Happy New Year

Chris and I are pretty lame at celebrating New Year's Eve. We are lucky if we can stay awake past 10. I actually fell asleep around 7:30 pm for a little while and then was able to stay awake until after midnight.

Kristen had three of her friends over: Paige, Maggie, and Nicole. That is, after Kristen worked all day. They girls all brought charcuterie boards and created some funny presentations. They even dressed up for the evening.

I am grateful that Kristen has a great group of friends.

Kristen bounced up the stairs to wish Chris and I "Happy New Year" and then hung out with her friends until about 12:30.

Amy Back to Utah

Chris and I dropped Amy off at the airport on Friday evening. She wanted to go to a New Year's Eve party with her roommate the next night. Always sad to see her go.

I am grateful for air travel that makes it easy for us to see each other.  See that suitcase? It was packed full. I think she came in at 46 pounds. Good thing she was able to check her bag for free!

Surprise Birthday Dinner for Amy

Chris had a dentist appointment and we both had errands to run in Longmont on December 28. We talked with Kristen and Misha about surprising Amy with a birthday dinner.

The girls planned to have a "sister date" and Misha and Kristen played along well with it. Amy didn't know that Chris and I would arrive early to surprise her with a birthday celebration.

Chris and I grabbed a few Crumbl cookies and $1 Store birthday balloons.

Apparently, Amy was pretty "hangry" on the way to the restaurant and wondered why they couldn't just go to the BBQ restaurant a little closer to our house.

We pulled off the surprise though as the girls spotted Chris and I sitting in a booth at Georgia Boys when they arrived. The bonus? Mom and Dad paid for the dinner.

We love you Amy and are happy to celebrate you!

Wrapping Wars

Kristen and Misha always try to outdo one another in wrapping one gift in a crazy way.

Chris and I gave Misha a doll-size piece of furniture for Christmas to represent a living room table that she was were giving her. Kristen wrapped it to look like an aloe plant in a pot.

Misha, not to be outdone, wrapped a present for Kristen to look like a person. There was actually no physical gift in the present (it was representative of concert tickets that the girls had), but Misha went along with the charade as Kristen "unwrapped" her gift. Misha, "Try the foot. Unwrap the hand...." It was pretty funny to watch.

Without a spine (or any actual gift inside), the gift drooped and leaned quite a bit before Christmas morning.

Snowman

Our neighbors displayed this huge snowman as part of their Christmas decorations. It was fun to see throughout the holidays.

Christmas Day

Having Christmas on a Sunday is not my girls favorite.

Our ward combined with another ward for a one-hour meeting at 10:30 am. 

Since the girls slept until after 8 am, we decided to wait until after church to open gifts. So our morning was spent having breakfast and getting ready for church.

After arriving home and changing out of our church clothes, we had a little lunch and then sat down to enjoy our gift exchange.

I love that our girls put thought into their gifts.

OUR Center

A family in our ward asked if we would serve with them at the OUR Center on Christmas Eve morning. It was on the schedule back in June or July. The OUR Center is a place for homeless people to go where they can get one hot meal a day, find training on life skills, get clothing and other necessities.

The other family had not served at the OUR Center before but knew that we had many times. Together our families baked lasagnas, made salads, and offered desserts.

Misha and Amy scanned cards as people came in to get an accurate count of how many people were served that day.

Kristen had to work at Chick fil A, so we missed out on having her there.

Chick fil A and Amy and Kristen

It is probably safe to say that Kristen DOES NOT love it when her family comes through the Chick fil A drive through. We never know where she will be working, but lucked out to find Kristen taking orders.

We were in Longmont Christmas Eve after serving at the OUR Center (homeless shelter). Chris and Amy stopped for some ice cream and nuggets.

Amy has no fear. She stands up and pops her head through the sunroof and shouts loudly, "I KNOW HER!" and points at Kristen.

Kristen is trying not to look at us, but it is hard not to hear or see Amy. I am pretty sure Kristen secretly loves it.

An 80 Throwback Photo Shoot

The girls gave Chris and I a fun gift. During the Thanksgiving break, they dressed up in some of Kristen's thrifted clothes and went to JC Penney to have "80's Throwback" pictures taken. 

They had one of the pictures framed for Chris and I, and then showed us the rest of the pics from their phones. What a crazy, fun gift that is just so perfect for all of their personalities.

Christmas Eve

Misha lives close to a great Chinese food restaurant in Denver. We debated briefly about getting our Christmas Eve take out from there but decided in the end that it was too far and that the food would be cold by the time we got it home.

We bought food at King Wah which is about five minutes away instead.

Kristen worked until after 6 pm at Chick fil A. (They closed at 5 but everyone on the shift had to stay and close it down before going home.)

Once we knew she was on her way, we submitted our online order and then went to pick it up.

We enjoyed the personal "handmade" Christmas crackers made by Kristen with gifts provided by Kristen and Mom. 

Kristen even made fortunes and jokes and paper crowns. We have yet to figure out how to make our homemade Christmas crackers pop.

Kristen created a fun Jeopardy game. She is such a creative kid!

Kristen also gave her slightly irreverent rendition of the Christmas story and the girls brought all of the presents up from the basement. Somehow Amy always gets the job of arranging the gifts under the tree instead of running up and down the stairs with gifts.

Cold Snap

We had frigid cold come through Colorado. We were in the 50s the day prior and experienced an huge drop in temperature down to -24°. Brrrr.

The weather man said that when the cold front arrived, the temperatures in Denver dropped 25° in 2 minutes! Fortunately, the freezing temps didn't last long and we were back up to the high 50s by the weekend.

Amy Home for Christmas

I picked up Amy from the airport on Wednesday morning. Kristen was taking finals and Misha was finishing up work for the week. 

I was grateful that it was a beautiful sunshine-y day so that I didn't have to drive in crazy winter weather.

Amy came with her big suitcase in tow. She needed room to take all of her Christmas gifts back to Utah!

It was busy at the airport with lots of cars dropping off and picking up passengers. I found Amy waiting on the 6th floor and had her quickly load her suitcase and then hop in the car in all of the crazy traffic.

So good to see her. So good to have all of my girls home for Christmas!

Christmas Card

Besides the Christmas newsletter that I send out each year, I also print some cards for Chris to send to work friends and co-workers.

This is the card for 2022.

Chris' Work Trip

Chris left for a ten-day work trip to Sweden, London and Spain.

As per usual with work trips, he kept so busy. With his time 7 or 8 hours ahead, I often chatted with him for a few minutes when it was late in his evening and he was exhausted from a non-stop day.

He traveled with one of the big bosses, John, as well as Patrick from Chris' team.

They started first in London, flew to Sweden, work there for a few days (in very cold weather), flew back to London and then onto Barcelona. Patrick hasn't flown internationally before and he got a big dose of the the life of a business travel.

They were delayed numerous times with their flights and trains.

For the last few days, the three travelers enjoyed a lot warmer weather in Spain and got to see Barcelona and then a day trip to Montserrat. Not sure if it was Chris' idea that they go for a 4 km hike, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Chris, John, and Patrick

He arrives home tomorrow around 3 pm. It will be so nice to have him home again.

Chick Fil A Holiday Work Party

Kristen and I attended her holiday work party. She missed it last year and then saw all of these posts about the amazing giveaways of iPads and other great gifts.

We arrived at the Rocky Mountain Church in Niwot and put on our name tags and created a tag for the dessert that we brought.

The dinner was a potluck with all of the employees bringing something to share. No, there was no Chick fil A food provided.

Kristen met a bunch of her co-workers and friends there. While I didn't know anyone, I hung out at the table with a bunch of teen girls and tried to be inconspicuous among the friends.

The managers planned some games after the meal with a final "white elephant" gift exchange. I don't think "white elephant" meant the same to them as everyone was unwrapping really nice gifts.

There were no amazing gifts given by management this year except for a tv given to the winner of the ugly Christmas sweater contest.

As all of the ugly sweater candidates were lining up to be judged, one of the managers looked at Kristen and asked if she planned to participate. Offended! She said, "This is NOT an ugly sweater!" 

The Youth at the OUR Center

Chris suggested that the youth take care of one of the Saturdays in making meals at the OUR Center. Because Kristen is the Young Women President, the organization and follow up pretty much fell on her shoulders. The Young Men were supposed to help, but they were pretty useless.

The Bishop had people take stuff to the Young Men's president's home and he and others in his quorum were supposed to deliver all of the food to Kristen and pick up any items from people who couldn't deliver the food in person.

Turns out the young man, Hayden to be exact, totally dropped the ball. Late on Friday night (the service project was on Saturday morning), Kristen and I had to go pick up food from five or six homes plus pick up the food from Hayden's house. 

Kristen headed out around 9:30 am Saturday morning to the OUR Center and spent the next four hours preparing, making and handing out food. She had fun with the young women (one young men came) and the sister missionaries.

She had to work from 2 to 8 after being at the OUR Center until just before 2. Long day for her.

Huge Old Owl

This huge owl perched itself right outside my office window. It is really true that they can swivel their necks around and around. I watched as it watched for any movement on the ground.

Eyelashes Anyone

Sometimes I find these eyelash treasures in random places. I thought it would be fun to send a picture to the family with the snowman makeover.

Amy's 23!

I remember having birthdays away from home when I was in college, and it wasn't always fun.

Amy turned 23 and man, time has flown. She celebrated with friends and we hope to celebrate her once she is home before Christmas.

So grateful to have this girl in our family. She is a great big sister who leads without even realizing it. She is funny, kind, a tad bit spunky and sassy, helpful and enthusiastic about life.

Love you Amy Kline.

Picture courtesy of her roommate.

Amy to St. George

Amy drove to St. George to celebrate her birthday weekend with her friend Liz and Liz's husband Tanner. Having birthdays while away from home is not always fun.

Christmas at the Symphony

The tradition of attending the Colorado Symphony's "A Colorado Christmas" started back in 2010.

We all got dressed up, the girls in their Christmas dresses, and enjoyed the music and singing and a special visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. We haven't missed attending too many years since.

We may not dress up in fancy dresses anymore, but it is always a fun evening. I think my girls loved that they got new Christmas dresses early (since I often got them just so we could dress up for the symphony).

Every year, the music selection and theme is a little different, but always good. This year was the first time they had a male and a female lead singer along with the children's choir, the adult choir and the symphony.

I love that the programmers don't shy away from focusing on Christmas and songs about Christ. It is refreshing.

Because Misha got separate "student" tickets for her and Kristen, they sat a little closer than we normally sit. Misha took a few pictures from her vantage point.

Think Tahiti

I drew this on our Gym mirrors for a little extra motivation to exercise over the next few months. Chris booked a trip for us to go to Tahiti over Valentine's Day. 

We don't usually plan trips to beaches, so hopefully we can find some ways to explore as well as hang out at the beach!

Annual HOA Meeting

I used to look forward to these meetings because it was a nice chance to get together with all of our neighbors. 

The meeting has evolved over the years and now we have a nice potluck dinner, chat and then conduct business of the HOA.

While some neighbors are so much more invested in the HOA day to day minutiae, I am not. The meetings run on forever long.

This year the meeting lasted almost three hours! Our "President" loves to run a meeting and chat a lot.

However, I did take a picture of the cute hand decorated cookies from our neighbor Gail James. She even created a pelican (driving the sleigh) in honor of Pelican Shores.

Shingles Vaccine

Getting my shingles vaccine has been on my radar for the past year or so. Even more so since my mom has had shingles at least once and my brother had them as well.

I had chicken pox when I was a baby, so it was definitely possible that I could also get shingles as well.

As I went to the Walgreens pharmacy for my appointment, the lady at the desk said to me, "Oh, you're going to feel awful tomorrow." I knew that was a great possibility.

I went to bed feeling kind of achy and had a pretty rough night waking up at 1:30 am in pain and feeling nauseous. It was much the same as a bad case of the flu.

When I finally got out of bed around 5 am, I knew I needed to get something in my stomach before taking Advil. I had a little bit of a protein drink, took the pills, and started feeling a little better.

I even skipped my morning workout!

I felt blah and achy all day long, but more Advil helped. And a Unisom helped me sleep that night until 5 am. I woke up again feeling not so great but decided to do just a slow walk on the treadmill.

I looked up the side effects for the shingles vaccine ('cause apparently some people don't suffer any ill effects at all!). I pretty much had every symptom possible:

• sore arm with mild to moderate pain
• redness and swelling at the injection site
• tiredness
• muscle pain
• headache
• shivering
• fever
• stomach pain or nausea

That's what most people can expect. And the good news? I get another shot 2 to 6 months from now and experiencing the side effects again is possible. Having shingles is the worse alternative though.

Outdoor Christmas Lights

Kristen requests each year to have Christmas lights outside on the house and trees. She is willing to help Chris put up the lights.

Since the OUR Center volunteering was cancelled for us, Grandma helped Chris finish stringing lights on the front pine trees. Amy and Kristen worked on adding lights to the front porch.

I know it isn't Chris' favorite thing to do, so he was grateful for the help. Add to the fact that it was almost 60°, it was the perfect day to put up lights.