Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner on the couch, fondue this year!

No white Christmas for us this year. While it did snow about 10 days ago pretty much all that snow was melted by Christmas Day. It ended being sunny and 62 degrees which meant we could all get outside.

Nothing like lying in the sun on Christmas Day with a foot rest

Marcy was very keen to get us all outside to the park. She has been recovering well but has not been able to get outside much. With the nice weather on Christmas Day we all went to the park and Marcy reveled in the sunshine.

Christmas selfie in the park

Jude enjoyed catching the football at the park. He would run and I would pass him the football on the fly.

Another great reception from Jude

The weather was also nice on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) so we headed to the park then as well. This time Marcy went one better. When she saw a couple people setting up a blanket to watch the sunset and mentioned what a good idea it was, Anna ran home and returned with a blanket and a glass of champagne for Marcy to enjoy the sunset.

Champagne at the park at sunset

Yesterday, Anna decided to get her ears pierced. This will be the third time she has done it and she third time’s the charm. She is very excited about it and has some beautiful earrings to show off.

Anna just got her ears pierced

Today was a bit colder so no park time and we got a lot of errands run. We had our good friends Rich and Maggie visit which is nice and I made Jude’s favorite chili. To top off a great weekend the Packers won so Jude was a happy camper when he went to bed tonight.

Celebrating Mom’s 50th birthday, still able to cuddle on her lap

It was a big week for Marcy. On Tuesday she turned 50 and I took the day off work to celebrate with her. It was a pretty low key day because it was cold and we had quite a bit of snow on the ground. We went for a walk around Wash Park with Olive and watched a couple of episodes of The Crown. Marcy did not want anything special for dinner other than a chocolate cake which she wanted to make herself. We all watched My Octopus Teacher that night, with both Olive and Pickles joining us on the couch.

Enjoying a family movie on Marcy’s birthday

Now, two days after she turned 50 Marcy decided to get major surgery on her left foot. She has had a bad bunion on that foot for decades and has talked about doing surgery to correct it for years. Well, with nothing happening over the holidays and me not traveling for a while she decided now was the best time. So, on Thursday she went to the hospital to get it done. The surgery was a success and she begins the long, slow recovery process. This involves being on crutches for two weeks, and then a boot for 6-10 weeks after that.

Olive helps the healing processShe is supposed to keep her foot elevated for the first two weeks and obviously staying off her feet as much as possible. She is actually doing pretty well. She has kept the pain in check and has been surprisingly mobile, even volunteering to do the dishes after dinner tonight. She has also figured out a way to get a good upper body workout in.

Enjoying an upper body workout

We really didn’t do much this weekend. There is still a lot of snow on the ground so no runs or games at the park. Our big outing was to the farmers market for lunch on Saturday. And we watched a lot of football all weekend.

The kids are both officially on winter break with nothing planned other than one day of skiing.after New Year’s.

First ice skate of the season in Keystone

Saturday was a cold and dreary day. It felt like we were back in Iowa with clouds and high humidity. We had a little snow Friday and again on Saturday night but it was below freezing all weekend.

We just realized this week that the kids skis were still in Keystone and we needed to exchange them. So, Anna and I made the drive up to the mountains. We had renters and with the reservation system we couldn’t ski. So, it was just a day trip and a good opportunity to do some ice skating. And best of all, when you bring your own skates the Keystone rink is free.

A winter wonderland outside our front door

The second snow storm moved in Saturday night but we awoke to beautiful blue skies this morning. But it was cold, about 12 degrees when we woke up. It was a good day for watching football, which Jude did all day for the most part. Although we made him do some shoveling and he had a ride on the Peloton as well.

Peeling a pomegranate while watching Sunday Night Football

A maestro of the Rubik’s cube of all sizes

When Jude was cleaning his room a few weeks ago he found an old Rubik’s cube. He decided to try to solve it, watching some YouTube videos and working on it constantly. After about a week he had solved the 3x3x3. Then we got him a 2x2x2 which you solved pretty quickly and then just recently a 4x4x4. That was a lot more difficult but he got there in the end. He has been working on speed and his record for a 2x2x2 is 18 seconds and for the 3x3x3 is 55 seconds.

Snuggling with her favorite dog

We had a pretty quiet weekend here. Jude and I went for our weekly run, the kids spent several hours on the trampoline with the neighbors, Marcy put up Christmas lights and we bought our Christmas tree. And of course, Jude watched lots of soccer and football.

Breakfast with a friend

With LendIt doing layoffs as we have struggled this year with the pandemic we needed extra help but couldn’t afford more staff. So, Marcy has started chipping in. She is going to put in a few hours a day from now on which we are grateful for and she has enjoyed getting back into the workforce.

14 candles on his cake

Jude turned 14 on Monday. He was supposed to be in school but ISD closed for the entire week due to Covid. So, he was able to have a relaxing day at home. He had a nice pancake breakfast, then Mustard’s for lunch and at dinner he wanted Indian food takeout. He had not one but two birthday cakes, an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and Marcy made a combo carrot/red velvet cake. He spent most of the day playing Minecraft and watching The Office, but he did get to have cake with Anna and the neighbors and they jumped on the trampoline for a while.

Sharing birthday ice cream cake with the neighbors

Thanksgiving was just the four of us again this year. It was a chilly day, but sunny, and Jude wanted to start a new family tradition: a relay race at the track. We did two 4x100m races doing it in 1:13 both times. It was fun to get out and do something physical together.

After a family race at the track

Marcy was in the kitchen most of the day and I helped with just the turkey and gravy. We had a delicious feast that included a wonderful pumpkin pie for dessert.

Getting ready to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner

We decided over the Thanksgiving break that we would take a summer trip in an RV. Marcy has been talking about this for years and given that we had no vacation this year beyond the usual trips to Iowa and Keystone, we thought we should take a decent trip next summer. So, we started looking at RVs online and we went and saw one on Saturday which looked really good, it was a trailer we would tow with Marcy’s car. It was also way out southeast so afterwards we went for a hike down near Franktown.

A Saturday hike outside Franktown

Today was a quiet day to end the long weekend. Jude and I went for a run but most of the day was spent watching football. I also baked some bread for the first time in several months. I am going to get back into baking sourdough every weekend.

Jude taking his first shot on his new basketball hoop

It is Jude’s birthday tomorrow. And what he really wanted was a new basketball setup in the alley. About a year ago we bought a cheap backboard and hoop and put it on the garage. We thought this might be a case of Jude will use it three or four times and then lose interest. But he has played a lot and the cheap backboard is falling apart. So, we got him a much higher quality setup that we installed today (when I say “we” installed that is being generous as Marcy did the bulk of the work).

Drive by birthday celebration for Brody

When Marcy was pregnant with Jude we used to take 6am yoga classes at the gym with Tina Porter. She was also pregnant and they ended up having their babies two days apart. Brody was Tina’s second and Jude obviously our first. Tina and Marcy became good friends and they have done a couple of Spartan races together as well as an untold number of yoga classes.

Tina and her husband Jeff are great people, and they received the news earlier this year that every parent dreads. In June they found out their son Brody had a brain tumor and it was inoperable. Since then they have been doing a whirlwind of treatments and he is doing ok and about to enter a new experimental program in Seattle. Anyway, yesterday was his birthday and they had a drive-by celebration. We had to take part.

Hard at work on Anna’s school project (with matching jackets)

Anna has taken on a new project at school for her elective. It is a “passion project” as the assignment was to take on something you love. She has been sewing for years and she thought it would be really fun to create outfits for her good friends in her class and herself (five outfits). She is doing everything from scratch including designing the outfits, selecting the materials, then cutting the fabric and sewing it all together. She has even kicked Marcy out of the back room as she is using that as a sewing table now.

It is a huge project that she will do over six weeks. She got going in earnest this weekend and she has the whole week off school this week so she will be working on this every day.

In their matching cozy Costco jackets with Olive

It had to happen eventually. With the rise of Covid cases in Colorado it was only a matter of time before it impacted us directly. Anna has been doing cheerleading class for a few weeks now and one of her classmates tested positive. Anna has to quarantine for two weeks which ends this coming Thursday. So, she has been doing online school since she found out about it on Wednesday this week. About half of Anna’s class is doing online school now either because they are in quarantine as well or have decided to be safe at home.

Anna went to get a covid test today, she has no symptoms but we want to be sure. Jude is also very concerned about covid and didn’t want to go to school on Thursday after doing online school Monday to Wednesday. But Friday he was back and so far everyone feels good. We will get Anna’s test result back this week.

This weekend we decided to stay close to home. The highlight for Jude was a new haircut. It was so windy and cold yesterday we didn’t want to leave the house. Today, was a bit better, so Jude and I went for a run around Wash Park but we didn’t do much else.

Showing off his new haircut

After watching CNN all week we finally get news of Biden’s win on Saturday morning

We were all looking forward to election night but we went to bed that night extremely disappointed. Jude was devastated, to say the least, and he only got about four hours sleep that night. Marcy and I didn’t do any better as were both upset at the thought of another four years of Trump.

Anyway, we watched way too many hours of CNN every night last week and then on Saturday we were greeted with the news that Biden won. We were overjoyed. Anna and the neighbors organized a celebratory dinner with the on Saturday night where we watched Biden and Harris give their victory speeches.

The kids having dinner on the neighbor’s trampoline

We had some strong winds this weekend which meant most of the leaves came off the trees. So we spent some time raking this weekend and the kids enjoyed playing in the leaves.

Jumping in the big leaf pile

Jude decided he wanted to be buried in leaves

Jude had his last weekend of soccer with two games. We are so glad he was able to get a season in with all school sports canceled. He had a solid season, I watched pretty much every game, and Jude was one of the best players on his team.

Watching football with his favorite cat

Getting ready for the Halloween scavenger hunt

With the pandemic we all knew that Halloween was going to be very different this year.  Anna suggested a scavenger hunt, which of course she couldn’t plan because she wanted to participate, so Marcy helped plan that with our neighbors. Saturday morning we gathered at 9am and Anna read the scroll with all the instructions. Then the kids were off all over the neighborhood gathering clues at the 13 stops on the hunt. It took then about an hour to complete. At the final location each kid found a package of candy, and then we all had hot chocolate and banana bread with the families. The kids all had a blast, and we are excited to continue the tradition next year.

All dressed up on Halloween evening giving out candy at our house

Trick or treating was highly discouraged so we were delighted when one of our neighbors sent around a flier with a socially distant Halloween parade idea, including suggestions for safely handing out candy. In the end, about 50 kids participated from the immediate neighborhood. We all got dressed up and it was a lot of fun. I made some chili and we had dinner at a neighbors house that evening,

A gorgeous afternoon at the golf course

The weather was gorgeous this weekend. I decided it was time to play some golf, I wanted to get one more outing in before it gets really cold. Anna and Jude were game so we did the par 3 course at Kennedy Golf Course.

Today, Jude and I ran the Day of the Dead 5k in Wash Park. It was our first and only 5k of the year and they did a good job making it safe. We did the same race last year and there was probably only 10-20% of the number of people. Jude took it easy and ran with me most of the race as he had a soccer game in the afternoon. It was my fastest 5k, at 26:22, since I got back into running a couple of years ago.

At the summit of Mt Morrison near Denver

This week started off with me heading to a hotel room because of the need to get up very early for our Europe event. With two mornings in a row of 3am wake-ups I needed to go to bed early and get uninterrupted sleep. Our event started at 3:45am Denver time from our office so it was a challenging start to the week.

The event went well and I was happy to be able to sleep in and take Wednesday off. Marcy and I decided to do a hard hike in the foothills, Mt Morrison, with Olive. It was challenging near the summit and we had to carry Olive over a few rocks where there was no foothold for four feet of smooth rock face, but she did great overall.

Out two cute kitties at the park

Jude had all week off school for fall break and Anna’s break started at lunchtime on Wednesday. Jude and Marcy did the Incline on Tuesday (Marcy did it in 38:53 and even beat Jude to the top). Anna decided to do some face painting one day with some cat whiskers. Then one day they tossed an egg up in the air and then headed it – just because.

The result of “heading” an egg

This weekend was pretty quiet. Jude had a day of refereeing on Saturday while Anna went to a friend’s house to work on Halloween outfits. Today, we had an arctic blast of winter with a top temperature of 16 degrees. We had about 3″ of snow with more coming overnight tomorrow. Jude’s school has already been canceled for tomorrow.

Olive playing with her BFF Zoe at the park

Olive, of course, loved the snow. She could spend all day out there playing in it. Of all the dogs she plays with at the park, her current favorite is Zoe, a 9-month-old lab who lives down the block.