Jude with his new car, a 2011 Toyota Rav4

Jude has decided to take this semester off at CU. He is burned out on study and he wants to earn some money. He has a job lined up at Halliburton in Fort Luption (about a 45-minute drive), that he starts on Feb 16. To do that job, he is going to need a car.

So, we fronted him the money, and we bought a 2011 Toyota Rav4 this week. He is going to pay us back half the cost when he starts getting a regular paycheck. He loves the car. It really doesn’t feel like it is 15 years old and it only has 108,000 miles. We took it for a spin down to Colorado Springs this weekend for Anna’s cheer competition and it did really well on the highway.

Anna’s team, Winter Soldiers, performing at Spirit Sports in Colorado Springs

We are in the thick of cheer competition season and Anna’s team was performing at Spirit Sports in Colorado Springs. They did well, “hitting zero” today with a strong routine after a solid performance yesterday that saw them make just one mistake. The coaches are still not satisfied but they will get to do it again soon, as the next competition is this coming weekend.

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Fondue and snacks, our traditional Xmas Eve dinner

We had a wonderful Christmas in Denver. We had our traditional fondue meal on Christmas Eve and watched Love Actually, one of our favorite Christmas movies. It was unseasonably warm on Christmas Day, so after our Christmas lunch at Little India’s, we went for a walk and then watched the Broncos game.

The next day, Boxing Day, we drove to Iowa in a rented SUV – since we only have two electric cars now. It was a long day, but we arrived at Marcy’s parents’ house just before 9pm. And like she does every year, Baba had baked birthday cakes for Jude and Anna, of their age.

Their birthday cakes from Baba

In Iowa, there was plenty of great food and wine, as always, and we watched a ton of football, Premier League soccer, and played games; Code Names and Hitster were popular this time. The weather was also reasonably nice for Iowa, so we also did some walks and a couple of runs. There was a day of bowling and then, of course, the big New Year’s celebration. Because Ella and Chloe were traveling to China on December 29, we had the kids all do their Christmas crackers on December 28.

The five kids firing off their Christmas crackers to celebrate the New Year.

On the actual New Year’s Eve, we had a lovely smörgåsbord of delicious snacks and some celebratory wine and beer as well. And we dragged out an old game of Trivial Pursuit, a game many of us had not played in decades, or in the kids’ case, ever.

Enjoying some Shirley Temples on New Year’s Eve

We drove home on New Year’s Day and then Marcy and I were back at work on January 2nd. This weekend was another incredibly warm one, both days were sunny and in the mid-60s. So, Jude and I went for a hike this morning on Green Mountain, taking advantage of the great weather.

Hiking in early January with shorts and a tshirt