I know you’re sitting there looking for something fun to do. I also know that you’re wanting to get in the Christmas spirit. And oh my goodness, look at you sitting there looking at your screen somewhere in Colorado. Wow. I have a recommendation for you!! Check out Ice at the Gaylord!
This is the second time my family has gone to see Ice at the Gaylord and we had a great time again! The first time my family visited the Gaylord, the theme was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. All of the ice sculptures revolved around the story of Rudolph. Within the Gaylord’s Christmas village, they had a dedicated area that was kept at 9 degrees (if not colder) where we were immersed in the story of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Super cute. And we had to wear these fun blue parkas while we went through the exhibit so we stayed nice and warm.
This year, Charlie Brown was the theme! So we got to see Snoopy, Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the gang. Some of the most iconic scenes of the Charlie Brown Christmas movie were displayed in ice. There was an ice slide in what would be Charlie Brown’s school auditorium. You could crawl through Snoopy’s dog house and take pictures. We really enjoyed it.
In the past when we visited the Gaylord, we stopped at one of their restaurants for dinner. The food was good even though there was a pretty long wait. This year, we decided to skip out on the food, but we enjoyed walking around the property and seeing all of their Christmas decorations. They have this giant Christmas tree in a beautiful open area that overlooks the mountains. They also have a really cozy, huge fireplace with giant stockings sitting over top of it. I love it honestly.
So if you’re looking for something fun to do, check out the Gaylord Resort and all it’s fun Christmas stuff. They have tubing, ice skating, a Cirque de Soleil show, and of course, the Ice exhibit thing with Charlie Brown that I talked about! We’ve had a good time and I think you’ll enjoy it all too. We actually went just after Thanksgiving so they’ve been running for a while and I think they keep Ice open through New Year’s Day at least!
I know this is a day late but, Merry Christmas 2021! I hope you all had a wonderful, restful day with family and friends yesterday.
Yesterday my family and I pretty much did nothing. It was fantastic. We had a nice breakfast in the morning which featured my great aunt’s cheesy potato casserole recipe. Since we don’t go to her house for Christmas breakfasts anymore, she shared the recipe with us and since then, we’ve been using her recipe to keep some traditions going on Christmas morning.
After our breakfast, we opened presents and while the material goods and presents really aren’t what this season and Christmas are all about, I still really enjoy getting gifts and giving gifts! We got my sister a rice cooker for her apartment and I was very excited for her to open it. She was excited to get it too. 😊 The gift I was most excited to receive was this really cozy and big, fluffy jacket from Lululemon. The security tag was still stuck in the pocket when I unwrapped it yesterday. I didn’t want to ruin the pocket and try to take out the security tag myself, so we made a trip this morning to free my jacket from the little tag. Anyway, I can wear it now and I’m obsessed. My sister and I also got the new Mario Party game for the Nintendo Switch and we have enjoyed playing that since yesterday. Mario Party is just a good classic, fun game and you really can’t go wrong with it!
We enjoyed a really yummy pot roast for dinner last night and that was pretty much it for our day! We did also take Boo on a walk yesterday and he always enjoys walks so that’s fun.
Christmas 2021- you were a good one! I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend. Take time to be with family and enjoy the rest of 2021. See you all in the new year!
This year was quite the year. A lot happened. A lot always happens, but I feel like this year was especially good and also especially sad and hard. With that said, I’m reflecting on 2019 and looking back on the year I had.
January: My family and I rang in the new year from our couch and I got to play a lot of tennis with my dad, sister, and friends that we’ve made at the Ranch Country Club. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to play at such a nice facility and have courts year round to play at. Does anyone remember my shrimp project for ecology last school year? That happened in late January too. 🙂
February: I went to a dinner to celebrate my academic achievements for my freshman year. We also celebrated my mom’s birthday. Marty was starting to get pretty sick around this time but he was still a happy, wonderful dog.
March: School was definitely in full swing again and I got to celebrate my sister’s 18th birthday. Her birthday was during the week, so I didn’t get to be home for it, but we celebrated over the weekend. We also had those two big bomb cyclones in March. I got school off twice so of course I remember that! 🙂 My aunt also came to visit during spring break and we had a great time at the Denver Art Museum (at least outside it), touring Regis, and eating at BurgerFi.
April: Boo turned eight in April and I got to watch Allyson at a couple of her high school tennis matches. She was 1 singles so of course I had to be there to be her cheerleader! Allyson also had her senior prom and I had so much fun helping her get ready. She looked beautiful. 🙂
May: Bobo turned two and I finished out my first year of college. Allyson also graduated from high school and my aunt and uncle came to spend some time with us around then. We had a wonderful party for her at the Ranch and it was so good to be around so many friends and family members to celebrate her. We also sent Allyson to Hawaii then!
June: Allyson started working at Build-A-Bear, so I was one proud sister then, haha. We also spent a lot of time at the pool and on the tennis court for leagues, tournaments, and just some good family fun. My grandma also flew back to Georgia in June and my summer classes were in full swing. Woohoooo.
July: Boo rang in July with his big dental surgery. He needed a bunch of teeth extracted so that was his way to celebrate our nation’s independence. In July, I played a lot more tennis and explored Colorado with my family. We went to The Inventing Room, saved a bunny from our window well, and Allyson and I won a couple of tournaments. I also visited one of my best friends from school in California. We had a lot of fun. 🙂
August: We celebrated my dad and aunt’s birthday as well as Marty’s tenth birthday and then shortly after Marty’s birthday, he passed away. 🙁 I still miss him so much. If I’m being totally honest, I’ve struggled more than I thought I would with his loss. Beside that, I started my sophomore year of school and we also made a trip to Farmington to see my grandpa, aunt, and uncle before school started. My family and I also went and saw Anastasia in August and it was a beautiful show.
September: My dad and mom went to New Mexico for my dad’s high school reunion and while that was happening, I was in full study mode already. Organic chemistry and physics were an intense combo! Despite our distance, we also celebrated my uncle’s birthday. 🙂
October: I turned 20! We also celebrated my grandma’s birthday. My family and I went to Phil Collins’ concert when he was in town and I also competed in the Miss Colorado USA pageant.
November: My family and I went to the Denver Art Museum for a project Allyson needed to work on. Early in November, my grandpa passed away too. 🙁 It was tough and still is tough to deal with his death. Over Thanksgiving break, we went to New Mexico for Thanksgiving at my great aunt’s house and we also celebrated my grandpa’s life at his memorial service. My sister and I had the honor of speaking at it. We also visited the Salmon Ruins while in New Mexico. This year, one of the things that I truly took to heart is that family is the most important thing to me. I don’t know who I would be or where I would be without them.
December: The last few days of 2019. We spent Christmas at home this year and it was different, but it was good. We had my great aunt’s famous cheesy potatoes on Christmas morning and that was fun. Different, but fun. We also went to Gaylord, the new hotel/resort out by DIA and saw their ice display. It was really cool. I’ve enjoyed a lot of time with family while I’ve been home since winter break started and I finished strong with my sophomore season at CSU.
So that was my year! I know there are still a couple of days, but I felt like reflecting on 2019 now was a good idea. This year sucked in a lot of ways but it was also an incredible year. There will always be good and there will also always be bad. With every new year, I just remember that and see how I can improve my responses and attitude toward new challenges, obstacles, successes, and downfalls. I hope these last few days, you all spend some time reflecting on 2019 and enjoying the last days of this decade. I’m looking forward to 2020!
I won’t be posting for the next two weeks due to a study abroad I’m doing in Ecuador, so I’ll see you all in the new year when I get back. Have a great week and again, Happy New Year!
What a wonderful winter break it has been! After five weeks at home, I am headed back to school tomorrow. There are no classes tomorrow, but I do want a little bit of time to get settled back in and get all of my textbooks and materials. And in honor of the big “challenge” going around, here’s me in 2009 and 2019. Ten years does fly by! Anyway, here’s a recap of my first college winter break.
Over break, there are a lot of fun things that my family and I did. For one, we spent another great Christmas with family in New Mexico. This year we went to see the luminarias in my grandpa’s neighborhood and those were really pretty. Spending all of that time with family was just really nice and really fun. I always enjoy catching up with my aunt and uncle and sharing all of my accomplishments with my grandpa. We also had our annual Christmas morning breakfast at my great-aunt’s house and that’s always so much fun. The food is always delicious (ESPECIALLY her cheesy potatoes) and the company is always great.
After Christmas, things winded down and we awaited the new year. My sister and I recreated Bob Ross paintings of his painting, “In the Midst of Winter” and that was really fun. Oil paint is so messy, wow! While we did spend plenty of time recreating his painting, we also spent A LOT of time cleaning up the paint from our kitchen table and ourselves. That stuff is hard to clean up, let me tell ya.
In addition to unleashing our inner artists, my sister and I played plenty of tennis. We hit with our dad which is always a great time and I also had the opportunity to hit with some of the ladies at my club. It was refreshing to play against ladies with different playing styles. They challenged me and helped me adapt to become an even more well-rounded and educated tennis player. I’ve really loved growing with tennis, especially over this break. I really do love the sport! Allyson and I also had the opportunity to attend an open court at Denver Tennis Park, which is a brand new tennis facility right off the University of Denver Campus. We really enjoyed getting to play with other kids and show off our skills.
I also had the opportunity to experiment with some stuff for my modeling. I am truly interested in pursuing modeling, even if I do not take it on as my full-time job. Recently, my sister helped me take a few new pictures and send some of my stuff off to new agencies. I’m excited to see what comes from these opportunities and how I continue to grow as a person from all of this.
My sister and I also dogsat over both of our winter breaks and, oh boy, did that prove to be QUITE the job. Four dogs in one small house can sure make a BIG mess. We did enjoy our time with the four dogs, but oh my goodness, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to step foot in that house again. The male dogs fought frequently and it was a stressful situation to be in a lot of the time my sister and I went over to check on the dogs. Like I said though, we really enjoyed being able to help our neighbors out and I’m glad that all of the dogs are happy and healthy!
And just like that, my winter break was over. Another Christmas and New Year celebration flew by and I now sit here writing this blog about how I go back to school tomorrow. Back to the grind! Have a good week everyone. 🙂
Christmas 2018 is coming in quick! I tend to leave these posts a bit shorter just because the holidays are always a busy time and this year, my family and I procrastinated BIG TIME. I still have so much shopping to do for my family and our neighbors. AH. It’s fine. Anyway, I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy holidays. I hope that you all enjoy time with family and friends.
Let’s all make sure to remember the reason for the season and remember that this time of year is not about the gifts even though that does make the season much more fun. It’s more important to give during the holidays and make memories with family and friends. Thanks again to all of you for taking time to read my blog and check out my website. I really appreciate you being here and can’t wait to see where this next year takes us all! Once again, I hope your Christmas 2018 is wonderful. Have a great day! 🙂
The holidays are upon us, and I feel like every year, Christmas especially, becomes more and more commercialized. Businesses and companies press on people to buy this and buy that. There are pre-Christmas sales and after-Christmas sales, and I understand that these places have to make money, but society has absorbed the idea that gift-buying and money spending are the best ways to have a good holiday season. This, I think is wrong.
To me, the holidays, especially Christmas, are about being with family. Since I was born, my family goes to New Mexico to spend time with cousins, my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents. We’ve always been to my great-aunt’s Christmas morning breakfast, and we always spend the morning with family that we don’t see all year. That’s really special and really important to me.
The holidays are also about making new memories with the people I spend time with. Every winter break, I know a lot of kids take that time to sleep and catch up on their games and spend time away from everything. While that isn’t always a bad thing, I believe that it’s important to make the most out of the time we have with others when we have it. My sister and I spent time together training our bird, going to the mall, and messing around at our grandpa’s house. I enjoyed long conversations with my aunt and uncle and grandpa while in New Mexico. Some people in our lives won’t always be in our lives, and it’s crucial to take time to be with them and make the most of that while you can.
The holidays are also a time for being outside in the cold, winter air, taking time to be in the snow and if there’s no snow (@Colorado SO FAR THIS WINTER), just the cold. Personally, I love snow and the cold and in case you didn’t know, winter is my favorite season. Going for walks with the fresh, crisp winter air is one of the most refreshing and wonderful things. Watching snow fall and seeing snowflakes melt on the warm sidewalk or on the car window is beautiful to me. Being out throwing snowballs at my sister or chasing Marty and Boo through the snow is so much fun.
I know that we all have our different religions and traditions and ways of spending the holidays, and this is what it means to me. To those of you going through finals week, I wish you the best of luck. To those of you on break already, you’re so lucky. I wish you all a very Happy Holidays and best wishes in 2018!
Every year for the past few Christmases, my family has done a left-right gag gift game. The idea is to pass wrapped gag gifts around a table with your family or friends according to directions of a special story. Usually my sister and I find one on the Internet, but this year I forgot to find one before we left, so my sister and I decided to make one ourselves. It included family members, was definitely not a true story, and I thought it was pretty cute. Gag gift games are great for small get-togethers with family and friends. Here’s our story…
The Christmas Adventure
Christmas was RIGHT around the corner and it was time for the family to get together again. Gary’s gang packed up their things and LEFT Broomfield and Jan and John LEFT RIGHT at ten to go to Farmington to see Grandpa. The minute Grandpa heard they were coming he jumped for joy, put on his Christmas boxers, and ate his Cheerios RIGHT away. When he jumped for joy, he noticed a very special smell coming from the floor. Peppy LEFT a little gift for him that morning. Grandpa wanted the mess to be cleaned up before anyone arrived. On the way to Farmington, Gary made a LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT LEFT LEFT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT RIGHT LEFT LEFT and then another LEFT to get there. John made a wrong turn in Cuba, instead of turning LEFT he turned RIGHT. John and Jan had no idea where they were so they stopped at Mrs. RIGHTS bed and breakfast to ask for directions. When they asked Mrs. RIGHT for directions to Farmington, she replied, “you take a LEFT at the stoplight and then another LEFT five miles down the road. Make sure you get that RIGHT or else you will be lost.” Before they LEFT, John asked if she had any cookies. Mrs. RIGHT responded by saying, “I have a huge jar LEFT, you can have them.” John thanked Mrs. RIGHT and LEFT with Jan to get to Farmington. Finally, Grandpa had the house looking just RIGHT and that’s when everybody arrived. Peppi greeted Marty and Boo with a big bark of disappointment and Boo returned the greeting, a couple of times, with a snarl, and a big jump at her face. Marty LEFT the area to greet Grandpa, Jan, and John with a wag of his poofy tail and a big bark. Jan prepared a big meal and by the time everyone finished all their food, they had no room LEFT for the cookies from Mrs. RIGHT. So they decided to leave the cookies for Santa on Christmas. The family played games including a RIGHT-LEFT, hide and seek, and how much stuff can be fixed in Grandpa’s house in one visit. Finally, Christmas came and Boo continued to bark. Grandma Luba was the first one to wake up and dashed to the living room where Gary and Inna slept with Ana and Allyson. She was so excited she jumped RIGHT on top of Inna to wake her up. Gary woke up after hearing the commotion and shot RIGHT up out of bed thinking that there was a robber in the house. Inna assured him that everything was alRIGHT. Allyson snored on with everything going on and Ana awoke to the sound of the dogs barking. Grandpa pranced into the living room with his Christmas tunes playing full blast. He was ready to open presents and spend time with the family. Jan and John went dashing into the kitchen to see if Mrs. RIGHT’S cookies were eaten by Santa. Sure enough, there weren’t any cookies LEFT and there was a little note to the entire family on the table. It read, “Thanks for the cookies, those were just RIGHT! Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you had a good night. You’ve all been real good so here are some gifts. John, I’ve got a cool sleigh, if you ever need a lift.” With the nice note read, Allyson woke up and everyone gathered in the living room to open gifts. Ana got the RIGHT kind of ankle brace for Christmas and Allyson received the only Adam Lambert CD LEFT in the world. Gary got an array of bananas and nuts and Inna got the vacuum cleaner of her dreams. Grandma Luba got a nice electric blanket to keep her just RIGHT in the cold weather. Marty and Boo received new squeaky toys for being extra good boys this year. RIGHTfully so! Jan, John, and Grandpa were the only three LEFT. Grandpa was so excited to see what Santa LEFT him this year. Was it a stay-at-home handyman? More Cheerios? A sweater for Peppi? No it was a life-size poster of John Boehner! Grandpa had never been more confused about a Christmas gift. Peppi received a fancy, shmancy treadmill to get on the RIGHT track with her weight. When Jan opened her big box, she cried ’til she had no tears LEFT. It was the Crockpot 3000, the best of the best in crockpots. John had to go outside for his gift, which was the newest and most amazing John Deere tractor of all time. The family played more games, ate LEFTovers, laughed, and had a wonderful time with what was LEFT of their time together. When it was time to go, everyone said their goodbyes to Gary, the girls, and the dogs and then they LEFT. About fifteen minutes after they LEFT, Grandpa got a call. Ana LEFT her crutches at the house and needed them RIGHT away! John offered to take the crutches to Aztec to meet up with Gary, and then drove off to quickly deliver the crutches. The crutches were delivered and when John returned, Jan and John LEFT to get home to Belen. When everyone was gone, Grandpa looked down at Peppi and told her, “That visit was just RIGHT. I can’t wait to do that again.”
Spending time with the RIGHT people and having a good time with them is really great. You eat until you have no room in your stomach and you laugh until you have no air LEFT. You make good memories that will last with you forever. Am I RIGHT?
