Merry Christmas to All

As Christmas Day winds down, I had to take a minute to memorialize it.  Will came into our room at 5:00 a.m and we managed to get him to doze until 6:00, at which point Little Sister woke up, I started breakfast, Grandma and Pop-pop came upstairs and Christmas morning officially began.  Uncle Matt and Aunt Vicky and Ainsley came over a little later with delicious brunch fixings and we had a fun morning unwrapping presents.  Ainsley even joined UncGenn and Bobo in a Nerf Gun battle.  I should've taken pictures of that. Instead, here's a few highlights from the day.  

Christmas Eve, actually.  The sibling affection was probably for Santa's benefit.  

Coco doesn't care what Santa thinks.  She just wants to smack ornaments off of the tree.  

Christmas morning!  Reina wanted a skateboard for Christmas but I thought she should practice her skills on a scooter first. Luckily, she was pretty excited about it.  Who knew a scooter was such a great inside toy?  At least we have lots of hardwood floors.  

Coco says thanks for all of the toys everybody, but I prefer this cardboard box.  

It's Broncos Boy!  

Reina's eclectic crowd of Barbies got a new beach house.  That is also being overrun by Shopkins.  Don't ask. 

Christmas tradition!  Glenn putting toys together.  Not Legos this year (yet), but Star Wars Micromachines. 

This is a short and woefully incomplete summary of our really nice day but it's snowing outside, the stove is pumping out some heat and there's a new Broncos blanket downstairs with my name on it.  Merry Christmas!

Winter wonderland and Coco's trip to the vet

It's 8 days before Christmas and we have about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  My to-do list is filled with things like Christmas cards, cookies and last minute gifts.  It's beginning to look a lot like Dec. 25

 

I got my upper body workout in this morning shoveling through the drift that blankets our front walk.  Might need to rethink some of the trees we have planted that help Mother Nature deposit snow right where the UPS guy needs to walk to our front door.  Trigger wasn't very helpful.  

A cat-in-the-car selfie.  A calfie?  For the record, I obeyed all relevant traffic laws.  She and I arrived at the vet's office a bit early - it was my defensive move to avoid having to explain to Coco why she wasn't being fed first thing in the morning.  While we waited for the doors to open, we took pictures.  Some of us looked at the camera.   

Coco had a little procedure yesterday that will ensure we don't have any little Coco's running around the house, in case she gets out and gets a boyfriend.  She came through the surgery just fine, a detail that most people could probably care less about but as a bonafide catperson now, I feel obligated to record it.  I had to pick her up early because the vet's office was closing early due to the snow.  She was still a little woozy and drugged up as a result and we had a meow-filled ride home.  Right now she's getting back to normal but I'll be honest, we are all probably enjoying a night of a less-than-usually-wild Coco.  While it lasts.

Two weeks until Christmas, what?

So blogging is taking a backseat to all of the other wonderful holiday stuff that's going on right now and I say that with only a touch of sarcasm and stress.  I'm trying to hard to slow down and enjoy this crazy month but we've had an event or sports practice practically every night since December 1 and Bronco Baby Mom is just trying to keep her sanity together.  So here's a few highlights from the past week.  

Cousins sharing a little snack and some cartoon time. 

Reina's program was earlier this week. I was sitting in a spot that was far enough back that I couldn't get very many pictures and I also tried to just enjoy her performance without trying to record all of it. To give a short recap, Reina was delightful. She loves events like this one. She knows all the words to the songs, remembers all the choreography and expresses herself with glee. It's one of my favorite parts of this time of year.

She was a hip hop elf in this song.  Naturally.

 Have I mentioned how much Coco likes the Christmas tree?  I'm too tired to go open up a new window and read previous posts but suffice it to say that kitty cat loves the Christmas tree.  If she's not lying on Will's backpack or underfoot in the kitchen, chances are she's under the tree.  Along with most of the ornaments from the lower branches but hey cats get to have Christmas fun, too.

Need to work on my focus but there she is.  

Camouflaged cat who wishes she was a bobcat.  

 One more highlight from the week.  We've been listening to Christmas songs on the radio as we run errands and after hearing "Santa Baby," Will pointed out that that song is probably Mrs. Claus' least favorite Christmas song because the singer is too flirty with Santa.  Point well taken. 

A week in just a few pictures

Well the last week blew my post-once-a-day right out of the water.  It's officially the Christmas season and between decorating and cleaning and swim practices and basketball and volleyball and shopping and blahblahblah, I'm swamped.  But the first week of December has been a good one and there are a few people at this house who are very excited for the coming weeks.  The Advent Calendar gets Reina out of bed every morning better than any alarm clock and Coco's new favorite hangout spot in the house is right under the Christmas tree.  I thinks she's part bobcat.  

The weather was warmer this week but when I took this picture last Saturday, it was a chilly night, about 7 degrees or something close.  Cold enough to justify snuggling up to the back of a bird dog and cold enough for the bird dog not to mind.  

On Sunday night, Will and I went to Denver for the Broncos game against New England.  I think the temperature was 19 at kick-off and it dropped a few more degrees while we were there.  We were bundled up pretty good but we still got chilly.  Will was a trooper and we had a great time.  Full disclosure, we left in the middle of the third quarter so we missed the big Broncos comeback and win (!!!) but it was still a fun night.  

Obligatory blurry Broncos selfie.  He's my good luck charm.  

 So here's Coco's new favorite toy.  We accidentally bought a smaller tree this year.  I say 'accidentally' because I really thought it would look bigger when we brought it inside, but I should've been tipped off when I noticed Glenn could carry it into the house with one hand.  But it's a pretty little tree and smells very Christmas-y and Coco looooooooves it.  Right after we set it up, she started racing around the base and jumping up and down and then she curled up underneath. Since we added the ornaments, she thinks its great fun to see how far she can smack an ornament off of the branches.  I'll have more pictures of the decorated tree later but let's just say that this year's tree is mostly devoid of those pretty glass balls and all of the other delicate ornaments are situated up at the top (she hasn't tried to climb it.  Yet.)

Tootsie policing the cat.  

Let the holidays begin!