Walking around Washington Park on Christmas Day

No white Christmas for us this year. We have had just one small snowstorm so far this season and that was a couple of weeks ago now so it all melted long ago.

Ready to open presents on Christmas morning

My Christmas fruit salad

Fresh off his new juggling record: 1,471.

The birthday girl receiving lots of love

It was Marrcy’s birthday this past week, on Wednesday. I actually began Wednesday in California where I was hosting a dinner the night before. I made it home by early afternoon and we had a family celebration that night. Marcy decided she wanted to make herself lasagna and a chocolate mousse cake instead of going out or getting delivery. So, we had a delicious meal and I think the chocolate dessert was the best she had ever done.

Anna with her poster from Canva

Anna has been reading this book called Rules for Being a Girl, a book for teen girls by Candace Bushnell (of Sex and the City fame). She really resonated with this one passage in the book so she made it into a poster and ordered it on Canva.

The work on our basement is almost done so this weekend we focused on getting some stuff back in the house from the garage. We have been using it as a storage unit for the last three months while the work was being done. Marcy has done the lion’s share of this work but the kids chipped in (reluctantly) when asked.

Both kids are on winter break now and we are planning on heading to Iowa the day after Christmas.

After the big gymnastics meet with some of her teammates

The last big meet of the year for Anna was the Xcel State Championships. This is the biggest one of the year and because had done well she moved up to a more competitive level. She was the only one on her team to move up so she had to compete by herself.

All of her teammates competed in the morning so I drove Anna down to the gym bright and early so she could cheer on her team. When we arrived back to watch Anna perform we were so pleased to see that all of the team stayed to cheer Anna on in the afternoon.

At the end of a fantastic balance beam routine

Anna did really well. She was nervous beforehand but she battled through the nerves to have her best scores ever. She came in second on the balance beam and fifth overall for her age group. She put a lot into this and was so pleased with the way it worked out.

During her floor routine

We all came and cheered her on and were so happy for her. Anna’s coaches really helped her perform well and she continues to improve each time she competes.

Not much else this weekend. Jude continues to work on his juggling and he shot this video this evening as he was working on a trick.

At the top of Keystone with Lake Dillon and the Gore Range in the background

We have broken a record here in Denver with the latest measurable snowfall. We still have had no snow here and the previous record was November 21. It has been unusually warm most of the past month. The same is true in the mountains where they have had to rely on 100% manmade snow.

Thankfully, Keystone has a good snowmaking operation and they had a few runs open. So, Anna and I decided to go up and give it a try on Saturday afternoon. We skied five runs in less than two hours and that was enough. The snow was ok but there was not enough terrain open to make it a great day. Still, it was good to strap on skis again.

Anna showing her style on one of the few blue runs that were open

Today, I decided I wanted to go for a long run. I really enjoyed the trails of the Greenland Open Space where we did the Bolder Boulder in May. So, we went back there again today and did an even longer run. It was a tough 8 miles with some decent elevation change. Jude came along as well and as always he was much faster than me (although he did take a wrong turn that slowed him down). Marcy brought Olive and walked one of the inner loops. It was pretty empty for a Sunday so Olive was off the leash pretty much the whole time.

Olive and Pickles sharing the couch with Marcy who is under the blankets