Colorado Christmas

"But all along the Rockies you can feel it in the air
From Telluride to Boulder down below
The closest thing to heaven on this planet anywhere
Is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow."

Unfortunately, there was no Colorado snow on Christmas this year. In fact, there was no Kansas snow when we went out for our Kansas Christmas either. But that didn't make our Christmas celebrations any less fun.

Our Colorado Christmas started with a big Christmas Eve gathering at our house. This year, my grandparents and aunt and uncle were able to come out from Kansas to join us. It was great to have everyone together, and it was nice to open our house for the festivities.

Presents under our tree.

I used the opportunity to practice some more of my recipes for my sister's upcoming wedding. Plus we had a couple of soups and lots of other goodies and snacks.

Lots of snacks, including my Irish Creme Brownies, Sea Salt Caramels, and Amaretto Chocolate Truffles

Relaxing and chatting.

Gathering for presents!

My family has the odd tradition of opening all of our Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. I'm not entirely sure how the whole thing started, but I always remember opening presents when it was dark outside, so we must have been doing it this way for a while.

Presents!

We continued our new tradition of each adult getting one larger gift instead of multiple little ones. Matt got a new GPS to replace the one that was stolen from his car a couple of months ago, and I got awesome purple snow pants that I'm psyched to use next time we go skiing!

Though the present-giving was done after Christmas Eve, we still had a big Christmas diner on Christmas Day. We headed over to my folks' house to continue the Christmas craziness!

Sisters on Christmas.

The kiddos had fun with the new TV set up for their enjoyment... until the little one fell asleep.

Dinner time!

After dinner, Matt was nice enough to help with the dishes while my mom made our now traditional spiced whipped cream for the desserts.

We continued the family fun with relaxation and games after dinner. It was fun hanging out after all the stresses of the holiday were gone.

Fun on Christmas night.

And then, another Christmas was gone. Luckily, I didn't have too much post-holiday depression because we still had Kansas Christmas to look forward to!

December: The Shortest Month of the Year

I think December should be about ten days longer. Let's just shorten every other month by a day and add it all to December. Maybe then I'd have time to enjoy the shopping, baking, and party-going. Of course, I'm sure I'd find plenty of Christmas-y things to fill the extra days, making me just as exhausted come January.

This December was just as short as all the others. I feel like it was just a few days ago that Matt and I were waiting anxiously for the UPS package that held our fancy new Android phones. That was December 2nd -over three weeks ago!

Angry Birds!

Since that day, we've had birthdays to celebrate, multiple Christmas parties, a couple of ski days, lots of shopping, some crafting and baking, and Christmas Day itself! And now I'm tired. But it was a good month, with a lot of fun events.

A few weeks ago, my family gathered to celebrate some birthdays. My mom (November 27) and two of my nieces (November 25 and December 5) shared their party this year.

Presents and cake. As usual, most of the focus was on the little one. She turned two, and the older birthday girls let her have most of the attention.

But it was not just birthdays that we had to celebrate. December is always a month filled with holiday parties. I attended four work-related gatherings and Matt had a big work retreat/happy hour at our house.

Kids' art from our school special education parent night, and Matt's work party in our living room.

The multiple events left little time for one of my favorite things about the days leading up to Christmas: working on various crafts and projects. In fact, as soon as the weather starts to turn colder, I get in the mood to cross-stitch, sew, or make cards. Back in October, I spent many nights working on little felt zombies that I gave away at my Halloween party.

Rawr. A few of the zombies I made.

But once Halloween is over, I start thinking of ideas for Christmas cards, which I finished just in time to get them out before Christmas.

This year's Christmas card. The picture was taken by Dave when we went snowshoeing in February.

And just like that, December was almost over and Christmas was here. But more about that another time.

Gobble Gobble

Before I get into this way overdue post, I have some exciting news: I am officially done with grad school classes!

I still have student teaching in the spring, but I don't think that counts as a grad school class. I mean, I could have the graduate degree without student teaching. I couldn't do anything with it because I wouldn't be certified, but technically I have all the requirements for a graduate degree.

So, that's cool.

What's even cooler is that I have nothing grad-school-related until my student teaching starts in January. That means one whole month of reading, baking, watching movies, sleeping, and reading (plus work, of course). I'm pretty thrilled.

But back to the point of this overdue post.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. This is a pretty recent discovery for me, maybe because it's just so simple a holiday that it's hard to imagine it being better than the elaborate, craziness of Halloween and Christmas. But really, the whole point of the holiday is to be thankful, and it's celebrated by spending time with family or friends while eating tons of food. How awesome is that? There is no stressful gift-giving nonsense and (though waste can still be high with all of that food) there's less materialism associated with the holiday. The only preparation is cooking. And I like cooking. And of course, there is no post-holiday let down because everyone just starts looking forward to Christmas.

So this year, I was pretty excited for Thanksgiving. It was even more fun because I wasn't stressed about having it at my house. But I contributed a fair amount to my eldest sister's beautiful dinner. In fact, I spent most of Wednesday cooking. First, I had to practice my catering skills for my sister's wedding in February. Yep, I'm "catering" the dessert reception. It's a little frightening, but I'm sure I'll share more about that later.

Anyway, one of the desserts we'll be having is a mini-cheesecake.

Yum. I think they went over pretty well on Thanksgiving, so now I have one recipe down with two or three more to go!

I also contributed my awesome mac n cheese, opera fudge, cranberry sauce, and strawberry/feta salad. Delicious alongside all of the yummy turkey, mashed potatoes, and other trimmings.

It was a fun day of food, family, and fun!

Salem getting into the wine, kids having fun, dinner time, and post-meal exhaustion/relaxation!

I always feel a little sad after holidays, but I fought that melancholy by making Matt put up our tree as soon as we got home from dinner. We didn't decorate for a few days, but just having it up got me looking forward to Christmas.

Christmas tree!

The weekend after Thanksgiving was the perfect time to light the lights. Matt worked hard to put up some pretty lights outside, while I decked the halls inside.

Matt working hard and the fruits of his labor.

Now we are officially ready for Christmas! The decorations are up, I'm done with classes, and most of my shopping is done. Bring on the parties and holiday fun!

The U.S.S. Enterprise, wishing you a happy holiday season! (Maybe this should be my Christmas card pic...)