Christmas 2011 in pictures

Love this face. It's the face of a happy girl, and it makes all of the work we did for Christmas totally worth it.

Frankie, happily playing under the Christmas tree.

Your Christmas hosts.

Christmas cutie, happy as a clam.

Christmas afternoon family portrait.

Hello, lover.

One of Frankie's favorite gifts, a remote controlled shark blimp.

This shark has some serious stealth. You can't hear it moving until it's right on top of you. Since it's five feet long, it's kind of fun, kind of terrifying. Frankie is getting to be a pro at sneaking that thing around and scaring me.

The moustache twins.

Santa's little helper.

Stylin' in my new robe.

Coles at Christmas.

 Our house. Man, I love it.



Sweet treats.

Frankie's present to Matt & me, a handmade macaroni ornament. Awww.

Santa's presents, left for Frankie on Christmas morning. Santa even left ash footprints leading out of the fireplace, and a big ask handprint on the fireplace door.

Decked out to pass around presents.

Yay, puppets!

Luigi.

Magic hat, to go with Frankie's new magic set.

Matt, excited by his new kitchen gadgets.

The chef at work.

Christmas dinner.

Even though I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that eats them, it just wouldn't be Christmas without a big batch of Shirley's meatballs.

I put every single piece of my fab mid-century servingware to good use. Not a single dish to spare. (Pictured: something I call "mid-century dip duo." One side is hot crab dip, the other a deliciously salty cream cheese and dried beef concoction.)

Curried bread cubes for Matt's traditional cheese fondue. So delicious!

Jim, silently and unknowingly stalked by a giant shark. My official favorite Christmas picture.

Christmas Caroling

Frankie's Girl Scout troop volunteered to do a little Christmas caroling this week at the Senior Care Center in Fort Collins. It was an adorable scene of controlled chaos, as the girls tried to remember their words and stand still in front of the residents, most of which looked as if they were for the most part completely oblivious to the girls' presence. Still, it was a nice gesture. And Frankie seemed to genuinely enjoy hamming it up in front of the audience.

It was funny, being on the "mom" side of the equation. The last time I was around any sort of caroling, I was doing it myself as a high school student. I have a really vivid memory of going to a nursing home with my high school choir, ready to perform a host of feel-good Christmas songs. We were scheduled to perform during dinner, and headed up to the front of the room confident we were going to blow everyone in the room away with the raw force of our collective talent. It was quite an eye-opener, then, when we got into our first song and realized that most of the residents seemed genuinely annoyed by our youthful good cheer, and wished they could just enjoy their soup in peace.

One specific gentleman in the front row seemed to take particular offence to our presence. He started to fixate on Tom, one of the members of our group. He gave Tom the stink eye through the first few songs, mumbling angrily under his breath. Then, midway through "Jingle Bell Rock," the man stood up, robe flapping behind him, and lunged at Tom. He waved his fists wildly, screaming "TING-A-LING-A-LING...GONNA PUNCH YOU IN THE HEAD!!!!!"

Our choir director, Mr. Butt (Bernie Butt. Seriously), stood by, frozen in horror, as the man was wrestled away by an orderly. Mercifully, Bernie decided to cut the concert short that year.

Result: The entire group of us spent the next three years randomly screaming, "TING-A-LING-A-LING...GONNA PUNCH YOU IN THE HEAD!!!!!" at each other, and collapsing in fits of laughter.

So... Nothing like that happened at Frankie's concert, thankfully. The only bump in the road was when Frankie decided to spend a full minute fishing a wedgie out of her pants in the middle of  The Twelve Days of Christmas." Still, the entire time the show was happening, all I could hear in my head was echoes of... "TING-A-LING-A-LING!!!"

Ah, sweet Christmas memories.

Christmas Update

We're having a blast preparing for our first Christmas in our new house. We finally have a house with a space big enough for a really big tree. One of our family traditions is to dive up into the mountains and cut down a fresh tree. This year, we ended up with a tree that's almost FIFTEEN FEET tall. Woah!

Love the tree, but I think I didn't realize how hard it was going to be for two girls, one five foot (me) and one four foot (Frankie) to decorate a tree that massive. The decorations (especially up at the top) are pretty sparse. But we still had great fun putting it up.

While I was on a roll, I put up two other trees in the house. The one in our basement is a white tree with aqua ornaments (my favorite), and the other is a purple, blue, and hot pink tree in the entryway. Wer'e full on festive over here!



Colorado contrasts

On Tuesday, I was wearing capri pants and sandals. On Wednesday, everything I wore was snowproof and/or insulated.

On Tuesday, I read a book on the back deck while watching the leaves peacefully fall off the trees. On Wednesday I sat by a fire in the living room, watching snow-covered limbs violently crack and fall off the trees.

What a difference a day makes.

Zombie Makeup Test

My brother and I have been excitedly getting ready for an annual event in Fort Collins: The ZOMBIE CRAWL.

Over 1,000 people have signed up this year. We all plan to dress up like zombies, head to Old Town, and walk to a bunch of different stores, bars, and restaurants that are giving away zombie-themed food, drinks, and so forth. The event itself should be a lot of fun, but honestly I've been enjoying the preparations so much that even if the Crawl itself is a bust, I'll still be happy.

Dovey and I have been experimenting the last few days, trying to perfect the perfect zombie look. Here are a few techniques we worked on tonight:

Can you believe this is made with Elmers glue and tissue paper?

It reminds me of being a kid again, sequestered in the basement, watching horror movies and trying to re-create the effects with a F/X kit of my own. I used to love movies like Dawn of the Dead, and dreamed of someday working on a movie set myself. I lost that dream over the years. Playing with latex, nose putty, fake blood is something I haven't done since I was a teenager. But, I'm having such a good time with the makeup that Dove and I are even talking about doing it again after Halloween. Just for kicks.

I'll be sure to take a few pictures of the finished costumes before we head out the door for the Zombie Crawl. Should be a ghoulishly good time!



Fall has fallen

For the first time, we live in a house that's got tons of trees in the backyard. The last week or so, we've been totally bombarded with a really awe-inspiring amount of fallen leaves. They're everywhere. They cover the back deck like a carpet. We can barely even see the grass. It's a real onslaught. And since I love fall, I actually enjoy the mass amounts of leaves on the ground. I like the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind, the crunch of the leaves underfoot, the colors of the leaves on the ground... It's really beautiful.

Today, Frankie and I went in the backyard to enjoy a little of that autumn magic. We raked up a gaint pile of leaves and....

Yay, fall!!