and your mom. Brooke's daughter Serena is the cutie in front, of course.

The men, from the left: Brooke's fiance Nick, Mark's brother, Mark, some goof, and Mark's buddy Randy with his new German Shepherd puppy.

Whenever I had a chance, I'd step outside to explore a bit more and see what I could see. Your mom showed me to the creek that runs by, and she recounted many times having a blast playing in it as a kid.

We visited your mom's oldest sister, Pam, at her house in a nearby town. Her daughters, McKenzie and Ashton are both athletes and were wrapping up their basketball season playing for their high school. The local newspaper featured their playing recently. That's McKenzie in the picture on the upper right.

Pam took us on a drive through their beautiful neighborhood which borders Grand Lake. It's an immense lake, and while it was dead for the winter, it gets quite active and lively during the summer months.

Our last evening we spent with Sharon's cousin Jeanne and her daughters Jennifer and Madison. Your mom grew up with Jenny and Madison, and since Jenny has moved to Oakland, her and your mom have been able to spend some time together in their shared new home in California. 

Jeanne must be a genuine animal lover at heart, because she's taken in and rescued so many critters that her home and barn are teeming with life. Horses and ponies and miniature ponies, cats and kittens, dogs, and a pair of raccoons rounded out the lot. Here your mom is feeding one of the raccoons some bits of a cookie. 

The whole trip felt like a continuous reunion. For your mom and Jenny, it was a reconnection where they both grew up, a place I think they appreciate differently now that they're adults and don't live there.

I think I was most taken in by the space everywhere. People live on vast parcels of land often without neighbors in sight, making for a peaceful retreat at the end of the day and a lot of room to stretch your legs and get into whatever you want to get into. 

We were treated to a gorgeous Oklahoma sunset the last night of the trip. It was a great time and it was hard to say goodbye, but the trip was only half over, as we were on our way the next morning to Colorado to see my side of our family in Denver, so away we go...