Christmas Eve(n) from Far Away...

Ooh, wow. This is my first Christmas away from my mama and my baby sister in 30 years!! The only thing that's constant is change in life...so new traditions are in the making this year. Christmas this year is in a decidedly warmer climate; this one has a connection to my native Atlanta...a Phoenix rising from the ashes-- yep, you guessed it! I'm in Phoenix, Arizona for Christmas with my wonderful boyfriend Chris's family. No scarves and gloves needed out here, it was 70 degrees when we landed today.

Stocking Sized at 2 weeks 

Last year, a very special Christmas gift came for my sister Emily and her husband Jimmy. The sweet star of the show, Stella, was born on December 10th. I got to come on Christmas eve last year from Denver to Atlanta and even spent a few of those early weeks with the night shift. I nicknamed my niece Squeaky Stella because she squeaked when she gulped down her bottles and we had "baby wake up time" a couple of times over night so that her mom and dad could get some less-interrupted sleep. I'm so thankful for those days last year!

Prettiest little baby gave the best snuggles, and got lots of superlatives

Baby Wake Up Time!

This year, we went to Georgia a little earlier in the month in order to be there for sweet Stella's first birthday party. She'd recently started taking her first steps and became a full-fledged walker while we were there, too. Oh, and she did a few excited squeaks for me too-- a sound my sister and my dad said she hadn't made in months! I like to think that she was remembering her special time with her Aunt Moto and wanted to remind me.

Waving hi or showing #1

Stella walking with my dad and me

Back in Colorado, I've been on fun-tradition-mode with my Chris and my kiddos I nanny for. We've made tons of cookies, including star-shaped cookie trees that turned into bricks upon setting. Shrub-shaped bricks, but bricks no less! We had a more grown-up theme with some of the sweets-- Chris made caramel shortbread with dark-chocolate peanut butter on top and I made Muddy Buddies with dark chocolate and almond butter instead of the usual. Peppermint- white chocolate covered pretzels, Swedish Cocoa Balls, and Peanut Blossoms rounded out our sweets. I was pleased and I think our friends and coworkers enjoyed! My 10 and 8 year-old kiddos and I went shopping in downtown Louisville shops and they gave me lots of gift-giving advice. (For example, "Soap? Nobody wants SOAP as a gift, I promise.")  I loved picking out the gifts I gave to my tween and teen kiddos-- they're both artistic and I think I got some gifts that will inspire their creativity. The younger kiddo even exclaimed, "I've wanted one of these!!" about a pot-holder weaving loom. I'm pretty sure I made at least a hundred thousand potholders to people-- glad that I could pass the tradition on!


Chris and I also have had some fun Christmas times decorating the tree-- we got a "noble fir" tree and it smells great! My mom had packed away my ornaments-- one from nearly every year growing up, so we brought those back from Atlanta. We laughed and talked about our traditions and nostalgic memories from this time of year. I decorated the apartment with a real wreath and some branches (from Trader Joe's, duh) and lots of thrift store ornament balls! My dear friend Chelsea gave us rocks glasses with "Home" and the outline of Georgia etched beautifully in the glass-- they're on the table with a quilted runner Chris's mom Pam made. If you look closely, you can see the quilted Santa tree skirt she made too! Different Christmas books, photos, and music have decked our halls pretty nicely too.

My kiddos and I went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster-- decked in Santa hats, of course! I wrote a few dozen Amnesty International Write-for-Rights letters and I donated for Colorado Gives Day. Chris and I made it to the Butterfly Pavilion's Winter Living Lights too and it was a very cool and festive showing! It's been a busy, but fulfilling month, for sure.

Gauthier-Thomaston-Haug-Schweiger family: Dad, Jimmy, Stella, Adrienne, Emily, Neil, Chris, Mom, Aunt Janet 

Oh, an activity I don't know will become a tradition, but it ended up being a ton of fun? We did a professional photo shoot!! I wanted to get a funny family picture of the three (me, Chris, and the dog!) dressed in matching plaid PJs. We got over 100 great pictures, but I narrowed it down to a few favorites. As always, Petey Bella was wonderful-- a bit confused, but patient and sweet. The photographers even commented that she looked at the camera for so many of the pictures! She was a great model dog.

Pensive Petey in PJs

Check out the next post for a tour of our Cozy apartment for a Colorado Christmas. :)

A Fairly-True Fairy Tale, part 1

Once upon a time there was a Princess who moved from the far away empire of Atlanta to the mountain realm of Denver. This realm had strange things like hockey games, snow in the fall, winter, AND spring, and lots of people who liked to hike, boat, and camp outside. The Princess missed her family and friends back in her old Atlanta realm. She missed the delicious food, the friendly farmer’s markets, and the mildly warm winters. However, the princess was lonely. Any prince who came her way seemed to be horribly broken. These princes were judgmental, uneducated, or lazy. They were broke, cheap, or both. They were princes who’d made terrible choices for their kingdoms, and therefore weren’t good enough to join forces with the princess.

The Princess’s colleague princess, the Lady Denisse, from a far country where they had mountains and cities and spoke Spanish, called Peru, advised the princess. She’d too had a long journey to finding her prince, and it took her across the globe and back to have found her prince Jeff many years before. She advised the princess, “Quit going out with the dwarfs, and wait for your prince.” It was good advice that the princess took to heart. 

The Princess went home to Atlanta in the winter season, where there was very little snow and a fresh baby niece Princess named Stella who’d just been born. She realized how much she missed having people to laugh with and to be herself around. You see, some princesses are very proper and do things a certain way, but this Princess was a little different. She carved her own path and played her own music to dance to. Apparently, the princes in the realm of Denver were looking for the boring princesses. She was sad as she returned to the Denver kingdom, driving a new-to-her Suzuki steed across the nation with her dear friend, the artist Slemonade and her long-missed sidekick, Petey Bella. 

You may know this, but every princess needs an animal sidekick (think of every princess you know!) and several dear friends and confidantes. The princess had a dear friend, Princess Al, who wore glass slippers and ran around castles very fast, pushing her little prince in a stroller. Princess Al was someone who the Princess really looked up to and she began running around the Denver realm too. Something about running, while miles and miles apart, made the athletic princesses feel closer. This Princess’s dear friends were all back in the Southern empire, so it was imperative that the Princess spoke with them via phone and text and facebook and gchat much of the time. All this communicating did keep her buried in devices…computer, ipod, smartphone, etc., but she still went to hike in the beautiful mountains surrounding the realm as often as she could. Her father, the old (but not that old) king even bought her a National Park pass so that she could go up to the Rocky Mountains whenever she wanted. 

One day, the Princess met a Prince at a comedy club in downtown Denver. They each brought their own steeds, because he came from a neighboring territory called Westminster, but truly, he was a gentleman from an either farther away dominion called Wisconsin. It was a strange land where the knights and gentlepeople hunted deer and fished for fish and had manners, but also had accents similar to those from their neighbor, Canada. The Princess and the Prince had a delightful time that night—they had drinks at an unsavory bar in Cap Hill, then watched the improv (what silly jesters there are in the world), and shared fried potatoes and drinks at a nearby tavern. Did the Princess dare wonder if this prince would be worth her time?

The Princess and the Prince had another encounter, a late one with magic pictures on a dark screen…a nostalgic cinematic experience at the Esquire Theater of “The Muppets Take Manhattan.” The Prince and the Princess shared a bottle of good Lambrusco and also shared many hours of conversation. The princess felt safe and open, like she could tell the prince anything. In the early hours of the next morning, the prince left his glass on the counter and departed from her castle. It was very sweet and pure. Maybe a week later, they enjoyed pizza at the magical Tony P’s. They shared a kiss on a windy sidewalk…which, while innocent, left both of their heads spinning. 

Later that month, the prince invited the Princess to a spectacle of a Rockies baseball game. The Princess didn’t particularly care about sports, but she enjoyed a crowd and the live action of the sport. The two walked to the downtown 16^th Street Mall area—an area people who visit Denver like to see, but the princess had not yet been to. The two had delicious food and fancy drinks at the Rialto café—another Denver fixture. They again, enjoyed conversing and each other’s company and laughing at the spectacle that a city can bring. The prince even blushed when a knave spoke to them and told them how beautiful the princess was. The Princess’s tummy was filling with butterflies, the more she spent time with him.