High Tea at the Brown Palace

Christmas break began on Wednesday afternoon with the kids really excited about their break and, of course, about Christmas. We got into the spirit of things by going to “High Tea” at the Brown Palace Hotel downtown. This is a big deal here with the hotel booked out for months in advance. Marcy booked a table for us last Christmas and it was great. Lots of nice sandwiches, scones and desserts. We are booked in again for next year.

Taking a break during a great Christmas Eve ski day in Keystone

On Christmas Eve we decided to head up to the mountains for a day of skiing. The mountains have had a good amount of snow these past few days and so we thought Keystone would be very popular on Christmas Eve. But we ended up having no traffic and no lift lines despite 40 degrees weather and good snow. The day ended a little prematurely with Anna hurting her knee on a bump run and we had to call the ski patrol to get her down the mountain. But she was fine when she got down.

Anna walking down the stairs on Christmas morning

The long awaited day finally arrived. Anna was up super early, just after 5am, although we told her she couldn’t actually get up until 6am. They both love Christmas but Anna seemed a little more excited than Jude this year. Santa was very generous with many presents for both kids. Anna received her “dolls diner” that she has been eyeing at Target all year as well as an Easy Bake Oven. Jude enjoyed a good pile of presents including Arsenal gear, some Star Wars gear and a Packers book.

Jude with his pile of presents

We had our traditional Christmas lunch of Indian food but we spent most of the day at home with the kids very content to play with their toys. Tomorrow it is off to Iowa to visit Marcy’s family.

Anna leads her class in the Santa Lucia celebration

It was a busy week both at school and on the home front. On Tuesday, it was Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy) Day and the school has a celebration every year. The second grade go into every room in the school and sing a song as well as hand out bread. Anna was honored to be chosen as Santa Lucia and wore the elaborate candle headdress that is tradition in the celebration of this ancient Christian commemoration.

Jude playing viola at the school concert

That night was the school concert and Jude played some Christmas songs with his class. He did really went and seemed to enjoy the three songs they did in front of the entire school as well as parents.

Marcy’s birthday at Acorn

Thursday was Marcy’s birthday. We went to see a Star Wars costume exhibit at the Art Museum and then went out for dinner. We tried a new restaurant called Acorn that has been getting great reviews. The food was spectacular and Marcy left very satisfied.

Anna decorating our Christmas tree

Friday night we went and bought a Christmas tree. We always like to wait until after Marcy’s birthday to begin our Christmas decorating. So the night after her birthday we went and bought our tree. Then on Saturday morning Anna and Marcy put up all the decorations on the tree.

Anna sledding on the hill right by our new house

A storm moved in on Friday night and it was bitterly cold. We woke up to -5 degrees (that’s fahrenheit) and 6″ of new snow. So, the kids decided it was time to get out their sleds and try the new hill right by our house. It was too cold to stay out long but both Jude and Anna enjoyed going down a few times. We had the annual Christmas Party at the Briere house on Saturday night where there were a lot of kids. It was a late night but everyone enjoyed it.

Marcy at her new job as a personal trainer

I have not mentioned this on the blog yet but Marcy has a new job as a personal trainer. She has been working out at this gym for much of this year and she liked it so much she decided to work there. She is also my personal trainer and we go in every weekend for a workout. It is a unique workout called Super Slow and it a very intense but relatively short workout. She is working there two days a week while the kids are in school and so far she loves it.

Jude receives a cheesehead from Uncle Nathan

We are settling in to our new house. Marcy has been a machine, spending 10 hour days unpacking and getting everything organized. So, here we sit just a week after we have moved in with the kitchen and living room all but settled. We still have to get blinds for all the windows and several other pieces like that but it is starting to feel like a home already.

We had a surprise visit this week from Uncle Nathan who was in Colorado on business. Well, it was a surprise for the kids, we had known about it for some time. Unfortunately, I was in New York so I missed hm but the kids were delighted to see their Iowa uncle. And he came bearing late birthday gifts. Jude received the Cheesehead as you can see here (he wore it today while watching the Packers game and he believes that is why they won) and Anna received a “club box” which is basically a craft box for the little club that Anna has set up with her cousins Ella and Chloe.

Anna in our new kitchen

This weekend we didn’t have much on which was nice. So, Saturday we ran some errands and then Jude had a friend over to play. We watched a movie in the afternoon, A Christmas Carol, and then went over to a friend’s house for dinner.

Jude lit up by Christmas lights outside a friend’s house

Sunday both Jude and Anna had friends over to play. Jude and his friend watched a lot of the football with me while Anna and her friend played outside and had a little tea party. It was a nice relaxing weekend after a very hectic last few weeks for all of us.

Jude and our old neighbor playing in our basement

Anna and Jude roasting marshmallows on our last night in our old house

Our friends think we are funny. Since Marcy and I got married in 2004 we have lived in a total of seven houses. Now, one of those was in Australia where we went for six months in 2012 and then we rented for a year after we got back. Still, that is a lot of houses. And now we have moved again – back to the Wash Park neighborhood where we lived from 2004-08.

In some ways we will miss our old house. We did some great renovations to it in 2014 and we loved a lot about it. But it was too far from school and the tiny garage was an issue. Our new house has a big yard, a two car garage and most importantly, is just a few minutes from the kids school. At least with Denver’s hot real estate market we got all our money back we put into our old house and more.

Jude discovered a little window nook in the basement of our new house

It has been a busy week. We closed on our old house on Monday, our new house on Tuesday. I was in New York on Wednesday and Thursday and then we moved on Friday and Saturday. Needless to say Marcy has done 99% of the work with the move and she pulled everything together really well. She was a workhorse and by Sunday night most of our main floor was packed away.

Anna showing off her star shaped candle that she made at the school Holiday Fair

Saturday was the annual Denver Waldorf School Holiday Fair. This a highlight of the calendar for the kids and we arrived at 8:30am even before the fair opened. I volunteered in candle making as well as the balance challenge but the kids, particularly Jude, wanted to be off with their friends a lot of the day. Anna still did all the crafts but Jude played “an epic game of tag” that lasted for several hours. He and his two friends at least stopped to get a caricature of themselves done at one point.

Jude and his two best school friends with their caricature

Sunday was spent unpacking and watching football of course. We walked up to our new local sports bar to watch the Broncos as well as the Packers game. We have a couple of neighbor boys who are Jude’s age and they played together in our basement for a while today. We have met some of the neighbors and they seem nice – and there are quite a few kids on our block which is great.