Christmas 2010, round one continued

Each Christmas is different here, I guess that is the way it goes when most of your children no longer live at home.

In 2008, our first Christmas in our new home, our kids' visits overlapped, with Rich's kids coming first and mine second. It was new and a little awkward, but fun just the same. And so lovely to be in our new home, TOGETHER.

Last year, we had all seven kids at home for the holidays and it was a bit of a madhouse! lol But good just the same.

This year, Rich's boys were here for the actual Christmas celebrations and his daughter couldn't make it. We hope to see her in January sometime. Christmas was quiet and nice. No snow or even cold weather.

Holly and Ben will arrive on January 2nd for a whirlwind belated Christmas celebration. That will be round two!

In the meantime, here are some photos from our Christmas 2010:

Feather trying to find the squeaker in her reindeer toy.

My girls, Heidi and Chloe reluctantly posing- nevermind that the light stinks, I was lucky to get both of them smiling in one photo... lol

Rich's boys, Zach and Ben

 Molly getting in the middle of things- she was either under the tree or in a box

Rich trying out one of his new toys, an RC plane (they are apparently not as easy to fly as it looks!)

We didn't cook a turkey since Thanksgiving here was so late; we cooked a ham and a duck. A l'orange. A la Julia Child. Ahem.

NOT a good idea to cook a brand new dish on Christmas when you have company. Just sayin'.

It did turn out well, but I don't think it was worth all of the babysitting I had to do for it, nor was it worth the amount of stress it caused me over whether or not it would turn out! lol

Lesson learned.

The girls and I did the HUGE Thanksgiving cleanup, so we decided that the Christmas cleanup should be for the boys, and we hopped in the car to look at the neighborhood Christmas lights. Some of our neighbors really go all out- check it out!

There is another house that decorates every single square inch of their house and yard, and I took a little video. I will post it as soon as I figure out how to get it off of my camera!

As seen above, I got Rich an RC plane and here we are, out with the boys, trying to figure out how to fly it!

Lesson number one: Planes need a level place to take off from, and a bumpy lawn isn't it... So off we go from the park, over to the elementary school. 

Notice how we are dressed? Does this look like Boxing Day weather to you? Not to this Canadian girl, it doesn't! But I'll take it! 60F at the end of December is pretty nice, I have to say.

Rich got it going! Flew it around for a bit, and then landed it in the tennis courts next to the elementary school lot we were at. lol There were some nice people playing tennis that caught it and gave it back.

Lesson number two: controlling one of these things IS a lot harder than it looks!

But I think he likes it. YAY!

Christmas 2010, round one

Hello all! Hope you had a merry Christmas with your loved ones and are looking forward to a wonderful upcoming year.

This is our third Christmas here in Colorado. This year Rich and I held an Open House a week before Christmas to visit with our neighbors and co-workers and also to give the many workers who put our kitchen together an opportunity to come and see the completed job. We all enjoyed ourselves very much, and intend to make it a yearly thing.

Waiting for our guests to arrive 

Starting to put the food out 

The punch and goodies and other beverages

Rumaki and baked brie in the oven, sweet & sour meatballs on the stove top.

Let the festivities begin!

Stay tuned for more Christmas news!

Inspiring giveaway!

Hey- for a really inspiring woman to read about and follow (on her blog), why not go to:
http://cathybueti.blogspot.com/

Cathy wrote a book about her journey through breast cancer and is giving a signed copy away to one lucky winner!

I haven't read the book yet myself, but am looking forward to it- we women can always benefit from hearing that no matter how tough or impossible the road directly ahead seems, there is a way to get through it.

And while you are at it, if you like art, why not check out Cathy's art blog:
http://artsybutterfly.blogspot.com/

I love both of these sites, and I think you will too!

Halloween 2010

HALLOWEEN ART

Just had to show you the pumpkins that Chloe carved. There is an art to this- even if you are following a pattern!

The patterns were in an old folder; you tape it to the pumpkin and poke a bunch of holes around the design- then remove the paper pattern and set to cutting all the little pieces out.

It's weird- this child has very little patience for much, but for the past three years, pumpkins have commanded her full attention- and certainly command the attention of the adults taking their kids from door to door!

If you click on them, you can see a larger photo of them.

This is pumpkin number two- Heidi didn't want to carve hers, and Chloe didn't have a lot of time, so she chose an "easier" design... wouldn't have been easier for me, but compared to the first one she did this weekend, I guess it is easier...

Where does she get the patience?!?

I wouldn't even have considered it... and it even has a hanging spider.

She actually spent more time on these pumpkins than on her costume- because it isn't cool to have mom's help any more... but she was happy with how she dressed- and even more so because she was able to wear her footie pajamas underneath! lol

I had to cut her little friend off (she was dressed as a voodoo doll and looked great) because I don't publish other peoples' kids' photos without permission. You know.

Hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Day in Denver!

My sweet hubby and I spent Friday in Denver and had a fabulous day!

We took the light rail and got off at the Theatre, ready to walk. It was a really warm day, I think the high was 85F!!! In OCTOBER!!!

We wandered around the 16th Street Mall and the surrounding streets, before caving and ducking into Taki's for an early lunch. BEST Japanese food I have ever had. MMMmmmm. I will have to take the kids there when they are here over the holidays.

We had purchased tickets to see the King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, but we were plenty early and thoroughly enjoyed walking around, soaking in the lovely sunshine.

We ended up at the Capitol Building. I have only ever seen it while driving/riding in a car, and really had no idea how big or grand it was. One one set of steps is a brass marker that shows were 5,280 feet is- one mile- for the Mile High City.

We went in- and wow- what a place!Our intent was to go up to the cuppola and walk around to see Denver from up high, but alas, the balcony was closed. They did have some doors open to allow photos, and here is what we saw:

The Cathedral

The Scottish Masonic Center (round roof)

The Denver Art Museum and Public Library (center of photo)

Denver Courthouse with the beautiful Rockies behind it

Closer up- trying to see Red Rocks, a popular outdoor amphitheatre, which is northwest of where we live (Denver is northeast of where we live)

Office buildings? Not sure, but it was a nice view anyway!

More office buildings and that ultra blue sky we see so often!

I didn't know if I was allowed to take photos inside, so I didn't. But next time I will ask, because if I am allowed, I would love to show you the grandeur of this beautiful building.

Then it was time to head over to the Art Museum, as the King Tut tours were timed. We headed up to the exhibition, and I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. You know all the stuff you see in the ads and  publicity about Tut- the golden caskets and all that? None of it was there. 

They had some pretty interesting things from different pharoahs, and some odds'n'ends from King Tut's tomb, but I didn't want to see just his golden finger and toe coverings and sandals- I wanted to see the GRAND stuff!!! 

The most impressive thing there, in my opinion, was a gigantic seated statue of Akhenaten. Even though some of the left side of his face was missing, it was beautiful. I was simply in awe of how detailed and how large it was.

The whole display was smaller than I thought it would be and really crowded. Too bad, really. Just a good example of hype I think.

When we visited the Museo Egizio in Torino this past summer, the beginning of our tour of the museum was kind of like that- but it ended much differently!

The Egizio is the largest collection and museum dedicated to Ancient Egypt outside of Cairo. They have many rooms of things and very cool things, including ancient textiles and real mummies. As we got to the last room, we thought: "Is that it?" Because it was raining heavily outside, we decided to go and look a little more, and went into a room that we thought we had been in, but hadn't- there were two enormous rooms of HUGE Egyptian statues, and they were breathtaking. Anyway, I digress.

After the tour, we went to see the 3D movie about the secrets of mummies and it was interesting.

Our tickets were good for the day anywhere in the museum, so away we went! I love me an art museum! 

We saw a lot of beautiful work, a lot of things I didn't understand, a lot of thought-provoking work. It was great!

And I got a some of cool photos from there too- they had windows in random places. Of course there are a few that aren't fit to put here- some of the windows were so dirty, you can barely see what I was taking a photo of! lol

Panoramic view of the mountains

A small part of the Art Museum

View of the Capitol Building from the Museum

By the time we saw all we wanted of the museum, it was time to catch the Light Rail again- or wait till after rush hour.

A couple more shots on the walk back to the station:

Tribute to Christopher Columbus at Civic Center Park

The "gateway" from the park to the street- I would have liked to get some photos of Civic Center Park, but they were setting up for the Rock and Roll Marathon over the weekend, and it was a madhouse there. Next time, I promise!

Look who's peeking into the Denver Convention Center window! It's quite something to see- and you see him as soon as you walk out from the Light Rail, if you get off at the Theatre/Convention Center (the station is just past the bear)

He's 40 feet tall, 10,000 lbs, and I think the sculpture is titled "I See What You Mean", though he is known affectionately as the Denver Blue Bear.

We had a great day. I love Denver. I love the people, the city and all it's surrounding smaller cities, I love our community which is just a short 20 minute drive out of the city. It's a place I am happy to call home.