Tales of the Traveling Tote #46

Welcome to the Winter Edition of 

Tales of the Traveling Tote #46

Early in December, Miss Mini Mac 

and I had the pleasure of attending a 

Jan Brett book signing for her new book,

THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER.

Jan told us about how the story evolved and then illustrated 

how to draw a pug, the main character in the book.

The audience was filled with families, 

teachers, and many retired teachers such as myself.  

How precious to see this young girl drawing 

her own pug, carefully following Jan Brett's instructions.

It was a bit of a reunion for me as I first met Jan Brett in 1995 

when she was in Austin for a previous book signing.  

I was still teaching at the time and scooted out after school 

to see her at Toad Hall, a wonderful local children's book 

store that is sadly no longer in business.

Here we are 30 years later meeting again.

Jan Brett is one of the foremost author illustrators

of children's books and one of my all time favorites!

You can read more about Jan and her work here.

For those with children in your life, 

I highly recommend Jan Brett's books.

Shortly after Christmas, Miz Merri Mac and I 

boarded a plane to Colorado to bring in the new year.

We headed to our favorite spot,

My cousin's River House, Basalt, Colorado.

You can see the mountains have little snow this year,

though it began to snow the day we returned in early January.

I took Miz Merri Mac's traditional photo with the 

Welcome Bear at the Aspen Airport.

The ground was bare, no snow. 

At Debbie @ Mountian Breaths suggestion, I took the 

liberty of using Chat GPT to create a winter feel.

It's fun! Have you tried it?

In reality, it looked more like this.

There was snow on the ground, the temps were freezing,

and we had a log fire going all day and into the evenings.

Grateful for our expert fire-builder!

We spent most of the time chatting, sipping cups 

of hot tea, and stitching on our needlepoint projects.

Enjoying the after glow of Christmas.

You might recall the abundance of 

wild turkeys from our October visit.  

Fewer turkeys out and about, 

but they were still there.

Mallards were in abundance floating 

in the cold river and flying about.

I spotted one eagle as it flew down, sent the turkeys

scattering, then flew up the mountain side.

New Year's Eve we enjoyed dinner out at the Roaring Fork Club.

A beautiful lit tree greeted us as we drove up.

The near full moon shone above as if it was a bright star.

Did you happen to see the Wolf Moon a few nights later?

Every room of the club was beautifully decorated.

Dinner was buffet after buffet of delicious offerings.

I chose to stay fresh crab claws and lobster which were 

both amazingly tender and soaked in melted butter. 

Desserts were equally as tempting.

Please leave me a comment below 

and let me know about your holidays.

Don't Forget to Comment With Your Contact Info with

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Don't miss all the adventures below:

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch 

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box 

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul (You Are Here)

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Note we will post our next Traveling Tote Adventures in May.

Happy New Year!