December 28, 2009

Christmas at The Ranch

We had a wonderful, white Christmas at The Ranch, but not without a little improvising. However, since my husband is the King of Improvising, I wasn't worried.

For instance, why fret over not having a refrigerator when we can do this...

And who needs a bathroom door when a leftover piece of ceiling board will do the trick?

Being the planner that I am, I cooked our Christmas meal at home before going to The Ranch, just in case Neal wasn't able to get our new stove connected for some reason....which is what happened because he didn't have the right fitting. No worries, we just reheated everything on our Coleman camp stove and it was just as good.

And for dinner Christmas night, I had prepared french onion soup. We toasted the french bread on our camp stove grill, but I was unsure how we would get that golden, bubbly cheese effect on top of the soup. How dare I give it a second thought, because the King of Improvising stepped in with the propane blow torch and voila!


As we ate, we were warmed by the heat of our trusty little wood stove...

and reminded of the joy of the season by admiring our tabletop fiberoptic tree...

The next day when the hardware store opened, Neal went to town and got the correct fitting for the stove. He was able to install it with no problems and now we have a fully functioning stove ready to prepare our next Ranch meal!

I tidied up the kitchen area and organized our drawers and cabinets. Everything is so much easier to find than it was in our little pop-up camper!

Although the pipes were still frozen and we didn't bathe for two days, we still had a special Christmas enjoying the simpler things in life that we so often take for granted. We both agreed our first Christmas at The Ranch was exactly as we had hoped...

except for that bathing part!

8 comments:

LiveWorkDream said...

Oh Lilla, that post is adorable, thanks for making me smile. Merry Christmas!

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

So glad you got to enjoy Christmas at the Ranch. Everything is looking great! Unfreeze the pipes and get a bathroom door and you have the comforts of home.

Lilla said...

Rene...glad to be of assistance in the smiling department! Happy New Year, my friend!

SVB...thanks. We have a little more than just pipes and the bathroom door left to do, but we're getting there. And in the meantime, we know how to IMPROVISE! Happy New Year!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Oh poo! Baths are way over-rated! lol!
We bathe much less during the winter here to help conserve water and because we just don't get as dirty. One or two baths a week with a few wash-ups in between and we're good to go. Keeps our skin from drying out, too.

You guys are very resourceful. I love the blow torch idea. lol! And the outdoor fridge/freezer is brilliant. Our kitchen fridge stopped working on Christmas morning, but we have an extra fridge/freezer in the garage, so everything moved out there. Of course, our garage was so cold that we could have just placed everything in there, too. hehe!

Oh and we don't have a door on our bathroom either. We do have a 'pony-wall' for privacy in front of the toilet, though. Of course, this is the way our bathroom was designed oddly enough. lol!

Congrats on being in your new ranch house for the New Year!


~Lisa

Lilla said...

Lisa...maybe we should just go back to bathing once a week like our ancestors did, if they were lucky!

I've seen those pony walls in bathrooms before, but that wouldn't work at our house. My husband likes his privacy, that is why he improvised with the ceiling board as a door!

Happy New Year to you, too!

Anonymous said...

i love it! so glad you have a happy christmas at the happy ranch!

basicliving@backtobasicliving.com said...

Awwww - now THAT looks like the perfect Christmas. What a wonderful post. And the blow torch to melt the cheese is just the BEST!!!! The absolute best! I'm late with this comment, but HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2010 brings you the very best.

Lilla said...

Daune...yes, it was a happy Christmas!

Penny...that blow torch was pretty genius, wasn't it? Happy New year to you, too!

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