10 days until Santa arrives, are you getting excited? One of the benefits of having kids is the excitement of Christmas and Santa’s pending arrival is alive and in full swing. It’s coming fast so enjoy it while you can.
Last night we were supposed to go to some friends party but Lori’s neck was sore as she just did too much yesterday. Instead we decided to drive downtown and see some Christmas lights in Cherry Creek. We drove through a few neighborhoods of old big beautiful houses that obviously had some professional help putting up their lights. Then the boys were hungry so we decided to drop into one of our favorite family haunts, Crepes n Crepes. It’s owned by Alain, a frenchman, and all they serve is (obviously) crepes. The food is really good but the misses and I passed on food and had a cocktail. On the other hand, the boys each ordered their favorite dessert crepe and a hot chocolate with chantilly cream which is the thickest most luscious whipped cream you’ve ever had. Jag ordered poached pear with Nutella (hazelnut chocolate) sauce and carmel with ice cream and Ty had just Nutella, carmel and ice cream. First though, Mr. Ty had a dinner crepe of his own making, which was just bacon. Rob, our friend and waiter asked if he wanted cheese or anything else and Ty replied “nope, just bacon please”.
Anyhow the boys had a blast and we had a fun family night out and then headed home and watched the 1960’s version of Frosty the Snowman. The boys then went upstairs to watch another Christmas cartoon and Lori and I stayed downstairs. We finally went up and watched a country Christmas show until we fell asleep.
3:20 came early with Lacey barking. Lori said she’d get up as I did the other night. Lucky for me as she walked downstairs and stepped right in fresh dog poop! Next up was Lacey barking at 4:45 and believe me, despite what you may think, she knows she’s barking! Â I got up so she didn’t wake the kids. I can’t reward her barking so I put Mojo out and feed him and Miss Lacey in her crate and bed for an hour or so before I feed her. I think she’s learning not to bark as now when I put her in the crate, she stops barking. She’s so old, we can’t be hard on her but I can still try to train her.
Lori put the garland up on our front door yesterday and it looks like its out of a Neiman Marcus catalog. She really has an eye for decorating.
Auntie Kristin (as the boys call her) who is Lori’s best childhood and lifelong friend in California is coming out December 26th to the 30th. She is first going to Austin Texas to volunteer at a women’s shelter Christmas Day and then will fly to Denver. She’s bringing her little puppy so the boys, Mojo and Lacey are all excited! She was married as most of you know, to a guy who didn’t treat her so nice and then took her for a bunch of money in the divorce and is all alone so we invited her out and happily she’s coming. She and Lori  have such a good time sitting on the couch talking about things they did when they were 5 years old. It’s amazing how they remember everything. From what I’ve heard, Lori was kind of in charge and got Kristin in trouble every now and then. There must have been a little devil in her somewhere! Of course now she’s a princess.
Today we’ll decorate some more around here and tomorrow I’ll start shopping. It’s going to be a lean lean year which is ok as Lori and I will be fine and the boys won’t notice. Last night Ty said, “dad, you know most people think Christmas is about presents but it’s not” and I then asked him, what’s it about, and he replied, “it’s about being with family”. How’s that for our 9, soon to be 10 year old, pretty profound if you ask me.
Before I went to bed I called Diane, one of our friends who went to the Bocelli show last night in Tampa that we were supposed to attend. Everyone got in just fine and it was a great show from what she said. They were all in the limo driven by Colby’s (a very nice older guy from Wichita Kansas who reminds me of my dad) pilot who also doubled as the chauffeur. She said they were lost trying to get out of Tampa and get back to Sarasota which is an hour or so away. These were our friends from Aspen who we were supposed to go stay with. We’re glad they all had a good time. I’m sure the show was great!
It’s now 6am and Mr. Ty just came down to join me on the couch and everyone else is still sleeping. I let Lacey out of the crate and she’s looking at me for food but will have to wait a bit longer. It was sort of windy last night as I heard it when Lori got up with Lacey at 3:20. It’s supposed to be warmer today so we can finish the lights, hope they’re right.
Tomorrow the last week of school begins. Throw in Jag’s birthday on Tuesday, Uncle T’s on Thursday, the kids parties at school on Friday and ours Friday night along with me wrapping up the year, doing all the shopping and cleaning up the house, and we have a full week!
Hope you all are ready for Santa! Hope you’ve all been good! Take care and God Bless.