Christmas 2007

Another holiday sneaked up on me!

This year we did not put up a tree or hung the lights on the house. As it is, people who are coming to look at the house complain it is too clattered. Oh, well. another year, another Christmas, another clattered house awaits for me!


Tim flew in just in time, on December 24th. Kids were so excited, they talked me into parking at the Airport and surprising him at the passenger's exit. It worked! Tim was pleasantly surprised and we made there just in time too. When we got to the terminal, the display already listed his flight as "arrived".

At the house we only put up the stockings, and it looked so cozy by the fireplace...

On the Christmas night Gabe decided he will sleep by the presents and try catching Santa when he comes with our presents. He placed a blanket, a pillow and an alarm clock, set for 6:00am next to the presents. He was determined!
At around 11:30pm he started getting worried: "What it I am awake at midnight and Santa doesn't come?.." I told him to go to bed right away.
Santa did come at midnight, but he had a really hard time leaving presents next to a sleeping boy...
Oh, the joy of freshly opened presents on the Christmas morning! The joy of playing with them! Oh, yes, and the joy of getting injured by one of them!..
Gabe and Tim were running around the house, trying to shoot each other with an air gun. Gabe ended up getting Tim right in the open eye, at a close distance.
It took three days, many Tylenol , tissues and ice packs, but Tim is OK.
(On this picture Tim has his right eye taped and can't open his left eye. So, he basically blind...)

All in all, we had a wonderful time! Kids got lots of cool presents, and even though some of them got broken with in 10 minuted of use (grr!), it was great!

Now, if only Colorado weather wasn't so darn unpredictable (extremely freezing and snowy this year), I might have been able to get more bargain shopping done! I hate driving on ice, so I opted out to just stay home and watch TV. I guess i will have to get my "shopping fix" after I move.

December 22nd week(+end)

This was one of the more depressing weeks I had in a while.

We had out Fab23 Winter Party, but all in all it was more of a "Fab23 Shut down party". It was at a pretty nice hotel downtown Colorado Springs (Antlers Hilton) and it was scheduled for 6pm - midnight. I didn't want to miss the party and I didn't have anyone to watch the kids for that long, plus I wasn't sure if we were to get another snow storm and I might have trouble getting back home, so I went ahead and booked a room there.
I have to say that the hotel is a lot more impressive on the outside than it is on the inside... Carpets were not exactly clean, the ice machine wasn't working, and the elevator was acting crazy when I tried using it. It just sat there, opening and closing doors, over and over. I used the stairs...

We upgraded the room to face the mountains. I took advantage and took a night shot view.

The food at the party was pretty good, not spectacular, but decent. It was mostly finger food type. The lines were long, but I was lucky to be sitting right by the door, so when the announcement was made to go get food, I was right there ;-)

There were many really nice prizes given away, including a laptop, PS3, MP3 players... I got nothing though, not lucky at that.
I kept going back and forth between the hotel room and the party. Kids got a room service ($$!) and later I brought them some dessert from my party. They were so tired, they had no problem falling asleep in our king size bed!

The following Friday my co-workers took me out for a Farewell lunch at a Peruvian restaurant!

It was my first time trying food from Peru. Apparently they just opened up recently. One of my coworker is married to a guy from Peru, so I suppose they know if it is really a good food or not :-)

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning out the house and throwing more stuff away. Our grill only spent an hour by the curb before if disappeared!

We made our rounds and gave presents to the neighbors. We are blessed to be surrounded by such nice people! We will truly miss them...

December 15th weekend

Have been really busy with everything going on in CO, getting ready for the move to OR.

This weekend we had one showing at the house on Saturday and one on Sunday, so we basically had to get out for a while both days (not to mention cleaning the house too)... I am getting really tired of always making sure there is nothing left on the counters, tables, floors, vacuuming, etc.!
To do something on Saturday we went to the Bigg's City. It's an indoor play center. They have SO much to do there: laser tag, carousel, race car track, Little Bigg Town (with dress up, climbing, sand box, music and so much more), inflatables room, bowling alley, arcades, birthday rooms, food, and more!

Temperatures outdoors were pretty cold (I believe 14 degrees was the high for the day), so this was our best option.

We got there right before lunch time (and I brought our own food to save money) and stayed till 8pm! We had all day passes, so it only made sense to "get the money worth out of it"...

On Sunday we had to leave house a little earlier, so there wasn't that much we could do, other than going to the Mall.

We were going to see a movie, but the earliest show wasn't till noon and we got there at 10:30am. After walking around the stores we came to Claire's Boutique store. Larissa has been asking to get her ears pierced for a while, so we just went ahead and did an Early Christmas present for her.

She was such a trooper! She didn't even blink when they used the earrings "gun". When it was all done, all she said was: "oh, that was it? It didn't even hurt, Mom. You said it would!"
Larissa picked out little studs with her birth stone to use as a starter earrings. Now, every time she gets dressed or brushes her hair, she makes a comment like "be careful, watch the earrings!"

December 8th weekend

(~5am, before the sun-rise, view from my window)

Ah, the joy of freezing weather and un-drivable roads. Got to love Winter!

I had to take my truck in on Saturday to an appointment, scheduled earlier in the week, at the Firestone for a tune-up before my long drive to OR. Had I known that the weather will play a trick on me, I would've probably stayed home that day. Luckily, since it was so early in the morning, I didn't have to deal with too many arrogant drivers. I only slid a couple of times, despite going really slow.
I was certainly glad to be home in one piece. We turned on the fireplace and watched Pirates of the Caribbean III. What a looooong movie...

On Sunday we made our gingerbread house, and this year we hope that Jonathan won't eat all the gum drops off of it when we are not looking :-)

Only a few minor melt downs later, over who just ate another candy instead of adding it to the roof, and who is decorating which side of the house, we had our finished product:

I guess gold fish crackers were going in the pond (?) outside the house. Yet, somehow, they also ended up on the door too.

Larissa and I shoveled the snow late morning and I decided to start up (and warm up) my truck, but with no luck! It just wouldn't start. I suppose 14 degree temperature (mind you, already higher than it was last night) might have something to do with it. Eventually, I was able to get it going and left it running for a bit. I sure hope this is only an isolated incident. Last thing I need is getting stuck with no car...

December 1st weekend

Yea! December is here and Christmas if just around the corner!!!
This Saturday we heard about a Breakfast with Santa event at the Mall, with all the proceeds going to an Empty Stocking fund, and of course, we had to do it! Even if it meant getting up at 7am!
With all the best efforts, we still managed to be 30 minutes late getting there, but no worries, there were plenty of food left, Santa was still there, the Magician Guy, the Balloon Lady, and the Children Chorale... although the last one was on their final song when we arrived.

(Jon surprised me witha big hug for Santa... I have to admit, this Santa was pretty believable looking.)

Later in a day, as I headed out to the Post Office, I noticed a drastic change on the skies. So very typical for Colorado, blue sky turns into a huge black cloud in a matter of an hour! I just had to pull over and snap this shot.

It rained lightly later that night, but that didn't turn into snow, as I anticipated...

Because of some feedbacks we have been getting from the potential buyers on our house being "clattered", I decided to clean up even more. I took pretty much all the photos/arts off the walls and stashed them away in kids' closets.
Since I was already in their closets, I went on with cleaning those out, and it just went from there. I now have a few garbage bags full of donations to take to Goodwill.

I think I am finally getting really worried about the move. Don't know how long before the house sells, but there is only two more weeks of school left for the kids this semester, then we will have to move and settle into a new school in OR, but where?.. That's the piece of a puzzle I don't have!

I need to give two-week notice to Jon's Daycare and find another one in OR.

Gabe will miss his friends a lot, I already know it...

Another challenge is getting, whatever school we go to, to work with us on Larissa's Medical Care Plan (or section 504 Care Plan). It worked for us very well in CO, but you always hear stores about those "other states / schools" that refuse any accomodations. I really hope that won't be the case!