Brrrrrrr.....

So, I was reading a friends blog in which she was complaining about the freezing cold weather they were having. And, of course, I couldn't keep myself from commenting and rubbing in the fact that we had been enjoying a week of 70+ degree temperatures. Well, as almost always happens, I got my payback when I woke up the next day to a miniature ice storm. We didn't get any snow and I wouldn't describe it as a frost either. Rather, it looked as if someone had dumped a bucket of water over everything and then stuck it in a freezer. Instead of merely scraping of my windshield I had to use my scraper as a hammer to break up the ice. Needless to say, it was not very enjoyable. The cold weather has come to us at last.

On the bright side, that also means fun holidays, family gatherings and yummy food. So, to help me see the warmer side of things I thought I would make a little list of the things I love about this time of year (please note that scraping my windows is not included):

1. I love that my husband is more obsessed with Christmas music than I am. As soon as Sam wakes up and every time he walks in the door he heads straight to the computer to turn on FM100.

2. I love love love Christmas trees. Simple ones, fancy ones, barren ones, fluffy ones, you name it, love it!

3. I love that Christmas is the season for English Toffee and homemade caramel. I am pretty certain that both of those things will exist in abundance up in heaven.

4. I love that everyone is just a little bit kinder and a bit more thoughtful during the holiday season.

5. I love Christmas movies. No Christmas season is complete without "White Christmas", "A Muppets Christmas Carol", "Elf", "The Santa Clause", "Miracle on 34th Street", and "It's A Wonderful Life".

6. I love knowing that my in-laws will have a big bag of pistachio nuts in their kitchen and that Marie will let me sit at her bar and chat and munch on nuts to my hearts content.

7. I love to see the lights.

8. While I don't enjoy scraping my windows, I have to admit that I do love snow at Christmastime. What becomes old, cold and dirty in January always seems so perfectly new, fluffy, and beautiful in December.

9. I love Christmas shopping. The stores are always bustling with shoppers (stores may be busy at other times, but they only bustle at Christmas). And it is always so exciting to pick out what to give people.

10. Last but not least I love that there are so many excuses to get together with friends and family.

This isn't a complete list, and they do not appear in any specific order. They are just a few of the things that make window-scraping worth it!

Down the tracks

Yesterday was free day at the Colorado Railroad Museum and so we got together with our friends, the Steeds, and ventured into the world of massive locomotives. Seeing as our backyard borders the museum and we get to hear their train whistle at least once a day, we figured it was about time that we got better acquainted. True to form, Oliver was mostly interested in the rocks, but he has a Thomas the Train book and he got excited when he recognized Thomas on some of the model trains.

All-in-all the museum was pretty interesting and I can see how a train enthusiast could really get into it, but in the end I was glad we went on free day. From now on, I think we will just stick to waving to the trains from our window.




Other exciting events of the week included a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I thought it would be a good place for Oliver to run around inside, and it was. He loved it. We'll probably have to schedule another trip because after two hours of "running around" we had only visited about half of it. Whew.

This week was also our stake's "Fabulous Friday" a.k.a. "Super Saturday" and I found myself venturing into the world of arts and crafts, a trail I don't often tread. While I probably picked the easiest craft available I have to say that I am still pretty proud of myself because I think that my little Family Home Evening chart turned out quite cute. It is so nice to have people with artistic ability share their talents with "creative duds" like myself. Since one of my callings is the Enrichment Committee I got to spend the whole day at the church setting up, cleaning up and mingling. Sam and Oliver spent the day together and it was a success all the way around.

Our good week ended on an even better note as Sam and I were able to go out on one of those rare things that we call dates. We make an effort to get out together quite often, but this time we had the luxury of going without Oliver. We have gotten together with some friends in the ward and now take turns watching each others kids on date night. So while Oliver ate chicken nuggets and chocolate chip cookies and watched 101 Dalmatians at the Koyle's house, Sam and I enjoyed a peaceful dinner and some uninteruppted adult conversation. Aaaah.

'Tis the Season

I know that for some hunters, there is no end to hunting season as there is always something that needs to be shot. For Sam however, there is only one hunt that really matters. The pheasant hunt in South Dakota. I'm pretty sure it is more about the time with his dad than the actual hunting. He confessed to me this morning that on his first day he fired over 40 shots and only took down one bird, which means it is probably a good thing that he goes just for the company.

Paul picked Sam up in Cheyenne on Thursday night and they drove through a pretty bad storm to spend the weekend hunting. We're glad that they had such a good time and even happier that he is back home.

Good things are meant to go together

I don't know if it is this way all over Colorado, but Jefferson County has a lot of land and funds dedicated to creating and maintaining "Open Space". The open space includes tons of parks, trails, ponds, etc. We love that there is a new trail and park to explore everyday. Best of all, there are some nice trails within walking distance of our apartment. One of our favorite trails is lined part of the way with pear trees. Ollie and I have been watching the pears ripen this fall and wondering just who they belonged to. Well, finally I took a friend on the trail and showed her the pears, she informed us that the pears belonged to the community. So, that afternoon Oliver and I took the bike trailer to the pear trees and loaded the thing up with the pears that had fallen to the ground (the trees were much too tall to be able to pick the fruit off of them).

We decided to make some pear jam and I found a great recipe for pear raspberry jam. Raspberries are not really cheap this time of year, but when the local grocery store cut the price from $5.00 to $1.00 a pint, we knew it was meant to be. We invited the Koyle's over and took turns watching the toddlers and stirring the freezer jam. It turned out super yummy and we had enough left over to make some pear cherry jam as well! Thank you Jefferson County Open Space for the pears and thanks to King Soopers for the raspberries, it was a match made in heaven!

15 weeks and counting...

No, I am not 15 weeks pregnant. It is even better new than that. Only 15 more weeks until Oliver gets to go to nursery! Yahoo!! Today while Sam was taking his turn attending Elders Quorum and Oliver and I were out collecting rocks on the side of the church I decided to tally up just how much longer my Sundays would be spent in such a manner. Sam and I still view time in mission-type chunks, so it was good news to discover that we only had a little over two transfers left of getting absolutely nothing out of Sunday School, Relief Society and Elders Quorum.

To be fair to Oliver I have to say that he never cries or gets ornery in church, he is just so busy that he becomes an absolute distraction to us and everyone else in the room. For example, a typical Relief Society meeting will include: banging on the piano, pulling the music conductors stand over on top of his head, pulling items from several sisters' purses, climbing up on every empty chair in the room, playing peek-a-boo behind the chalk board, taking a turn at teaching the class by standing next to the teacher and talking louder than she does, sampling all the other babies' snacks, dancing in the isle and running circles around the display table. I seriously am not exaggerating when I say that all of this takes place in the first 15 minutes of class, by which time everyone is paying more attention to Ollie than the teacher and I pick him up and head for the door. If you are reading this and wondering why I don't just make him sit still on my lap, all I can say is please come back and read this again when you have an energetic 14 month old, then you will understand!

Trick - or - Treat

Last night was Oliver's first trick-or-treating experience. He never quite got into the whole candy idea, but he did pull the top off of every pumpkin on each porch we visited.

More than the candy, Oliver was interested in the rocks. I am pretty sure that we collected more rocks from each house than candy bars.

Although he never was quite able to grasp the concept of knocking on doors and receiving candy, he definitely understood the concept of eating it. Just as long as his mouth was full of candy he happily marched to the next house. By the end of the night he was bouncing of the walls.

There is nothing like a holiday centered solely around candy, unless maybe it is a holiday centered around pumpkin pie. Yum.