Month: December 2014

December To Dos

LaurenLeave a comment

Okay, okay, I’m eight days late, but I’ve been busy decorating every empty space of our house with Christmas stuff (this house WILL BE a winter wonderland), watching Fitz & the Tantrums “get down” at the Boulder Theater (best entrance ever!) and eating soup (maybe two pots full was too much…), so this December To Do list is just coming now.

As much as I rag on winter, December really is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the holiday season and all the coziness, glitz and family time that comes along with it.  And as a Type A routine-follower, I love the traditions that come with the holiday season.  This December, I’m definitely sticking to those traditions, but hoping to add in a few new things too 🙂

KBCO Studio C

Ah, the unofficial kick off to December!  Everything about this tradition (except the part where my mom claims it’s her last year to attend) makes my heart so happy.  They handed the CDs out at all 20 CO Whole Foods locations this year so we got fun samples while we waited in line, plus it was 36 degrees and I’ll totally take that over last year’s 0 degrees.  We stood in line behind a man who had all 25 (26 now!) CDs and used to get in line a 3 AM.  Wowza!

Get a new December look.

As in I’m having my hair cut and dyed today!  I want to give this whole long hair thing a chance, but we’re gonna need some layers or something because long hair is heavy!  And a new hair color is always a fun way to change things up.

Go to the Parade of Lights

We always plan on going to the parade but two years ago, we got stuck in traffic and missed it and last year we chickened out because it was freezing.  This year was pleasantly mild, and after getting to see the penguin balloon limbo under the traffic lights, Hannah, Josh, Joey and I walked ourselves to Machete where Joey proceeded to order a shark taco…

Go to a holiday show

I can always count on my mother-in-law for this one.  This year, she got us all tickets to Jersey Boys at the Buell and I cannot wait.  I love going to the theater and seeing everyone all dressed up in their holiday best, plus there’s dinner afterwards.  Yes!  Also, Joey has some sort of surprise show later in the month that I’m so so excited about.

Cookie Baking Sesh

Save for Jersey Boys, we have nothing planned next weekend, so I’m thinking a cookie baking day is in order.  My mom makes Cocoons every Christmas so I think I can blame thank her for the whole “It’s not Christmas without cookies” mentality I have.  I already told her I’d trade her half of whatever I make for half of her Cocoons.

Host Christmas Eve

Okay, I had really thought we’d do Thanksgiving at our house this year but after realizing that’d be a lot of people in a very small space, we stuck to the separate celebrations 😦  Christmas Eve however, should be a much smaller group, so it’s official, we’re hosting!  Joey doesn’t seem to want to obsess about the menu fifteen days out like I do though!

All the Christmas movies

We kicked off the Christmas movie season this weekend with some Christmas Vacation.  I’m usually not the biggest fan, but I felt like watching it for some reason.  Joey pulled Elf, The Holiday, Love Actually, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, The Santa Clause and Scrooged out of the basement so I think we’re set for the rest of the month.

Read A Christmas Carol

Okay, yeah, I’m probably weird for wanting to read things like Wuthering Heights (which I finished last night) and Charles Dickens, but I’ve never read A Christmas Carol and thought it’d make for a fun December read.

Donate the clothes and books I’ve cleaned out recently

Pretty self-explanatory.  Let’s not get into that part where I’ve had a bag full of books I had to buy for college in the trunk of my car… FOR THREE YEARS.  I just recently cleared a few off my book shelf so I should probably take all of those to the library to donate.

Start a Christmas morning tradition with Joey.

Last year was the first year in our history as a couple that we didn’t have anything to do or anywhere to be.  It was oddly relaxing.  Instead, we lounged in our pajamas, made waffles and watched a movie.  I’m thinking this could be a new tradition for us to carry on 🙂

I’ll refrain from adding things like “get new glasses” or “dust my shelves” because that’s probably boring, but I really should do those things too…

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Recently:

Christmas Light Happiness / Fitz & the Tantrums in Boulder / Major Waddles Limbo / Parade of Lights / Shark Taco / Studio C with Mom / Post-Studio C Sustenance / Mistletoe / Nog! 

 

 

Thanksgiving Highlights Reel

LaurenLeave a comment

I fully intended on writing a Thanksgiving Day post and a separate Thanksgiving Weekend post, but I was too busy loving every minute of Thursday through Sunday that that plan kind of slipped through my hands.  Whoops!

Anyway, it’s official.  Thanksgiving Weekend (or from Wednesday at 3 PM when I left work until Sunday at 11 PM) is my favorite time of the year.  Trumping Christmas, my birthday and Memorial Day Weekend even.  Maybe it’s because I’m all about tradition and I can always rely on running a Turkey Trot with Joey, a perfectly cooked turkey from my mother-in-law, my mom’s stuffing, lots of family love, a post-Thanksgiving hangout with Hannah and Josh and tons of lounging on the couch, but I just can’t help but love every single second of Thanksgiving and the weekend that follows.

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We left work around 3 on Wednesday, picked up some wine then headed home to cook for Thursday.  I made an obnoxiously organized list of our tasks (if that doesn’t scream control freak, I don’t know what does…) and I don’t think the whole process could’ve gone any smoother.  Oh, by the way, grating the frozen butter into my biscuits worked awesomely!

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As always, we ran a Turkey Trot Thursday morning.  I made us some green smoothies for breakfast and threw in a good amount of peanut butter.  I think Joey’s exact words upon taking his first sip were “Oooo, me run fast!” so I’ll assume that means he liked the peanut butter addition.  When I first looked up Thanksgiving on the 10-day forecast it was snowy with a high of 20 degrees but at some point it changed to partly cloudy and 60 degrees.  Uh yeah, that’s definitely an improvement.  Except for the part where the track was way too small for the amount of runners, the race was really great.

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Lori aced the turkey again this year.  How does she do it?!  And I got to drink some of the wine we brought home from France!  Afterwards, we all settled onto the couch for some football (or more like me checking Instagram every 2 minutes to see what all the Food Network stars I follow were cooking…) and some serious relaxation time.  Because I know the celebration with my family is going to be a little louder, I’m always grateful for a laid back first half of the day 🙂

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Later, at Chez Dorsey, Joey watched the Cowboys game with such enthusiasm, mom set out appetizers, I popped open the wine, my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew showed up and then we dug into meal #2.  My mom had her turkey spatchcocked (or butterflied) this year.  She’s so trendy!  It looks kind of freaky, huh?  A few days earlier, I asked Joey if I could just put a tiny bit of everything on my plate, then fill the rest of the space with stuffing.  I was only kind of kidding.  She also made a chocolate cream pie and it was to die for!

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It’s possible I love the day after Thanksgiving just as much as actual Thanksgiving Day.  We walked over to get coffee then plopped ourselves on the couch to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I swear I know less and less of the performing artists every year.  I will say that it was a weird combination of pity and laughter every time someone slipped and fell during a band performance.  Also, one kid’s helmet fell over the front of his face and he had to leave it like that!  Poor kid.

That night, we headed to the newly renovated Union Station downtown for dinner with Hannah and Josh.  The only pre-reno experience I’d had at Union Station was when I accidentally got on the wrong bus and ended up there (let’s not discuss that), but wow, it is awesome in there.  Restaurants, a swanky bar, pretty Christmas decorations and tons of people.  We ate at The Kitchen Next Door then watched the “Grand Illumination,” which conveniently ended up being minutes after we walked out of the restaurant.  Afterwards, we took H&J to Denver Beer Co. Canworks for beer (obviously) and a private tour then ended the night at another brewery down the street.  We live in a pretty cool neighborhood 🙂

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I wish I could pretend Saturday and Sunday weren’t mainly comprised of our couch and Gilmore Girls, but that would be dishonest.  I guess we did also take out the Christmas decorations (twinkle lights are up!!!), kegged our beer, watched What If (I like Daniel Radcliffe so much more when he’s not Harry Potter), went out to Sunday breakfast, went to yoga (okay that was just me) and watched more Gilmore Girls.

And thus ends my favorite weekend of the year.  How was yours?!