Christmas Day

The bonus in having older kids is that we can start opening gifts later and they are just as happy to stay in bed sleeping. 

We started around 9 am after a relaxed breakfast. I liked the basement setting for opening presents with our two couches and the love seat. Everyone had a comfy seat. And with girls who put more thought into their gifts, we are all happy to open gifts one by one and see other’s reactions to our gifts. 

Amy might have been a little miffed that she didn’t have as many presents under the tree (yes, they keep track of that), but we had shipped 3 or 4 of her gifts to Utah that would have been too bulky to take home in luggage.

The beautiful sunrise Christmas morning with a pink glow on Pikes Peak.

Hooray for presents.

Worlds Greatest CEO

New address stamp from Dallin and family.

After everyone else had opened their “Open Last” gift, Amy got a scavenger hunt around the house to find her extra gifts. Chris had printed out a picture of the gifts and Misha and Kristen jumped in to help Amy figure out the clues. 

They had to use one of the printed blog books and figure out that they were looking up the page number, entry date, paragraph, line and word. That took another 45 minutes but they all had fun.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Kristen has taken on the role of creating a fun family Christmas Eve activity for our family. This year she came up with a Survivor-based auction (Survivor as in tv show). 

She created Kristen bucks and gave each of us $600. 

She also had items for us to bid on with the caveat, that some of the items were hidden and we didn’t know what we were bidding on. We also wouldn’t know when the last item was being presented.

Chris won a “steal another person’s gift” envelope and Misha won “one free compliment”. 

I got some Garfield air fresheners for my car and a small case of Coke. Very fun and clever. 

Following that, we exchanged gifts in our anonymous exchange. I seem to always draw Misha’s name. 

And of course, there was the traditional bringing out the gifts. Not quite as dramatic as in previous years when Misha and Kristen ran the gifts upstairs from the closet in the gym. And Amy always got the easy job of placing the gifts around the tree. This year we planned to open gifts around the basement family room tree so there were no stairs involved. 

We filled stockings and then headed off to our respective rooms for the night.

Chinese Food Tradition

Our Christmas Eve tradition usually involves going out for Chinese Food for dinner. This year we had to search for a new restaurant, with the hope that it was good food. 

I made a reservation for 6 pm. Funny, the young man who answered the phone (obviously not a native English speaker) asked me if I wanted 6 in the afternoon or 6 in the evening. 

We arrived and the lobby was packed with people waiting for to-go orders. Another case of people not wanting to cook on Christmas Eve and not many restaurants open. The lady at the front desk said she could seat us but we would have to wait 30 minutes before ordering. Not ideal, but we waited. Our dishes came out in waves once we were able to order and be served.

The food was ok. We will keep searching.

Yeast Mess

I tried to plan ahead for dinner and wanted to get some hamburger out of the basement freezer. I had to move a few things around in order to pull the hamburger out. 

Unfortunately when I grabbed the yeast that was in a pop top container, the top had already been popped and the yeast poured out of the container into the freezer covering frozen chicken packets, frozen lunches, and all crooks and crannies. UGH. 

The bottom freezer drawer wouldn’t pull out without being detached from the stainless steel drawer front. After grabbing the vacuum, I had to try to get the yeast from the bottom of the freezer while working around the drawers. It was just one frustrating moment after another. 

I yelled for help. Chris had just gotten home with the girls. Chris and Misha dug in to help, even going so far as pulling the entire fridge out to vacuum the yeast that had fallen underneath. 45 minutes later we had the food back in the freezer, the lid securely closed on the yeast, and hamburger thawing on the counter. 

Amy to St. George

Amy made a quick trip to St. George to visit Liz, Tanner, and Hallie. Tanner was graduating and Amy went to support him... but mostly to see Hallie.

Organizing the Garage

Chris spent most of last week installing the gas heater in his garage (with a little help from me). This Saturday, he was excited to make some progress on the organization and cleanup of his garage.

I found some inexpensive countertops on Facebook Marketplace and he cut them down to size. They were heavy beasts. I had to help him lift the long one. Once the countertops were in place, he started emptying some of the bins that have just been sitting on the garage floor for the past 6 months.

A Week in Mexico

Chris spent a week in Mexico helping to train the new Mexico sales team. They loved him...and they didn't feed him anything crazy like cow tongue or ants!

They want him to come back!

Misha Got a Job!

Misha's second job interview with Gibbons White was on Wednesday in Boulder at their office. They asked Misha to do some research on their competitor sites and see what they can do similarly and differently in marketing.

The new position is for a Social Media Manager. Misha will start on January 7 working 20 hours a week. Gibbons White plans to work her up to 30 hours if things go well. In February, Misha will get a $5 wage increase as well if she is a good fit for the company.

Misha was notified on Thursday while she was out for a goodbye lunch with her bosses. She has worked in the Facilities Dept. part time and in the rest of the time with the Marketing Dept. They were all so excited for her. Misha had given her two weeks notice a couple of weeks ago, and December 19 (Friday) was her last day. She was definitely living on faith and a prayer by giving notice without a solid job lined up.

One more evidence that God is in the details of our lives for Misha's last-minute miracle.

Friday texts on the Family Chat:

Misha: Last day of work. Sad that it's over but ready to go. I've love it here.

Amy: It's been a great job for you. Now on to bigger and better things.

Mom: I'm pretty sure they have loved you!

Amy: They will feel the pain of not having you there anymore.

Misha: I'm sure they will. I told one boss that she can call me whenever but everyone else gets two phone calls to problem solve.

Dad: Great to go out when you are  on top and have good memories. Never as good to leave when you hate the place.

Misha: Exactly. And I can see people whenever, just doesn't have to be here.

A little later as she was leaving...

Misha: I cried. I love those people. And I made my boss cry big tears.

Grandma Ball

Grandma Ball came for a weekend visit to see Kristen and attend Kristen’s homecoming talk at our home ward in Firestone. Since her doctors have cautioned her about visiting us at 7200’, we have tried to take things easy. 

She arrived on Thursday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning when she went back to the airport with Chris—on his way to a week in Mexico.

We perused through the Garden of the Gods Trading Post and then drove to Old Colorado City to check out the Christkinlmarkt there. 

The market was soooo crowded with more food vendors than shop vendors. After a few minutes, we decided to leave and check out the cute shops in Old Colorado City. It wasn’t quite dinner time, but that was probably helpful in getting a seat at Pizzeria Rustica without a reservation. The pizza was wood-fired and met with two thumbs up. I had a yummy salad and meatballs on the side. 

With our bill we received a sealed envelope with a coupon for 10-40% off a return trip in January. Chris and I will definitely go back.

Garden of the Gods (filters added)

Grandma also worked a puzzle.

Kristen's Homecoming Talk in Longmont

We set an alarm for 5:15 am on Sunday morning to get up and be ready to leave the house at 6:15 am. Kristen was reporting to the Longmont Stake High Council and then meeting with our stake president before Sacrament Meeting at 9 am. It was good to see some familiar faces. The Stake Presidencey asked all of us—Chris, me, Misha, and Grandma—to come in while Kristen reported to the High Council. 

Kristen was speaking on a Sunday when another young woman was giving her mission farewell. Ally took up most of the time and left Kristen with about 5 minutes. Kristen gave a short testimony and closed. Hopefully in her report in our new ward in Monument on the 28th, Kristen will have time enough to share more of her mission experiences. People love to hear mission reports.

Amy's Birthday

Amy celebrated her 26th birthday. She is officially off Chris’ health and car insurance but is fortunate to have good health insurance with Glia. 

Her best birthday present is the gift to herself of a new BMW. 

Back in November, when we saw it on sale, Chris and I bought a KitchenAid mixer and had it delivered as an early birthday gift. You know you’re an adult when…

Amy’s coworkers treated her to a birthday lunch on Wednesday. Two others in the office were celebrating birthdays on the same day!

On Thursday, she took the day off and pampered herself with a pedicure, a chocolate-covered apple, a cut and color, and then dinner with friends in the evening.

When Amy was at the nail salon, there were two other ladies there who were also celebrating their birthdays. 

Garage Heater

Chris spent a couple of hours installing a heater in the garage. I checked on him every so often to make sure he was ok, and spent quite a bit of time helping him find studs on the ceiling, secure 2x4s to the studs and then lift the heater in place. It was not light. Once we got the heater to the top of the ladder, I suggested maybe we find something to set under the heater to lift it even closer to the ceiling.

A Rubbermaid tote fit the bill quite nicely. There were moments though as Chris tried to secure the heater to the 2x4s when the heater was literally being held up by my arms and head!

Finally Chris was able to get enough anchors in that I didn't have to lift it anymore and we moved the heater into place. He then spent time attached the pipe from the heater to the healing vent, hooking up electricity, and finally hooking up the gas that had been stubbed out for him during our build. 

Chris was quite thrilled when everything worked!

Kristen's 1st Temple Service

When our bishop texted Kristen about her temple service, he also included names of people who regularly served in the temple on different days of the week from our ward. 

Since Kristen chose Friday mornings to attend, she asked Allison Bird if she could get a ride to the temple with her. She was up and ready to go by 6:15 am for the 45 minute drive to the temple. Since this was Kristen’s first time as a temple volunteer, she was asked to be at the temple a little early. 

Her session was from 7:45 to 12:45.

Misha Job Interview

Misha had a job interview with a commercial real estate company. The first meeting was via phone and mostly the hiring manager, company president and a few others, focused on how they want to expand their branding reach with a marketing, design, and social media coordinator. 

The position is part time right now with the potential of moving to full time. She has a second in-person interview on Wednesday in Boulder with homework to research some of their competitor sites and see what the hiring company can do similarly and differently.

Dryer

Ever since moving in to our new house, our dryer hasn’t been working well. It would take four hours to get a load of towels kind of dry. 

Chris had cleaned the dryer quite thoroughly before we moved, and then again after we moved. We snaked the vent hose from the dryer hookup to the roof vent. It was clean. We were running out of options and thinking maybe our 11-year old dryer was dying. 

Chris finally texted the builder and expressed our concern with the dryer not drying. They sent one of the workers over to check the roof vent. And he returned with a screen that the roofers were supposed to remove from the vent. 

It was caked in lint. Here’s hoping the dryer works better now.

Kristen and Misha in Denver

Kristen drove back to Denver with Misha on Sunday afternoon to stay with Misha for a couple of days. They went to the Christkindlmarkt, went for breakfast at Pete’s Cafe, hit the gym at the Rec Center, thrift shopped, went to a movie on Monday afternoon, and finally had dinner at Cup Bop on Monday evening. 

The air ducts above Misha's head make it look as though she is wearing a crazy hat!

Movie theater.

Movie theater snacks.

Misha had to work on Tuesday, so she put Kristen on the 9 am bus to Monument, and I picked her up at 10:30 am at the Park and Ride about five minutes from our house

Empty Nester Dinner

I volunteered to host the Empty Nester dinner at our house this month. With busy schedules, sickness, and work travel, we only had about 8 people come compared to the 15-20 people that usually attend. 

We made hamburgers. They were pretty tasty and I even had one of the ladies ask where I purchased them because her husband had liked them so much. The secret? They were not as low-fat as the hamburgers I would normally buy. 

Next time we will host in the summer months so we can have extra seating on the deck.

Amy Test Driving and a New Car

It did not take Amy long at all to find a new car. She spent all day Saturday test driving cars to figure out what she wanted to buy. 

She drove a Honda CRV, Accord, and Civic, plus an Acura and finally a BMW. 

Guess which one she fell in love with? The BMW. 

She went back to the dealership (taking her friend Ella for emotional support) on Monday after work and bought the BMW. She LOVES it.

A Change of Cars

Amy has been driving the Mazda 3 (the kids car that we bought for Kristen to drive). Since Kristen was on her mission, it just made sense for Amy to sell her car last year and bank the funds until she needed to buy a new car. 

That time came when Misha found out that her Subaru needed some significant work. We asked Amy if she would be willing to buy her new car now and she was happy to agree. 

Kristen will be in Provo without a car for a couple of months but Provo has a good bus system and Kristen’s roommate will have a car that will help for getting groceries.

Since Chris, Misha, and I are flying with Kristen to Utah to help her get settled in Provo over New Years, we decided it would be best for Chris and Misha to drive the Mazda 3 back to Colorado. I will fly home and pick up our car from the airport in Denver.

We are hoping that Misha can sell her car and get a job that will allow her to buy something new. Then the Mazda 3 will head back to Utah for Kristen in May.

Stake Nativity

Chris was busy helping Misha with her car, so Kristen and I went to the Lexington church building to fill a volunteer assignment at the stake nativity. 

I stood by the front entrance and directed people into the Crèche setup in the gym or to the other side of the church where the live nativity would be held at 6 pm. Kristen sat by the gym door and used a clicker to count all of the people who attended.

New Christmas Tree

I have been searching for a new taller Christmas tree for the main floor of our house. I finally found one but it was in Aurora about an hour away from Monument. 

Chris kindly came with me to pick it up. The tree was in two tree storage bags that fit nicely in the back of the Pilot. The guy we bought it from was recently divorced and said he wouldn’t be setting the tree up on his own. 

I had only seen the tree set up in pictures that he had posted, so I hoped it would work nicely without any broken lights. The tree came in four pieces and was designed so that when you attached each piece, the electrical connection for the lights was made through the stem of the tree. 

It is 10 feet tall and lit with warm yellow lights. I bought some gold trim, champagne-colored balls, and white snowflakes. It is not overly done but still looks lovely. 

A picture after dark.

Chirping Smoke Alarm

I woke up around 5 am on Saturday morning. I couldn’t go back to sleep though as I could hear a smoke alarm chirping. I got up to discover which one was chirping. 

I thought first it might be the one in the dining room right outside Misha’s room, but that was a smoke alarm and carbon dioxide monitor. I had to quietly go to the basement to retrieve a step ladder. Misha must have heard me anyway and opened her door (with noise cancelling earplugs still in), and I discovered the chirping was from the alarm right inside her bedroom door. 

She helped me change the battery and finally there was silence. I think it had been chirping every 30 seconds since 2 am.

Kristen as a Temple Worker

Even though Kristen is only going to be home to work in the temple for three Fridays before she leaves again for school, she really wanted the opportunity to serve in the temple. I had talked with our current bishop prior to her mission release so that on the Sunday after she was home and released by our old stake president, our bishop transferred Kristen’s records to our new ward (at 6 am) so he could submit her temple service papers. 

On Tuesday, someone from the temple called to schedule an appointment for Kristen to meet with someone in the temple presidency.

Kristen chose Friday at 7 pm. Once Chris was finished work on Friday afternoon, we drove to the temple in Highlands Ranch. We had a little extra time so we stopped first at Deseret Bookstore to purchase some new garments for me.

We had planned to do Initiatory session. Since we were so early, we asked at the front desk if someone was available to speak with Kristen at 6 pm instead of 7. Luckily she was able to speak with the temple president, Brother Paulson. Kristen was set apart right then and picked the Friday morning session for her service time. 

We were able to get into an earlier Initiatory session and then met up with Misha for dinner. Chris had texted Misha the new time for when we would be finished at the temple (since we were early). 

We planned to meet for dinner at Tokyo Joe’s—Kristen’s request. Misha and Kristen drove back to Monument together. Nice to be in the temple with Kristen and see her making these choices.

New Piano Surprise

We bought a new piano a week before Kristen came home from her mission, but it was a surprise, so I didn’t want to share it here until after she was home. 

I had been looking on Facebook Marketplace, but so many of them were “FREE”, and I didn’t want to chance get another not-so-great piano that went out of tune quickly. 

I was inspired to check to see if our old piano tuner, Fred Goheen, had a website because I knew that he often had quality pianos that he would resell. He had the perfect one for us and even offered to deliver it for no extra charge from Berthoud to Monument (about 1.5 to 2 hours).

Getting the piano from his trailer to the basement was a bit of an ordeal. Chris wanted to attach Fred's trailer to the ATV so that Chris could drive the trailer right up to the back door with minimal damage to our landscape.

Unfortunately, the configuration of Fred’s crank on his hitch kept hitting the ATV seat. As we were trying to find a jack that would work, some of the landscaping crew that did our yard happened to drive by to put up Christmas lights at our neighbor’s house. 

They offered to help and with a lot of manhandling, they were finally able to get the trailer attached to the ATV’s hitch.

Then we were trying to figure out the flattest route to the back door. Our neighbor, Chris, kindly let us drive from his driveway to our back door, which was a fairly straight shot. From there, it was easy as the piano was already on a dolly in Fred’s trailer that was specially designed to haul pianos without damage and keep them in tune.

Once the piano was in place, Fred sat down to play. He told me he had concert tuned the piano. It sounded great. 

It was fun to surprise Amy and Misha on Thanksgiving Day, but more so a couple of days later when Kristen started walking down the stairs as she toured our new house and almost cried at the sight of the piano.

Good job Mom and Dad! I love a good surprise.

Wicked Sisters

It was a good thing that Kristen watched "Wicked" on the flight home from San Francisco. She was all caught up when the three girls went to see "Wicked: For Good" on Monday afternoon. 

They had purchased tickets in advance, but ended up being the only ones in the theater.