Christmas Tales

Well with Christmas over and the holidays winding down I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the wonderful events that Erin and I have gotten to be a part of over the past few weeks.

The festivities began about two weeks ago when we went to our supper club, where each month one couple from the group picks a new place for us to get together for dinner.  This last time we all met at Tambien (near Cherry Creek Mall) for Mexican food as well as a White Elephant gift exchange.  If you can't tell from the picture I got an exciting leopard-print snuggie while Erin ended up with one of the gifts we had given.  It was all a lot of fun as we enjoyed some good food.

Later that week, Erin's sister Amy was in town to receive her PhD in Atmospheric Science from CSU.  The whole family was very proud of her and there were some good speeches at the graduation ceremony.  It was also nice to see Fort Collins and have dinner up there.

On Tuesday, last week, Erin and I made our way to Littleton for dinner with my aunt and uncle.  They served us a delicious chili meal before we did our gift exchange.  They gave us several wine-related gifts as they knew we both appreciated wine, including at very nice picnic wine case.  I can see us getting a lot of use out of it.  Erin and I also had a lot of fun designing some ceramic salt and pepper shakers for them with activities that my aunt and uncle enjoy.

On Christmas eve Erin and I went to spend time with Erin's family.  We started by all meeting up at the movie theater to watch "Up in the Air" with George Clooney.  It was an interesting movie about a life of permanent travel and the lack of personal relationships that usually entails.  After the movie we went out for a delicious lunch.  The rest of the evening was spent preparing and eating dinner, playing a rivoting game of darts, and just enjoying each-others company.

Christmas day found us opening presents and stockings.  Erin now has several books to read for the rest of her Winter break this upcoming week and I have a gift certificate to get some new clothes.  Erin and I spent much of the rest of the day putting together a puzzle, but we took breaks to play games such as one Amy's husband Kevin came up with which involves writing a phrase at the top of a piece of paper and passing it to the person on your left.  The fun in the game comes from having to draw a picture of the phrase, folding the paper so the next person can't see the original phrase, passing it to the next person, and writing a description of the picture you've been handed.  As this continues the phrases and the pictures start to look nothing like the original phrase and once the paper is full, it's fun to look back at how things changed.

On the day after Christmas some of Erin's parents' friends came by for breakfast and there was a lot of catching up.  Then Amy and Kevin came back by before Amy had to head back to the airport.  We enjoyed lunch and a walk at the Streets of Southglen before packing up and heading back home.  All in all it's been a very nice Christmas and Erin and I are very grateful for the wonderful friends and family that we've had a chance to spend it with.