Someone's Always the Last to Know: 2013

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Christmas in Colorado part 1: The decorations!

So I started with a Christmas theme of snowflakes....I LOVE SNOW!!!!!! However, Chris was afraid that he would get bored with this theme causing me to expand it to Winter Wonderland (with an emphasis on snowflakes) :)

This is my vision:

This year I think I nailed the entry way but need more stuff to finish off the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Then I can move onto the bedrooms decorating.

Christmas in Colorado part 2: the visitor

So for those of you wanting an update on the Rice family search no more.

Now that Chris is working 2 jobs we rarely have a day together and thus haven't done a whole lot outside of working or sleeping. However, on December 23 Rita (my mother-in-law) came to visit. She told us in May that "just because you are moving half way across the country doesn't mean I'm missing my Christmas"

We had lots of fun even though she had surgery 6ish weeks ago on her right foot. She wasn't able to walk long distances so what we could do was limited. The snow held off for her visit and is coming back for 12 hours tonight (she left this morning).

When she arrived I went to pick her up from the airport....the second she saw me she burst into tears of joy, or so she says ;). By the time we left the airport we had to go straight to Apex and pick up Chris.

Christmas Eve came and Chris and I both had to work so Rita decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies. She also said "you can't come home to cookies without a cookie jar" and bought us a cookie jar that has Joy on it. She also made us dinner which was the traditional Christmas Eve dinner for Chris' family. We had honey mustard chicken, yellow rice, and broccoli YUM!

Christmas day arrived (the day Chris had off both jobs) and we stayed in our pajamas almost all day and Rita and I baked banana bread, pumpkin roll, and made buckeyes. Everyone had a good Christmas even the dogs who each had a mini stocking filled with rawhides and one toy for the two young ones. Chris made us dinner which was turkey, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, loaded mashed potatoes, and gravy.

On the day after Christmas Chris only worked until noon so we took Rita to Estes Park to show her what made him fall in love with Colorado. Unfortunately the town seemed to shut down early so we arrived just as the Christmas shop was closing and had dinner at the only place that appeared open.

Rita never got to see any elk but she did see a fox the night before she left to go back to Delaware. We took her to the airport at 4am this morning and she cried again as she said goodbye.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Halloween with the Moore's

We were invited to go trick or treating in a really nice neighborhood. Our friends had a party beforehand, and several other families came (about 20 trick-or-treaters total). We hit the streets and found that lots of people were handing out the goods. Several families were just hanging out on their porches waiting for us to arrive. It was nice, it reminded me of my own childhood. I was glad to see Maddie experiencing the same southern hospitality that I grew up with.

This is Maddie with Levi. They were the two youngest trick-or-treaters, and also the slowest. We ended up trick or treating with him and his parents. He is a year older and provided a good example of Halloween manners. He always said, "trick-or-treat" and, "thank you."

Maddie whispered trick or treat a few times that night. She usually said, "thank you" followed by a prompt, "bye bye." It was clear that she wasn't interested in small talk, just candy.

Occasionally, the person would hand the candy to Brandon instead of Maddie. This made Maddie think that she hadn't received any candy. She simply stood there with her hand out until they handed her some. It was adorable, and she always got more.Those people never got a thank you bye bye.