Whirlwind Holidays

Whew! Is it 2012 already?!

December has flown by thanks to a madcap roller coaster of holidays. First off, our little girl Tessa turned 2 years old on December 14th...all with rather minimal fanfare. Since she probably wouldn't register the significance of the date, Kate and I decided to keep things low-key. We got her a present (and got a couple more from aunts in the mail) but didn't do anything more than that. She seemed okay with it.

We tried to get baking and Christmas cards out before the holidays but that just didn't happen. Somehow the month just got away from us. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

We ended up heading down to Colorado Springs to spend Christmas weekend with my family. My mother brought the whole lot us into her restaurant - Thai Eats - for a smorgasbord of both Thai and all-American cuisine.
It was also a joint birthday party of Tessa and her cousin Everest (whose birthday is Dec 31st). Tessa of course loved the cookie-http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcake she got from Grandma and even managed to blow out her own two candles!
The birthday kids opened a couple of presents and generally played around the whole night. The grown-ups ate too much. :-)

Christmas Day was more laid-back than I was expecting. Kate and I went to morning services at St Gabriel's then came back to my folks' home to chill for part of the day before jumping into prep for Christmas dinner. Kate did the ham and rolls while I did potatoes and gravy. Mom tackled green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and stuffing. Dianna and her family joined us later in the afternoon, with Dianna bringing over some dessert.

After dinner, we let the kids open up presents. It was kind of different being the grown-up parent watching the kids lay into their Christmas presents. I think it was the first Christmas where I felt like my parents must have felt when Dianna and I were younger. Sure, we had our own gifts but it was much more fun to just lean back and watch the children go at it. I think I took another step toward real adult parenthood!

Incidentally, Tessa really, really enjoyed tearing open Christmas wrapping! Big surprise there, huh?
The day after Christmas, Kate and I headed up to Denver, where we met up with Kate's siblings - Emily, Glynnis, Aileen, and Dan - at Emily and Jason's place. We enjoyed a second round of Christmas dinner and once more stuffed ourselves silly.

That evening, we traded presents around...and Tessa once again did her duty in distributing gifts to appropriate folks.And she once again had fun ripping open her own presents.


I should note that Tessa did pretty well for herself - between belated birthday presents and Christmas. In fact, we had to leave some gifts behind both in Colorado Springs and in Denver because there simply wasn't enough space in the car for all her new toys!
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I started back at work the next day while Kate and Tessa bounced between home and Denver, hanging out with Tessa's aunts and uncles. Kate's sibling came up on Wednesday to help us get started on our repainting projechttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift for the first floor of our house. That's right - the infamous purple wall is going, going gone!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

To thank them for their hard work, Kate and I took Dan and the sisters to Beaujo's Pizza for dinner.

The next day after I got off work, I joined the family back in Denver for dinner at Larkburger and then our first ever visit to the Denver Zoo's Zoo Lights. The Zoo Lights were amazing! The creativity and artistry was great and even Tessa was noticing the various glowing, glittering animal shapes all around us. There were even a few animals out seeing visitors, including the mountain goats, giraffes, and Tessa's favorite: the Tropical Discovery house. I highly recommend Zoo Lights to anyone in the Denver area around the holidays.
Kate spent a little time on Friday with her siblings, seeing Dan and Aileen off before picking me up from work in Longmont. Friday night was kind of a gasp-for-breath sort of night where we did some clean-up and a little prep for New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve was spent over at my friends Bill and Tammy's house, as if often our tradition. It was a modest turn-out, around seven or eight of us not counting two kiddos. Bill made a turkey stew and Kate and I brought plenty of fruits and veggies. We played a few games...and nursed an exhausted Tessa all the way to midnight. We didn't stick around much longer than the changing of the year, hastening home to put our little girl and ourselves to bed.

Fortunately I had the next two days off from work...which was great because not only did we need a recovery from the whirlwind, but all three of us had developed a bit of sinus, sore throat, and coughing problem. We spent the first day of the year either sleeping or just plodding along. The second day was a little more productive but we were still recovering. By this post, I'm feeling quite a bit better, though Kate is still coughing and Tessa is still a bit stuffed up. Hopefully we'll be recovering soon enough.

So...wow! What a lot of holiday crammed into a couple of weeks, especially there at the end. Don't get me wrong - we had a great time...but now we need the proverbial vacation from our vacation! :-)


Happy Holidays! Welcome to 2012! With any luck, we won't all be so busy that we miss this year too!

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!

Halloween Weekend

Technically, this wasn't Tessa's FIRST Halloween. However, this was the first Halloween in which we actually did something with her. We weren't originally going to, figuring that she was too young to really know what's going on, but then her godparents bought her this awesome ladybug costume...and we just HAD to go out and show off our cute kid!



The condo division that we live in doesn't have much by the way of young kids in it. (College kids, sure, but no young-un's.) So we were pretty sure that taking her around the neighborhood wouldn't really be worth the effort. Instead, Kate tracked down details for the annual Treatsylvania celebration that takes place at The Farm in Lee Martinez Park. We'd heard about Treatsylvania many times before but, of course, never went there ourselves since we didn't have a kid.

Well, let me tell you...this Treatsylvania event is awesome! You enter the Park in groups and follow a trail lined with decorated "Doors" representing the commercial sponsors of the event:







The kids knock on the Doors and volunteers open up and offer up treats.





Mostly the treats were small bits of candy, but many vendors also dropped in coupons, pencils, and other little tidbits.

Tessa was hesitant at first, but she likes to knock on doors...so she would dash up, rap on the door, and run away back to Kate! But when she started to realize that no one scary was coming out...and that the people would put treats in her (provided) bag...she started to get into it. By the end of the line, she would knock once then try to open the door herself to get inside!! :-D

Altogether, it was a very well-organized and comfortable event. We're definitely visiting again next year!

This took place on Sunday. On Halloween Monday, Kate took Tessa to the Tiny Tot Halloween sponsored by the Downtown Business Association of Old Town Fort Collins. I'd heard about the event in the newspaper and suggested that Kate might try it out while I was stuck at work.

Basically, all the businesses in Old Town (and according to Kate, they do mean ALL of them) have treats for costumed little ones who come in for a visit. Costumed employees are eager and welcoming to all young candy-seekers and their parents.

Apparently the event was PACKED! Kate took some pictures to show how amazingly crowded it was:





...so this is obviously another popular event. Kate says that despite the crowds, it was still well-organized and Tessa had a lot of fun running around getting more loot for her (again, provided) bag.

Both events are obviously very commercial and geared toward advertising a variety of local and regional merchants...but that's okay! Both are still a lot of fun for the kids and a safe way to spend Halloween.

That night, after I got home from work, Kate and I bundled Tessa back into her costume and popped down to visit Tessa godparents - Debbie and Rick - to show off the outfit they had bought for her. While we meant to just do a quick stop, we ended up camping out with Debbie on their front porch and helping hand out candy. Deb insisted on taking me and Tessa around the cul-de-sac to meet her neighbors so she could show off her adorable god-daughter...so Tessa got in a half dozen "real" treat-or-treating stops that night! She also enjoyed helping hand out candy.

Crowning moment was when a gaggle (probably eight or nine) of teenage girls swarmed up the walk for their treats and spotted Tessa the Ladybug. They literally ALL broke into a loud and simultaneous "AWWWWW!" :-)

The drawback of the night is that Kate and I decided to let Tessa have a few pieces of her loot, including a couple Kit-Kat, Smarties, Three Musketeers, and chocolate-covered raisins. I know this will come as a shock, but she's now hooked on sweets. ;-)

But it was a seriously good weekend.

Anyway, thanks for reading...and I hope you're having a great day!

Longmont Lights

Last Friday, Kate and I volunteered to man a fire pit at Longmont Lights - an annual celebration of the holidays hosted by the city of Longmont and the various businesses downtown. I originally offered up my help because it looked good to be helping out in the workplace...but it actually turned out to be quite a bit of fun! :-)

I took the bus down to Longmont and worked a 3/4 day. Kate and Tessa drove down and met me at the library. After doing the usual rounds so my co-workers could appreciate the adorableness that is my daughter, we walked around downtown Longmont for a bit, stopping at Abbondanza Pizzeria for dinner. This was awesome because not only was the food (meat calzone and bbq sub sandwich with some garlic bread) but the place also has board games at each table for visitors! Kate and I played an incomplete game of Stratego over dinner. (Naturally, Kate was winning.)



We dashed through a light drizzle to make a quick stop at Butcher Frank's for a roasting chicken then made a circuit around Roosevelt Park to see the sights before our shift started. The ice rink was in operation for visitors and there was a cool 'candyville' themed collection of Christmas lights. We watched the ice sculptor work his canvas with a chainsaw for a little while. We stopped by one of the other fire pits and joined some of my co-workers in a round of Jingle Bells. Then it was off to our station.




The work mostly involved keeping the fire going with wood, handing out flyers with events, and answering directional questions. There was a free hot cocoa station right next to the fire pit that we (of course) took advantage of. Everyone was in a really good mood and enjoying themselves.




Tessa had dozed off after dinner and stayed napping in her stroller for a good half hour or so into our shift. When she woke up, she watched the surroundings for a short while before deciding that it was all too much and started to cry. Willis - one of my co-workers at another fire pit - ducked over to help cover our area while Kate took Tessa to the Memorial Building for a diaper change and a snack. They also visited with the reindeer in front of the building, which apparently made Tessa much happier.



The weather wasn't too bad all in all. It was rather pleasant early on, though the wind picked up a bit as the evening got later. Still, we were bundled up and by the fire so we did pretty well.

The crowning event of the evening were the pair of skydivers that made a nighttime drop at 8pm. The drop was in some doubt due to the rising wind, but apparently it eased enough for the skydivers to chance it. We watched the plane take several passes overhead, then the skydivers set off a streams of sparklers from their boots to mark where they were above us. They swooped and glided in...at one point looking like they were going to clip the flagpole nearby...but sailed in for two perfect landings in the center of the park. Fabulous! I wish I'd thought to have my camera out!

The festivities were pretty much done at that point. We doused the fire pit and gathered up the supplies to take back to the Senior Center. My buddy Ron had met us at the park and we headed out to his new apartment in Longmont for some hot chocolate and chatting.

We ended up getting home kind of late but we did have a good time. I think I'll see about getting involved again next year!

Here are some parting pictures of the Longmont Lights event in Roosevelt Park:








Thanks for reading! I hope you're having a happy Holiday season!

July 4th Update

We had ourselves a really good July 4th weekend!

I got the day off on Friday the 3rd, but poor Kate had to work. Rather than pining away for her, I visited with Bill to play vidgames for the afternoon. Then I popped back up to pick up Kate from work. We caught Ron from Loveland and headed down to watch a showing of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at the Union Colony Dinner Theater. As always, we loved the venue and the performance was both top-notch and hilarious, especially the characters of Pseudolus and Hysterium plus Hero and Phillia.

The next day, Kate and I did a whirlwind cleaning of the house in preparation for our friends coming over for our annual BBQ. The dinner plans inadvertently became a grilled kabob night, which was great! We might have overdone it on the amount of food both prepped and consumed. But it was all delish so who cares? :-)

Afterward, most of us headed down to City Park for the city fireworks display. It'd been raining for most of the day, which seemed to scare most folks off. We had a nice spot on top of a hill with a great view.

If you're interested, here some vids of the display...





rant on

As much as a love fireworks, I can't stand the folks who don't consider the safety of others when firing them off. The only downside of the evening was watching as people were setting off fountains, poppers, and spark-shooting spinners along the sidewalks, in the streets, and even in the crowded park over the heads of the rest of us! C'mon, people, show a little consideration!!

rant off

Sorry about that! :-)

Anyway the display was great - we loved it! The finale was particularly good in my opinion - although I was too dazzled to remember to point my camera at it. Oh, well!

On Sunday, Kate and I did some seriously vegging out. We both ended up napping through the whole afternoon before I headed down to Bill's to do some board gaming.

All in all, quite an enjoyable and relaxing holiday weekend!

I hope all of you had an equally pleasant Independence Day weekend! Thanks - as always - for reading and have yourselves a great day!

Memorial Day Weekend

Hoping everyone enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend. Most people seem to think of the holiday as an excuse to get out and throw together a barbeque. But it's important to remember the real reason for Memorial Day - namely to remember the brave men and women who gave their lives to preserve the many freedoms we enjoy in this country. We take a lot of those rights for granted but we should never take our fallen heroes for granted.

If we could...please take a moment to reflect and remember.

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Thanks.

As to my holiday weekend, Kate and I sallied forth to pay a visit to Colorado Springs where my uncle and two of my cousins from Thailand were visiting. My aunt was also supposed to be there - but some confusion with her travel visa meant that we missed seeing her. :-(

We spent the first evening (Friday) with my sister since my parents were flying into Denver with the Thai relatives late that night. We hadn't meant to stay up so late, but when my sister, my wife, and I get to talking, it's hard to stop. I think we called it night somewhere around 3am! We tried sleeping on an air mattress for the first time and slept quite comfortably - except that Dianna's cat Simon kept Kate up with his mischief.

The next morning was a lazy one - mostly because only the kids got any sleep. :-) Kate and I played with the kids Saturday afternoon, then we all headed down to my parents' house to hang out with the Thai relatives.





A group of us decided to go do a little shopping down at Ross and Target. I even managed to find an inexpensive PC repair toolkit - which means I don't have to call the city IT department whenever someone jams a pencil into a floppy disk drive. :-)

For dinner that night, we all ventured out to the Black-Eyed Pea. I thought my steak and Kate's burger were both undercooked, but otherwise the meal was okay. We had leftovers and Julie was gracious enough to add her artwork to the boxes.




On Sunday, after Kate and I got back from church, we took a trip up to the outlet stores in Castle Rock. I found some new shoes and a new shirt. Kate got herself a new Pyrex bread pan. It was nice to walk around for a little - even though the gray clouds, light drizzle, and cool breezes were not as comfortable for my Thai relatives as they were for me. :-)






In the evening, Mom collared Dianna and me to help prep a big 'buffet-style' dinner for everyone, which turned out to be rather fun. Dianna put together a complicated-looking Asian beef salad. (There's a name for it, but I can't recall it right now.) I made a spicy pork and bean chili along with a small amount of beef paprika. Mom made some traditional Thai food as well as some snackable veggies and fruit. Quite yummy says I.



We stayed up late that night watching the Food Network. I'm still not a fan of shows like Iron Chef or Chopped that turn cooking into some sort of hyper-dramatic competition. However, I do like watching what cooks can create in a short amount of time.

On Monday, Mom ordered Domino's for a big lunch and we all just enjoyed hanging out and talking. Kate and I headed out for Fort Collins in the afternoon, enjoying the greenery of Colorado all the way up I-25.




After that, it was a quick stop at King Soopers for the week's produce and any good sales...and that ended our weekend!

It was a lot of fun meeting and visiting with my Thai relatives this weekend. I'd never met my cousin Nooy...and I hadn't seen my cousin Thooy since we were both about a year old and I beaned him with my Tonka truck. :-)





Uncle Sawadee says he and Aunt Sopa may try making a visit to the States an annual event. That'd be cool. I hope I get a chance to see them when they visit next.

Thanks - as always - for reading and I hope you're having a great day.