Oh, January...

January is my least favorite month. The holidays are over, it's freezing cold, and there's not much to look forward to in the way of holidays and events. However, our foray into the world of snow sports, along with various fun events with family and friends, has made January a little more bearable. And here we are, already entering February. Just like that.

We've continued our frequent ski weekends this month, and I've enjoyed trying out my super cool Burton snow pants that I got for Christmas.

Having fun at A-Basin.

Thanks to my friend, Rachel, we've broadened our view of the hockey world. Rachel graduated from the University of North Dakota, which is apparently a huge hockey school. The alumni association was having a party downtown to watch the UND Sioux battle their rivals: the Minnesota Gophers! Matt and I tagged along and had a good time pretending to be Sioux fans.

Go Sioux! Can you tell that I'm not quite as enthusiastic as Rachel?

Woohoo! Go Sioux!

Birthday parties certainly help push away the January blues. My family gathered to celebrate the births of one of my nieces and one of my aunts. The little one loved being the center of attention, and she was even very gracious in sharing her spotlight.

Birthday fun. The baby had a hard time dealing with the fact that she didn't get to open any presents.

And, of course, I've been spending a lot of my free time practicing and perfecting the recipes I'll be using for Salem's wedding in a couple of weeks. After trying a variety of treats, we've decided on the menu: mini cheesecakes with three different toppings (sour cream topping, chocolate-caramel drizzle, and brown sugar raspberry sauce), chocolate amaretto truffles (rolled in cocoa, powdered sugar, or slivered almonds), and raspberry lemon bars. Plus I'll be making some sea-salt caramels to go alongside the crackers and peanuts set at each table. My recipes are pretty simple, but I really want everything to turn out perfect.

Baking.

I hope to take pictures of the big three-day baking process, but I'm sure I'll be a little frazzled and forget. I'll definitely get some pics of the final spread at the wedding. Hopefully, the finished products will be pretty (and tasty) enough to meet approval of the bride (and groom, of course)!

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS??

That's right, folks. The occasion Matt had been waiting for since 2007 finally arrived.

The Chiefs made the playoffs!

And not only did they make the playoffs, but they were the 2010 AFC West Division Champions! Yay!

(I recognize that this may not come as a shock to many of you, considering we found out the Chiefs made the playoffs four weeks ago. I'm a little behind on posting... as usual.)

Since Matt was so very, very excited about this, I wasn't that surprised when he came to me with the proposition: Matt wanted to buy tickets to the game in Kansas City. We're trying to limit our excessive spending and we had no clue how we'd make it to KC for the game.. but how could I deny him this moment:

He's just so excited!

So we began planning. A crazy snowstorm across western Kansas led us to change our plans at the last minute. We flew to Wichita Saturday morning, rented a car to drive to KC, stayed with friends, went to the game on Sunday, drove to El Dorado to stay with my grandparents, and flew out of Wichita the next morning. Whew! It was a crazy trip, but there was an extra treat on our drive north. In between Wichita and KC is the town where Matt and I attended college, met, and fell in love.

Aww.

We hadn't really seen the town of Emporia since we graduated four years ago. Of course, not much has changed in that short amount of time, but it brought a wave of nostalgia that was a lot of fun.

I was very excited. I took a lot of pictures of signs.

And various places where we lived.

There wasn't a lot of exciting things to document from our time driving around town. We saw all of our old haunts on and off campus, and that was about it. But I enjoyed the memories.

Before we left town, we had to sample some of our favorite Emporia cuisine: La Hacienda. It's this fabulous Mexican restaurant that isn't as authentic as all of the places in Colorado - which makes it awesome.

White cheese. We don't have this stuff in Colorado. Yum.

It was pretty spectacular.

But on to the main event: the game.

Before I go any further, I have to make one thing very clear: I am absolutely, completely, and totally a Broncos fan. Despite the ridiculous things happening to my team in the last couple of months and years, I must make clear that I still love them. BUT... With a lot of family (and a husband) from Kansas, and having lived in Kansas myself for four years, I can kind of like the Chiefs a little - as long as their success does not in any way affect the Broncos success!

Considering the awful season we had in Denver, I think it's safe to say that this Chiefs' playoffs game did not affect the Broncos success. In any way.

So I hopped on the Chiefs bandwagon as they made their way to the playoffs.

I even wore a giant Chiefs sweatshirt. I felt dirty.

Prior to the start of the game, we had some tailgating to do! Chiefs fans are huge tailgaters, and Matt wanted to meet up with some internet friends from his online obsession: ChiefsPlanet.

Eating delicious food and chatting.

The ChiefsPlanet crowd.

And I got to meet a local celebrity, First Down Elvis!

He let me wear his glasses!

But finally, it was time for the main, main event: the game!

The pre-game entertainment. Getting us pumped up!

It was very cold, but the game kept us excited and enthusiastic... at least for the first half.

So excited! We scored a touchdown!

Then the Baltimore Ravens started going crazy and the Chiefs started losing by a lot. We continued to watch and cheer as the Ravens made their way to a 30-7 victory. Sadness.

So the Chiefs didn't win. In fact, they haven't one a playoff game in 17 years! But their year is coming - I can feel it. Since I don't have much to root for in Denver, I may have to become a secondary (always secondary) Chiefs fan for a while.

We made our way home through the snow and cold, and we're looking forward to next year. We might just make another trek out to KC for a game!

Kansas Christmas

One of the greatest things about having two families to celebrate holidays with is that Christmas is twice as long. Since I tend to get a little blue after holidays and big events, I loved that I had a second Christmas to look forward to this year. Last week, we made our way to Kansas to celebrate with Matt's family.

On our way to good ol' AC, we stopped to visit some very good friends of ours. We've been friends for years, so it doesn't take long to settle into our hanging-out routine. Here are Matt and John, looking at something funny online, just like they always do.

Same old, same old - wait, what's that baby doing there?!!

Yep, we've added a new addition to our little friend-family! In November, John and Anna had a baby girl: Ruby Rose. We were very excited to meet the little one and hang out with old friends. It's funny that the visit was completely different, yet exactly the same.

Look at the happy family!

Little Ruby Rose.

After a fun visit, we were off again. We still had Christmas to celebrate!

Christmas tree!

We had a family gift exchange on New Year's Eve before heading off to a crazy NYE party! We got to visit MORE of our great friends, and welcome the New Year together.

Unfortunately, one of our group had to head home a little early and we didn't get to see her before she left. Fortunately, some awesome person invented Skype. The five/six of us played games and acted silly, which is pretty normal for us.

The boys dancing, skyping, and playing Settlers.

Finally, "Christmas Day" was here... again. We spent time with extended family who we don't see very often. Games were played, the kiddos opened presents, and LOTS of food was eaten. It was another great holiday.

Fun Christmas/New Year's!

And then it was time to head home. Matt went back to work this week and I started my student teaching. But we are about to leave our quiet life behind for the weekend as we embark upon a very exciting adventure. If we survive (just kidding... I hope), we will have lots of fun things to post next week. So keep your eye out...