'Twas the Night (OK, month) Before Christmas...

After waking from our long winter's nap induced by the Turkey yesterday, we decided to start decorating the house for Christmas. I always like to decorate when the girls are home and not knowing when they will be able to come down again made today the perfect day to put up the tree. Sidney, Alex, Taylor, and I all worked on getting the tree set up, the lights on, and ornaments hung while listening to Christmas music to get us in the holiday mood.



Angie got up early to go take advantage of the Black Friday deals. From the packages she brought home it looks like she got some great bargains. I tried to sneak a peak at her purchases, but she would have none of it. I guess I get to wait like the rest of the kids in the house. I typically do my Christmas shopping online so I am waiting for Cyber Monday to get into the swing of shopping.

Even though the tree is up we do have some other house decorations to take care of, including the outside lights, but as you can see from Titan, the zoo is in the holiday spirit!

 

Thanksgiving 2008

 

This year Angie and I took over hosting Thanksgiving from my mom. OK, so it took a little prodding from mom, but we were very excited to do so. Actually, there wasn't much prodding. We felt mom deserved to be able to relax at Thanksgiving after slaving away for all of us all these years. Besides, it really makes sense since we are closest to being in the middle of everyone.

I think Angie was ultimately surprised at how relaxed she was throughout the entire festivities. I like to think I helped out in that area. I probably didn't, but like I said, I like to think so. Angie prepared a delicious turkey which she brined from a recipe her mom gave her. Nancy brought over deviled eggs (it isn't Thanksgiving without them) and we had all the traditional Thanksgiving sides of mashed potatoes, stuffing, and green bean casserole. Alex and Taylor were able to make the trip down from Greeley so it was the first time we have been all together for some time.

It looks like 2008 is a year of starting new traditions at the zoo. I like it!

Ultimatum

Angie gave me an ultimatum this week. I could either give her a marriage proposal or I could paint our kitchen pink.



How do you like the kitchen? Seriously though, we painted the kitchen a "Roasted Tomato" color and the primer they recommended we use was pink, thus the pink kitchen. At least for a little while.

Saturday the 8th, Sidney had a big sleep over at one of her friend's houses. Her friend is moving to Brazil so she had some girls over for a big shindig before she moves. Sidney was excited all week! Sid has also been doing amazing on her spelling. You may recall our Cold Stone deal we have with her where we take her for ice cream when she gets 100% on her test. She has received 100% for 2 consecutive weeks. This week we told her she could cash in 3 perfect scores (if she got a 3rd) for Joe's Crab Shack. Unfortunately she missed one on her test Friday. We gave her the option to go anyway, but in exchange she owes us 2 perfect scores. She took the offer so we had crab legs Friday night.

I almost forgot to mention, we received our first snowfall in the Denver area Friday morning. It wasn't much to shake a stick at, but there was some on all the grassy areas. It was gone by lunch. The mountains have been getting their fair share, so the ski resorts are open and busy already.

Halloween Part Deux

Since becoming president of our HOA, I have coordinated various parties during the summer to foster a closer community. These parties have been well received, so Angie and Danielle decided to coordinate a Halloween costume party to be held in our clubhouse.

They coordinated everything, from Danielle designing very cool invitations, toxic punch, and intestines with eyeballs (spaghetti and meatballs). They decorated the clubhouse with spiderwebs, a fog machine, and lots of "scary" Halloween props. The lovely ladies also coordinated lots of games and activities for the kids too!

The kids went home at 8 and the adults continued the festivities. Everyone enjoyed the party and asked that we make it another annual tradition!

Halloween 2008

I think Halloween is one of our favorite occasions. Many people call it a holiday, but is it really? I mean banks aren't even closed and they close for everything. Sidney was very excited this year. I am sure she is excited every year, but this is the first Halloween we have all lived together so I got to feel her excitement first hand.



Sidney decided to go as a goth girl and picked out every detail of her costume. She looked like some of the girls I went to school with when being goth was kind of in, well as in as it could be. Her friend Sedona also went as a goth girl. Sedona's sister Veronica was dressed in a sort of evil court jester costume. All 3 girls were so cute.



This year we decided to stick around our community. We have a close community with 80 townhomes so getting lots of candy quickly is pretty simple. It's also fun to see all the neighbors out enjoying the trick or treaters. People pretty much hibernate once the pool closes for the summer, so the few holidays we can get out and visit are fun. Halloween is usually a cold sometimes snowy night, but this year the weather was amazing and this brought lots of people out.

The girls made out like bandits, so much so we had Sidney pick out a 2 week supply of her favorites. I was surprised she didn't complain at all. I know when I was a kid, there was no way I was giving up my loot!

HALLO-PA-LOOZA

Wow! I have truly fallen behind! My apologies! Things have been a bit crazy at work. I've been leading the IT effort of moving our Denver office and combining it into our Thornton office. Considering the Thornton office was an acquisition, this was no small feat. Add to that a quick trip to Pittsburgh has led to me neglecting the zoo.


Anyway, on October 25th, my friend Ken had a Halloween party at his house, dubbed Hallo-pa-looza. Angie dressed as a 1920's flapper girl and I went as a mobster. It's been a long time since I went to a Halloween party. We had a lot of fun. I hadn't seen Ken or his girlfriend Kathryn in a while, so it was good to get together with lots of old friends!

Lunch Date

Taylor came for a visit this weekend, giving Angie's mom the chance to meet her. Earlier in the week, I had made arrangements to meet Alex for lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery in Loveland. Since this is close to their home, I brought Taylor along for the late lunch. Alex took her home from there.

It was nice to be able to visit with both the girls and spend time with them alone, but we all missed Angie, who was working, and Sid, who was home playing. I don't blame Sid, what 10 year old wants to spend half her day in the car when she could be outside playing. Alex, Taylor, and I had a very casual lunch and caught up on school goings ons, Alex's jobs (she works at Dairy Queen and also at a corn maze for Halloween), and Taylor's horse.

With Alex and Taylor being so busy, more frequent lunches will have to happen so I can keep up with their important stuff!