Winter snow in SLC and Denver

My final day in Salt Lake was Sunday. I went to church with my hosts, then was swept away for a special surprise with a good friend and her family. We had a great afternoon with lots of laughs.

In the evening I went out with my hosts again. I finally got the chance to spend some time with them over this week and get to know them. They are both super cool people. They took me to my two favorite places in SLC during my stay. Plus I had Ethiopian twice! All of my kind friends want to fill me up on my favorite things while I'm in the US. Let's just say I am not losing any weight.

Sunday night the winds picked up and a storm blew in. By Monday morning, my friend couldn't even get to my hosts' home to pick me up! Traffic was a mess and the roads were slick. My hosts brought me down to a grocery store parking lot where they handed me off to another friend and he got me safely to the airport.

Good thing he was thinking ahead. If he hadn't been, I could have missed my flight. There were a lot of people sprinting through the airport yesterday morning.

Tons of cars were off the road, or stuck in the middle of the road. We drove slowly and carefully.

At one point my friend told me to look in my rearview mirror. A big pickup came barreling up behind us and passed us on the right. He was going insanely fast. A half mile later we pulled up on that same pickup. He had rear ended another truck. His whole front end was smashed up the windshield. What a shame.

I arrived in Denver safely and spent the evening decorating my Mom's Christmas tree with my nephews. They are so funny! Jack put all of the snowmen in little clumps, face to face, on one part of the tree "so they can hang out together".

Joe said, "I love you snowman," with hugs and kisses

 Great Grandma's Christmas village.
The boys set it up, then "a storm" (them) comes and knocks it over

Mom started to have a fit because all of the decorations were on one side of the tree, but when I explained that it was purposeful, we left it that way.

The snowmen "hanging out"

A little clumpy, but special!

After dinner I played Tic Tac Toe with Jack and Joey. They beat me more than I beat them. Jack was dying to play Uno with me, but it was time to go home.

The Utah storm blew into Denver last night. For the second day in a row, I woke up to a world blanketed in white. Flights in and out of Denver are cancelled. I am so blessed I made it here yesterday!

My brother and I are talking about skiing. We are not sure if we want to take the boys, which means that we wouldn't really be able to ski, or if we want to take off and go ourselves. One way or another, skiing is the plan for tomorrow.

Today I am writing Christmas cards and sending out my monthly news letter, which will be a week late. Perfect stuff for a snowy day in Colorado.