Celebrating on New Year's Day!

We loved waking up to a new year while staying with R and J in Colorado,

and enjoying a breakfast of blueberry pancakes...

cooked by a very capable dad/daughter duo!
Afterwards, what better to do with a pair of granddaughters than to cuddle up in Grammy's lap, in the new blanket from Aunt Terry, and listen to a story by Grandpa!

And then we had to get in the car and "enjoy" the next 11 hours traveling home.

We arrived in Iowa along with arctic cold. It was nice to have the heat come on and warm up the house. But the next morning, with -20 outside, the heat had stopped.

So had the water heater, and even the gas fireplace wouldn't work!

Evidently, this was a gas-delivery problem,

so the utility company was called, the worker came promptly

and had to replace a valve that had failed. I felt sorry for him having to work out in that cold.

I'm SO glad we returned when we did, so the problem could be taken care of, instead of returning a day later to a stone-cold house and frozen water pipes!