Festivities: Part I

Awhile back, Josh and I had a conversation about holiday decor.

Me: Would it look stupid if I made snowflakes and taped them to our big window?

Josh: Who cares, as long as that's what you like?

With this lesson in place about being true to myself and my holiday decor desires and Josh's implied endorsement of this plan, I went to work on my first real holiday-decorating adventure.  (I mean, at my home.  I didn't execute this craft project in my office.)  First, I practiced.  I folded up pieces of notebook paper and chopped away.  That's when I remembered that I still could only make eight-point snowflakes, instead of the six points that snowflakes have in real life.  I tried folding the paper less and ended up with the saddest four-point snowflake/square you'll ever see.  

That's when I googled "how to make a six-point snowflake" and learned, much to my relief, that this is a common problem for snowflake artists - and an easily remedied one at that.  Armed with my new folding technique, I got out my plain white paper and buckled down for the final drafts.

It got messy.  Real messy.

Um...the nail polish was not part of the production.  It was just there.

And then it got messier, once I moved to the other couch/workspace in our living room.  I laid all of the snowflakes in between books to flatten them, so the floor was fully occupied by books and many thousands of snowflake remnants. (Side note: after my long run on Sunday, I opened the front door and saw that Josh had cleaned up the entire explosion of little white pieces of paper, and the living room was pristine.  Ahhh.)

Then I got the idea in my head that we should have white lights around the window to give the snowflakes a nice glow.  Once I taped them up carefully, Josh secured the lights with little clips to keep them in place.  

Voila!  Well, oops.  I'm not quite done yet, but here's the "3/4 complete" large view:

Rats!  Don't notice the tree yet!  That's coming up later this week.

Look up close instead:

 

Anyway, I love the lights and the snowflakes, and the whole to-do reminded me that snowflake-making is a tremendous amount of fun - the perfect blend of mindless and creative.  If this seems remotely appealing to you, I highly recommend it this holiday season.

What about you, Reader?  Are you trying anything new this month, decorating or otherwise?

Football and a peep

This morning started out with a run, and I mean a run.  About three inches of snow had fallen overnight, which meant that conditions were perfect for my first YakTrax run of the season. (I was pleased to see almost right away that other runners had the same idea, judging from YakTrax treads on the sidewalks.)  I was out there early enough that people were just starting to come out to shovel, salt and snowblow the sidewalks - and the snow was still clinging to the trees in a really beautiful way.

This meant that it was quiet and peaceful.  It also meant that the run was hard.  There were certainly some cleared sidewalks, but there were a lot of spots where it felt more like running on a beach. 

Ow!  It felt fun and like a boot camp resistance exercise at first, until the novelty wore off and it just was plain old tiring.  The fun part of runs like these, as tiring as it can be to shuffle through the snow, is that there's this element of playing in the snow that pops up periodically during the run (when you least expect it) and I feel like I'm back in school, playing outside at recess.

When I got back, I had to hustle because Josh and I had Vikings-Broncos tickets!  Josh grew up in Colorado, and he is a major lifelong Denver Broncos fan.  Although it is no surprise to readers that I am a diehard baseball and Twins fan, Josh got me into both his team and football in general, and I actually went to my first Broncos game before my first Vikings game.  (This game was my second for both teams!) 

He mentioned last week that he got the tickets, but I don't think I understood how excited he was about the game until I was leisurely puttering around the house post-run, heard keys jingling from the living room, and found him with shoes on, totally ready to go. 

We got to the Metrodome, waded through the billions of people in the concourse and found our seats.  We were in the endzone, a spot from which I've never watched a football game before.  There were a lot of Broncos fans in the house and we were all happy when the Broncos pulled away for the W by kicking a field goal with seconds left in the game!

The game contained lots of material to discuss, especially because I freely admit that my grasp of football is woefully behind my baseball knowledge.  Luckily, because Josh is good at explaining the answers to my questions, games are learning opportunities and not a frustrating three-hour block of me sitting there all "???"  (Today's problem was that I don't understand or appreciate the pass interference penalty.  I guess that's a post for another day.) 

The point is, I enjoyed the game, but the halftime show was what took my breath away.  It featured a short game between a local youth football team versus a team full of mascots.  Take a look at this photo. 

You see the usual suspects of Minnesota mascots - Goldy Gopher, Crunch, Bullseye the Target dog - but then there's the yellow blob in the middle.  What is that?

Oh!  It's a Peep!!!!!!

Obviously, I was captivated.  These mascots and these kids were not kidding around.  The best parts of the game were when the mascots would lunge to tackle someone and all end up in a big pile. 

Actually, no.  I stand corrected.  This was the best part.  Check out the Peep, getting ready to block #52 with all its might.  Looks can deceive.  Peep is all business. BOOM!

It was an amazing halftime show and a great game.

Works in progress

My home is a temporary big pile of Mess, because there is Very Serious Work going on as I type...and everything is mid-project.

Like what, you wonder?

Well, there's this...

...and there's this...

...and there's definitely this:

A full report to come soon!  Happy weekend!

Going back to kindergarten

I saved one of our trip's highlights for Friday!

On Monday morning, Josh and I packed our bags for our flight later in the day and headed back to school - Loco's school, that is.  Loco (Josh's nephew, in case you missed his introduction earlier in the week) had invited us to hang out with his kindergarten class and read to the kids.  After much deliberation, Josh settled on "Meet Babar and His Family" for his reading selection, a book that introduces the seasons in addition to Babar and his crew.  The kids were pretty well-versed on the seasons when Josh polled the class, although one boy did answer "January!" and another "Friday!"  (Friday is my own favorite season.) 

Loco parked himself at the front of the reading area to sit closest to his uncle.

These kids were hilarious and wonderful, and I think their teacher is fabulous, too.  Josh worked his way through the book, pausing to ask questions to connect the kids to Babar's adventures.  The kids paused, too, to raise their hands frantically for their opportunity to ask their own questions.  He fielded "questions" including:

• "My brother plays baseball."
• "I built a snow slide once."
• "My uncle got a boat."

After the reading session concluded, we went outside with them for recess and watched Loco amaze us on the monkey bars.  (That kid is strong!)  Then we went in for lunch.  A $2.25 lunch that includes salad bar and chocolate milk in addition to the meal seems like a pretty good deal to me!  We squeezed into the kid-sized tables and sat with Loco and his class.  Josh and I sat next together, with Loco next to Josh and Loco's best friend next to me.  

His BFF (and I mean it - Loco and this guy are two peas in a pod) and the young lady sitting across from me regaled me the whole time with stories chock full of half-truths.  They also told me all about the phones they wanted for Christmas, and I didn't have the heart to tell them I was 19 by the time I got my first cell phone. Meanwhile, on the other side of Josh, Loco was on cloud nine because he had secured permission earlier in the day to have an extra carton of chocolate milk.

Is it any wonder we were sad to leave?  I could hang out with Loco and his pals all day.

A new month

Oh, Readers!  Thanks for the shout-outs yesterday for successfully wrapping up the month of November with 30 posts for 30 days!  I chose this goal back in late October inspired by my friend Nat, who made a similar resolution several months back and kept right on going with daily posts.  Will I keep the streak alive?  Who knows!  But thanks for reading and commenting and cheering me on.  I also realized on this morning's run that Miles and Laurel celebrated its half-birthday on Friday without any fanfare from me.  (Ugh, that might be the dumbest sentence I've ever tapped out on my keyboard, but whatever.)  In all seriousness, I'm grateful again for Natty nudging me along to get this project up and running!

Anyway, as mentioned, I lugged myself out of my home this morning for a run - possibly my first pre-work morning run since the marathon in October.  A dusting of snow had fallen overnight, which was appreciated at first because it helps my shoes get a better hold on the sidewalk, but then the snow started piling up in the treads by my heel, which makes my heels lift up off the ground and give me an idea of what it feels like to run in high heels.  (Pass, please.)  That makes for prime YakTrax conditions, but I guess my mind was too fuzzy at 6 a.m. to remember that. 

It was dark and early, but the snow on the sidewalks grabbed other footprints and reminded me that I wasn't the first one pounding the pavement:

I want a little creature to run with, too!

I'll wrap up this post by switching gears completely to leave you with another sight from my weekend in Colorado.  There's this taco truck in town that seems to be open 24 hours per day and busy all the time.  I ran by it early in the trip and was instantly curious and then became even more curious after people raved about it during a night out on the town.  At the end of that night, a group of us headed there.  They feature a seriously fabulous mix of traditional Mexican tacos and beloved breakfast burritos. 

On the menu, though, something caught my eye that looked a little bit out of place, even given the wide variety of options:

I guess having kids doesn't have to break the bank after all? Hmm.

On tonight's agenda: buying soup ingredients and massive amounts of cookie-baking supplies, repairing my home, and possibly locating a Christmas tree.  I have a cookie exchange coming up, and I've gotta get ready.