It's Craft Show Season

Bill has been busy with craft shows every weekend since November 9th and will continue through December 15th. This one is at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Alamosa. Jamie loves going to the craft shows...he gets paid 50 cents to help set up and take down. He also gets lots of free stuff from other vendors, he's learning how to work the "cute" factor.

Moonrise

This is a photo of the moon rising over the Sangre de Cristo mountains, taken from my front porch.

Awesome!

Deck the Halls

The Christmas tree has taken it's place in the living room and it's starting to look like Christmas at our house. We actually put decorations on it this year and also have other Christmas treasures displayed throughout the house. The house smells wonderful...nothing like the smell of fresh cut pine!











Jamie couldn't wait to get started...he kept asking, "what can I do to help?".

(I love this photo and how the sunlight coming in through the window highlights Jamie's hands!)

It's beginning to look like Christmas!!

Wow!!! We woke up this morning to almost 3 inches of snow on the ground. Jamie couldn't wait to get out and play. He wanted to build a snowman but the snow wasn't wet enough so he just made snow angels and played with his construction trucks. We're decorating the Christmas tree today and this snow is perfect for getting us into the holiday spirit.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a quiet day at home, watching football and cooking Thanksgiving dinner. We are so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. It was nice to just spend the day together.

We took dinner to the Burns' house and visited for a while. Baby Nicholas was sleeping...he's so tiny!

My mom is coming to Alamosa tomorrow, so that's when we'll have our "official" Thanksgiving dinner.

O, Christmas tree

We took advantage of having the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off to head to the mountains to cut our Christmas tree. There was no snow in the mountains, not even in the shadows...pretty sad for this time of year.

Jamie had a great time leading us around and through the trees and even helped Bill cut our tree with the saw.

So, here's our family holiday photo. For a true holiday effect, you'll just have to imagine snow covered mountains in the background!

Thanksgiving Feast

I took a chance that Jamie's Thanksgiving Feast started at 10am and actually got myself up and ready and out of the house in time to stop at Safeway and buy groceries for our own Thanksgiving dinner. I finished at the grocery store earlier than expected and headed over to Polston at about 9:45am...just in time to catch Mrs. Rodriguez' class parading through the halls dressed in their "native american" attire.

Each child made their own costume, complete with headband & feathers and necklace. So adorable! They also made pilgrim outfits but I never saw them actually wearing those.













After the parade, they posed for a group photo and then listened to Mrs. Rodriguez read a story about the first Thanksgiving.



I was glad that I got there early because they took off their costumes and packed them away in their backpacks before the feast began. If I had arrived at 10:00, I would've missed it!



















Then it was time for the feast, which included blueberry muffins, kettlecorn, raisins & nuts, cornbread and beans with dried corn. I've been impressed with Mrs. Rodriguez' parties because they are healthy...no junk food. She has a rule that everyone has to at least try a little bit of everything.

The room was decorated with different Thanksgiving themes and, of course, the kids had their art on one wall. Each masterpiece was accompanied by a feather where each child wrote something they were thankful for. Jamie wrote that he is thankful for his daddy. That's OK...when he's a professional football or baseball player and he gets some camera time, I know that he'll be saying, "hi mom!"

Jamie's First Report Card

OK, so...it's been a few years since I was in kindergarten (or any type of school, for that matter) and I had totally forgotten about report cards. When Jamie got off the bus today, I looked through his backpack for information about the Thanksgiving party at school tomorrow. Information about the party eluded me but, alas, I did find the report card.
Jamie also received a cool ribbon for perfect attendance.

The Lighting of Engine 169

With above average temperatures making it feel like mid September instead of mid-November, we donned our light jackets and met at the courthouse to celebrate the "official" beginning of the Holiday Season in Alamosa.

After a countdown, the Christmas lights & decorations at the courthouse came on and everyone hiked two blocks east to the city building, led by Santa's reindeer.

Another countdown and the city building lights came on and the migration to Engine 169 began; because, really, that is why everyone goes through this ritual year after year.

Everyone crowded around the Engine and waited for yet another countdown. The lights came on and 169 came to life for another holiday season.

While the weather doesn't indicate that the holidays are upon us, Engine 169 shines to remind us that this is the season of glad tidings and good cheer.

This was only our second year to participate in this event, probably because it used to be held on the Friday after Thanksgiving and we were usually out of town. It is awesome to be a part of this community and participate in these traditions that are meaningful to us now and will hopefully be meaningful to Jamie at some point.

Once the train lights came on, everyone walked to Centennial Park where Santa and his elves were awaiting the children. There are also vendors with burritos and hot chocolate awaiting the adults.

I remembered to bring the camera this year to capture these precious moments of Jamie talking to Santa. He asked Santa for a "pirate thing"...could he be any more vague? AAARRRGGGHHH!

This year's lighting of 169 went off without our group losing a child, something that we were all hyper aware of after everything that happened last year. Whew!

OK, bring on the holidays!!!

Veteran's Day Parade

Everyone loves a good parade and on Veteran's Day in Alamosa, this is the place to be. We arrived almost an hour before start time to stake claim on our spot and then Bill went to Milagro's for the java.

It was so adorable to see these four boys (Parker, Justin, Jamie & little Ryan) all standing still with their hands over their hearts. The boys were getting restless as we waited for the parade to start at 11:11...they wanted the candy! Five local marching bands actually participated in this parade, an oddity for an Alamosa parade.

















As the car with the World War II and Korean War veterans passed by, Coleen made the comment that our kids may never know a veteran that fought for something more important than oil. How sad! (No disrespect meant toward veterans and soldiers who are currently fighting...they are doing their job and can't help that their commander in chief is an idiot.)

Shadow Inja's

I took advantage of the after Halloween sale at Wal-Mart and bought costumes to add to the collection. These two were a huge hit!!

First day of basketball practice

Jamie had his first ever basketball practice yesterday. The league is actually for kids in 1st through 6th grades but said that we could sign Jamie up, even though he's only in kindergarten. He seemed a little overwhelmed and intimidated because there were so many kids and most of them were older. He knew a couple of the kids, though, and it helped that his friend, Justin, was also there. Jamie & the other younger kids had a difficult time trying to keep up with the older kids. They randomly split the kids up into six different groups and they rotated through six different skill stations, including shooting, lay-ups, dribbling, passing, free throws & defense.



Once league play begins and the teams are divided by age, the younger kids will play on a lower hoop (I think they said it was 7 foot), which will give them a better chance of hitting something when they shoot.





It didn't look like Jamie was having fun but it's all he can talk about now. He's so excited...he's having a hard time waiting until next Saturday for the next practice.





We went last night and bought basketball shoes and a
youth size basketball. I raised his little Fisher-Price hoop up to the six-foot notch and he's having a great time!

The Magic of Chemistry

Every year the Chemistry Department at Adams State College puts on a "magic show". This is the first year that we've gone and it was fun. The students did different experiments...lots of changing colors and small explosions. Afterwards, everyone went to the Chemistry lab to play.


This experiment required an audience volunteer.
Hunter was the chosen one.


I don't know who these guys are but, aren't they the perfect picture of "mad" scientists?


This was the finale, accompaniment on banjo and all.
They made a pretty rainbow of colors in the beakers.


Jamie & Parker in the Chemistry Lab.
Their task was to draw what they thought a chemist looked like.
Parker drew someone wearing a rainbow wig and Jamie drew someone lighting balloons on fire.


The highlight of the Chemistry Lab tour was the making of the slime.
Jamie & Daniel are having fun mixing the solutions together.


Here's Parker (and big Ryan in the background) mixing their own slime.


Waiting in line for glitter to be added to the slime.


Ahhh...the final touch...GLITTER!


The anti-climactic making of the soap bubbles.

All in all, a great way to spend a Friday afternoon. We met up with Justin, little Ryan, William, Melody, Miriam, big Ryan, Kamryn and Elena...it was a big ole' playgroup!