Christmas Carols

For Advent, I sang a Christmas song in church.  C helped me practice, but when it came time to sing she didn't want to.

After church we had a church Christmas carol party.  We had a soup dinner and then headed to a couple nursing homes before coming back to the church for desserts. 

I sang really loud along with everyone else. 

Carrie turns 3

C decided for her birthday she wanted chocolate cupcakes, so Saturday afternoon she helped M mix them up. 

 

After they cooked and cooled, C decorated them all by herself.  Notice the tongue of concentration!

 C celebrated with her preschool class during the day and then had a party at night.  The original plan was for M to get off early and pick up the pizza on the way home.  She forgot that I had swimming after school, so we were a little late coming home.  By the time we picked up the pizza all the guests were at our house and it ended up being more of a "surprise" party with everyone yelling Happy Birthday when C walked through the door.  I think C was a little overwhelmed with a house full of guests.

After the guests left, C went out to take her annual birthday picture by the oak tree.  Not too much snow, not like at Carrie's birth or 2nd birthday.

When we went out to New Jersey, C got a second chance to open birthday presents.

What a great birthday!

Silliness

I decided I needed a sleigh this year, so M let me make one with the carseat box we had just gotten.  I made a really good sleigh and brought almost one whole evening worth of etertainment.  The jingle bells didn't really fit through the string M had gotten for the reins, so after some frustration I put the box away.

 

I found a new pair of slippers in my closet and just had to show them off.

The car dealership M goes to get her oil changed has a great playroom, complete with a white board and magnets.  Last time we went, I played teacher and tried to teach C how to spell.

One morning for breakfast, C and I couldn't decide if we wanted cereal or yogurt, so we had both and shared it!

Getting ready for Christmas

One slow Sunday afternoon between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we headed over to Aunt J's house to bake Christmas cookies. I helped with the dough the night before and putting the first few batches on the cookie sheets.  But I left M to frost them herself.  The recipe was G's recipe but M and Aunt J added lemon frosting to them and decided they would be really good with lemon flavoring in the dough.  So the next batch Aunt J made had lemon flavoring and lemon frosting in the sugar cookies.

While M finished frosting, C and I found some games to play upstairs.

There was excitement in the kitchen, when K and T saw a mouse come out from under the stove.  The mouse had relatives that had been caught in the pantry in the week prior, but somehow this mouse escaped to live another week.  While Uncle L and T tried to trap the mouse, Aunt J made herself comfortable out of reach!

The first Sunday of Advent, I got to be the candlelighter at church.  It was a huge responsibility to carry the lit candle all the way down the aisle. 

Helping Pastor L light the Advent wreath.

C got to carry the unlit candle back at the end of the lighting.

The beautiful downtown Loveland Christmas lights on the way to gymnastics.  M thinks it was the first time she had actually ever been downtown Loveland during the Christmas season.

For the Christmas program at church, M had the two littlest angels.

Growing Up

It was time for C to move out of her carseat, so I got a new one so that C could have mine.  I even helped M put it together.

The new car seats in the car.  Ready for the commute to school!

The old car seats still in the van.  Our last time sitting in them.

 

The nursery at church was recently painted and we wanted to show off the Noah's Ark. 

Look how fast we are growing up.  M has the cutest two little girls in the world!

So grown up at 5 1/2.

The little 3 year old!

Fire Evacuation

Saturday, December 1: M got a 4:15 am phone call from her boss asking what needed to be taken from her office because the Fern Lake Fire (which started October 9th and caused a pre-evacuation alert that evening) had flared up and the Y was on full evacuation.  For the next week the YMCA of the Rockies had a temporary office in town while the firefighters did their jobs as heroes!  It was a two room office with a garage/shop attached to the back.  One room was the Accounting offices as it was a payroll week and closing the month week. 

The garage area housed the computer servers and tables for other departments--IT, Executive team, Conference Office, Human Resources, Fundraising, and Group Sales.  The Central Reservations went to Snow Mountain Ranch to work and most of the on-grounds seasonal staff ended up over there also.

On Tuesday, a few of the Y staff were given special permission to go behind the evacuation line in order to get more computer equipment, work on phone lines and get more staff vehicles to transport staff.  M was one of the 15 staff that went.  When M got to her office, the shovel was still against the door showing that the building had been evacuated and checked that no one was inside.  While on property, the helicopters flew over taking much needed water to the fire lines. 

That little office building probably had never had so much traffic.  The tables were set up with at least 16-20 workstations and with the drop in traffic there was easily 30+ people there sometimes.  Quite a chaotic week, but it was amazing to see everyone come together to continue operations as normally as possible.  It was also nice to know that the fire drills we've been practicing for 10+ years actually do work as the guests and staff were evacuated in just over 2 hours with no one injured.  

After only 3 days at the temporary office and more than 6 days off Y property, the evacuation order was lifted and the tear down started.  After the first night where the fire moved 3 miles in 35 minutes, the firefighters kept the fire lines contained within the national park and even though the fire burned less than a mile from our northern boundary, it never spread further.

While the deadline drew near for tear-down, the IT people were busy getting the servers ready as M's boss passed time!!

The massive amount of cords it takes to run 8+ servers.

Almost done...

and all packed up!

THANK YOU FIREFIGHTERS FOR BEING OUR HEROES AND KEEPING M'S WORK, C'S SCHOOL AND MY CAMP SAFE!

Fun with Frogs

We went to a new park to play on the first Saturday in December.  There were lots of frogs there to play on and romp around.  There was even a fitness trail that M made us run around and do all the stations.  Something about running our energy out!

Get ready, Get set, GO!

Papa's 65th Birthday

P turned 65 after Thanksgiving, so we threw a party for him with all of his friends.

One of the cards that P got had you blow out the candles.  It was very entertaining.

I even had the front row seat when P opened all his presents up.

After most people left, the family got silly, including P.

 

The boys wrestled while we played so nicely in the background.