Bringing in the New Year! Welcome 2016

Happy New Year to all!

For the third year, we welcomed the new year while celebrating in Door County at the Landmark.

Today is Saturday, January 2.

The year is off to a great start.

Both John and I agreed that this trip has been just what we needed.

We are refreshed and ready to take on whatever this year has to offer.

John and I drove up to Oshkosh on Wednesday night.

John went to work on New Year's Eve Day (Thursday).  I cleaned and organized Tizita's room.  We had delivered her new desk and I had to make room for it.  Of course, at Courtney's home, one project always turns into ten more so I kept busy until John returned and we left for our Door County adventure.

We arrived up here around 6:00, checked into our lovely condo at the Landmark and got ourselves ready for dinner at the Carrington Inn.

Our reservations were for 9:00 which worked out so well for us. 

We enjoyed a bing cherry martini for me and a new fashioned for John.

Those were two mighty yummy drinks!.

We had a table right in the bar area, so we did not have to leave that table the entire evening.

We agreed that the food was not terrific, but  it was fine.

The chocolate fountain was yummy.

We did have to listen to some very mediocre karaoke but that comes with the territory.

We easily made it to midnight.

It was a great way to bring in the new year.

We  are getting the hang of selfies, too, as you can see.

On Friday, New Year's Day we went snowshoeing at White fish Dunes and Cave point.

It was perfect weather and there was beautiful new snow.

We did pretty well considering we haven't dome anything physical for months!

After our snow shoe adventure we stopped at our favorite spot, JJ's in Jacksonport for some chips and salsa.

Never a disappointment there.

 

A funny thing did happen while snow shoeing.

My shoes seemed a bit loose, so at one point John tightened them for me. I had so much clothes on, I could not bend down to do it myself.

Anyway, neither of us noticed that the back buckle had not closed and I looked down after we had gone a bit and realized I had only one snow shoe on!

We laughed so hard, I am still laughing as I type this.

 We backtracked and located the shoe in a snowbank.  We really had not gone too far.

Luckily no one saw this fiasco.

 

We got back to our room and got ready for our fish boil at the White Gull Inn.  We didn't even realize one could get a fish boil in the winter, so we were pleasantly surprised that we could.  We have been to a number of fish boils here at different places, but had not been to one at the White Gull for years.

It was so good and the ambiance was fantastic.

We did not go out to watch the boil over since we had seen that many times before but one could go and watch if they wanted.

The fish was so good.

The waitress even taught us how to debone the fish.

They had yummy blueberry and lemon bread, too.

We could have all the fish we wanted and to top it all off there was cherry pie alamode.

We were stuffed!

Today (Saturday) we had the best time ever.

We stepped out of our comfort zone and took a Door County trolley tour..

Our tour guide, A.J. was excellent and the people were all so nice.

We were the last people on the trolley and therefore, we got to sit in the side seat up front which was pretty funny.

John was cracking jokes left and right.

Our first stop was at a coffee shop/factory.

John won a prize of coffee when he knew that oil is the most traded commodity right before coffee.

After the coffee experience, we went to the Door Peninsula Winery and Distillery for some tasting.

We ended up purchasing some wine and whiskey because it always tastes so good at those tastings!   I think we still have some wine sitting in our basement from our last visit here.

Got back on the trolley and headed to lunch at the English Inn, but first we stopped at the golf hole that is right next to the Landmark for a photo session.  It is very pretty from up on that hole.

Our lunch at the English Inn was so yummy.

We have driven past that restaurant every time we have been here in Door County, but have never eaten there.  That is going to change now.

I had the spinach salad with hot bacon dressing and shrimp while John enjoyed a french dip sandwich.

We also got cherry pie alamode for dessert.

After that delicious dinner it was off to another winery where we had our sleigh ride and then were able to do some more tastings.  We did not buy any wine there.

We ended our tour at the Shipwrecked in Egg Harbor with a beer and a story about how the building is haunted.

This window is where a 16 year old boy named Jason who happened to be Al Capone's son was found hanged and he still walks around on the roof today.

And so ended our trolley tour.

We would definitely do it again, so much fun and so worth it.

We returned to the Landmark about 4:00 and took a walk outside around the lodge.

We also got to see a very pretty sunset.

Tomorrow we head back to reality.  At least we will be taking lots of happy memories with us as we head out.

Happy New Year.

Christmas 2015 is in the books

We are experiencing our first snow/sleet storm of the winter today.

The sleet is hitting the windows so hard, it sounds so nasty out there.

And so ends our Christmas 2015 celebration.

I took all the Christmas decor down this afternoon except for the trees and I replaced it with all my snowmen, seemed appropriate for today's weather.

It is always bittersweet as the last of the guests leave.

Today Courtney, Paul, and the girls took off in the midst of the storm for home.  It took them 2 1/2 hours but they made it safely.

Our Christmas started on Christmas Eve day when Alissa and Nathan arrived around 3:00.

We headed over to Kev and Vikki's for our Christmas Eve festivities.

The White Elephant was a great time, as usual.  We enjoyed great food, good drinks, and fun conversation.

This was Courtney and Paul's first Christmas Eve to stay home and start their own traditions.  I must be mellowing in my old age because I was fine with it and actually looked forward to an adult night.

Here are a few photos from our Christmas Eve:

On Christmas Day, Courtney and family arrived around 2:00.

The girls loved their gifts and took lots of time to play with them in between opening the next one.

Our big gift to Tiz was a desk, she loved it and our big gift to Soliana was a doll house which she also loved.

My mom gave Tiz desk supplies and she gave Soli two families and a car for the doll house.

Over the next few days, those two girls played so much with their gifts.

Made me feel really good about the new gift giving-Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read.

We had a great dinner of chicken and rice after lots of snacking in the afternoon.

Later that night, the six of us opened our exchange gifts.

It was great fun and I think everyone enjoyed what they were given.

Photos from Christmas Day:

On Saturday, the day after Christmas Day, we stayed home and played with all of the fun, new things.  It was a stay in your pajamas kind of day until 6:00 when we went out for pizza at Capn's in Fort Atkinson.  We had won the pizza party at the Alpha LIfe Resource Center Silent Auction.  Kev, Vikki, and Mal joined us.  It was great pizza and another fun night.  When we got home, the girls, John, and I watched ICarly and the girls, husbands, and Mal went out on the town.

On Sunday, we went to church, played some more with the desk and doll house and then John and I took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks movie in Johnson Creek.  Courtney and Paul spent the afternoon and night at a Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge.  We had said Good bye to the Hunters in the morning as they headed home to Bloomington.  Took the girls to Culver's for dinner and then it was more ICarly snuggled together on the couch.

Today, was our final day with the girls.  We had planned on going to the Children's Museum in Madison with some free passes that we also won at the silent auction, but the weather changed our minds.  We did some more playing and just enjoying each other's company.  It was a fine way to end our Christmas.




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So, we put this Christmas in the books.  Many new memories were made, old memories were rehashed, and a great time was had by all! 
Now on to our New Year's Eve celebration in Door County.