It's Event Day!

Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer

Today is the event - the 4th Annual Kick Off the Holidays: Mystery Carols event hosted by The Woodshed. Astro D and I decided to meet for breakfast around 7:45am and then we would head out for a couple of boxes before heading to the event. When we left the hotel it was pretty cold and cloudy. It seemed like we were in for a day of winter letterboxing. We first stopped at Riva Ridge Park and took the Sulfur Gulch Trail to look for Gone With the Wind. Walking the short distance to the box was rather chilling and unfortunately we found the logs where the box was hidden but there was no box. So we turned around and headed back to the car. Along the way we came across four deer just lying off to the right of the trail - they were beautiful. Once back at the car we continued on to the next box. This one was off of Tallman Court. We parked on the side of the road and walked a few feet to the box. We found Horse of Another Carver: Cheval Volant quickly and we stamped in standing at a wall that we used as a surface to stamp on. After replacing the box it was time to head to the event.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

We drove up and parked and before we entered the house we looked for three boxes hidden in the yard. We found Practice Makes Perfect, Slippin' & Sliden' to the Woodshed and This Is My Life. Since it was a little chilly we were invited to bring the boxes inside to do our stamping. Once that was done we replaced the boxes and officially started the event. First we got the event stamp and while we were stamping in we were given name tags and a clue booklet. After getting the event stamp and visiting for a while we decide it was time to find some boxes. About a week ago we received a list of eight questions about the song The Twelve Days of Christmas - we were told we needed those answers to find some of the boxes. The clue booklets had five sheets of paper . . . gold, pink, green, red and blue. The first four were the clues which were at four different locations in Parker and Castle Rock. The last page (the blue one) was a list of Christmas carols.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

There were 66 boxes planted for the event and also nine bonus boxes. A few of the regular boxes held the clues for the bonus boxes - so we needed to write those down for later. Each of the regular boxes contained only a stamp which represented a Christmas carol. Once you had the stamp you were suppose to name the carol it represented - at the end of the event we went over the answers and the six people with the most correct answers won prizes. I was only able to get 59 of 66 correct. And I have to say that even though I now know the answers I still don't get some of them - they make absolutely no sense to me. But others were very clever and I loved seeing the way the carvers interpreted the carols. Astro D and I started at the event headquarters looking for boxes. We found most of the ones hidden inside and then we decided to head out and hit the locations in Castle Rock. At each of the location there were these three wire boxes that looked like gifts. A red, blue and purple one - these were the ones we need the answers to the Twelve Days of Christmas questions. The answers were numbers and we needed a three digit number to open the locks to the boxes to get the three stamps inside. Then there were camo bags with other stamps hidden around the location. Each stamp was numbered so that you could put down which carol the stamp represented. There were nine stamps at the gold location, 18 at the pink location, 18 at the green location and 21 at the red location (which was the event headquarters) - the nine bonus boxes where at the red location also. I was glad to have the cheat sheet list of carols to help name the stamps, otherwise I probably would have only gotten about 10 correct. We found all the boxes in Castle Rock and then returned to Parker and found the boxes at one location and then returned to event headquarters to finish finding the ones there.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Once all the boxes were found I grabbed some snacks and then got a few exchanges. Also we worked on one of the bonus box clues where you had to look at a picture of the Twelve Days of Christmas and count all the legs and once you had the answer you could get the box. Then there was a gift exchange at the end of the event if you wanted to participate. And that concluded a marathon of boxing and visiting. We found a total of 80 boxes today and got some really incredible stamps. Astro D and I left the event and returned to the hotel to rest a bit and get cleaned up. Then we met in the lobby to go and get some dinner. It was a wonderful event and a great day even though it was cold and cloudy. I now need to get packed so I can get up early and hit the road. I would like to be back in Santa Fe by mid afternoon. Thanks to The Woodshed for being incredible hosts and for a fantastic event.