It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Winter

For The Few

I think Christmas shopping would be way less stressful if...
1. I didn't have to ship gifts. Then I could take my time buying them, not worrying about sending them off beginning of December. Also I wouldn't be limited by shape or size.
2. The people I shopped for didn't already buy themselves whatever they want 24/7. Then I could shop year round, without fear of a duplicate gift.

Aside from that, I am looking forward to a fun holiday season. The boys are older, and they can help out more. For example, Elijah put stickers on all the envelopes of the Christmas cards. They both will be able to help with the Christmas cookie cut outs, and hanging of ornaments.

Some Christmas traditions we hope to enjoy are visiting Santa, and going to see Zoo Lights. This year, we hope to take in the Parade of Lights downtown. We'll bundle up, bring our camping chairs, and enjoy the parade.

I can't wait to receive Christmas cards & letters from friends, so I can hear all about how everyone's year has been.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and it will just be the four of us this year. We sent out many offers to share our feast, but everyone left town for the holiday. There will be turkey sandwiches for weeks! It will truly be a time to look on how thankful and blessed we are.

Happy Thanksgiving friends!

In A Christmas Mood

A little Christmas quiz, I hope you'll copy and paste on your blog:

1. Getting kissed under the mistletoe or in the snow?
The snow

2. Santa or Rudolph?
Santa

3. Stocking or presents?
Presents

4. Egg nog or hot cider?
Neither, gimme hot chocolate

5. Angel or Star?
Angel

6. Decorating the tree or putting lights on the outside?
Decorating the tree

7. Warm fires or sleigh rides?
I've never been on a sleigh ride, so warm fire

8. Expensive presents or presents that come from the heart?
From the heart

9. Snow ball fight or snowman?
Snowman

10. Will you be getting coal or presents?
Presents, I hope

11. Giving or Receiving presents?
Giving

12. Open presents quick or slow?
Quick

13. Caroling or Christmas stories?
Caroling

14. Snowy days or icy days?
Snowy

15. Red or Green?
Green

16. Nightmare before Christmas or The Santa Clause?
I'm gonna go with Santa Clause, because it's a little happier

17. Dasher or Dancer?
Dasher

18. Prancer or Vixen?
Prancer

19. Comet or Cupid?
Comet

20. Donner or Blitzen?
Donner

21. Fake tree or Real tree?
Real

22. Prime Rib or Ham?
Ham

23. Red and White Candy Canes or Colorful Candy Canes?
Red and White

24. Get up early or sleep in late?
Early!

25. Old Christmas Movies or New ones?
I like the newer ones

26. The Santa Clause 1 or The Santa Clause 2?
They're both entertaining

27. The Grinch movie or Elf movie?
Elf for sure!

28. Scrooge or Tiny Tim?
Scrooge

29. Ornaments or a Wreath?
Ornaments

30. Christmas Eve or Christmas day?
Christmas Day

Before Christmas:
1. Does your family send Christmas cards?
You bet

2. How soon do you start shopping?
As soon as I can find the right thing

3. Who do you shop for?
Family

4. Do you put up a Christmas tree?
Two, one real, one fake

5. If so, is it fake or real?
Both

Decorations:
6. Do you like tinsel?
I used to love it, but I don't enough to put it up. So we found tinsel icicles that we put up.

7. Do you use homemade or store bought ornaments?
Little of both, mostly store bought

8. Do you put Christmas lights outside your house?
Yes

9. Do you put lights on the tree?
Yes

10. How about popcorn and cranberries?
Nope

11. Is there a wreath hanging on your door?
I wish

Christmas Eve:
13. Do you hang up your stocking?
Yes

14. Does your family read "Twas the night before Christmas?":
Yes

Favorite:
15. Christmas Movie?
Either Elf or The Ref

16. Character from any Christmas Movie?
Ghost Of Christmas Past from Scrooged

17. Christmas Song?
Oh Holy Night (Josh Groban), anything off of Harry Connick Jr's Christmas albums, traditionally, I like Do You Hear What I Hear?

18. Christmas Memory?
My first Christmas as Mrs. Armstrong was good. Last year with the kids. Seeing Colin be so disappointed the year my parents wrapped his gift in a cracker box. The Christmas Day we spent at Disneyland.

This or That:
19. White Lights or Colored Lights?
Colored

20. Blinking Lights or Still Lights?
Both

21. Were you Naughty or Nice this year?
Mostly nice

Presents:
22. What do you want for Christmas this year?
It doesn't matter, it's all good

23. When do you open your gifts?
One on Christmas Eve and then the rest on Christmas Day.

24. What's the best gift you've ever gotten?
Earrings from Geoff, and last year's Wii was pretty cool.

25. What's the worst gift you've ever gotten?
The infamous jar of mints.

26. Have you ever had a secret Santa?
Sure

27. Do you like wrapping gifts?
If they are easy to wrap, yes. I'm not very good, and I used to work at Hallmark.

Random:
28. Do you put change in those red buckets?
Yes

29. Do you burn a yule log?
No

30. Can you name all the reindeer?
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Cupid, Comet, Donner, and Blitzen, and Rudolph. And isn't there an Olive?

31. Do you bake cookies?
Yes

32. Have you ever seen your mommy kissing Santa Claus?
No

33. Have you ever gotten a kiss under the mistletoe?
Yes

34. Do you drive around and look at the Christmas lights?
Yes, I hope someday to have people want to drive by my place.

35. Have you ever left Santa cookies?
Yes

36. Have you ever sat on Santa's lap?
Yes, but not in a long time

37. Who do you celebrate Christmas with?
Usually family

38. Where do you celebrate Christmas?
Lately it's been home

39. Have you ever had a white Christmas?
Almost all my Christmases have been white

40. What part of Christmas do you look most foward to?
The music, the lights, the excitement of the boys

41. Have you ever had your picture taken with Santa?
Sure

42. Does your family always take pictures at Christmas?
It's a tradition

An Open Letter To Will Smith

Dear Mr. Will Smith,

I am thrilled you have decided to visit Denver. I only wish I could be there to greet you tomorrow on the red carpet. I will be at home with my two small children. As a parent, I know you'll understand.

I think it's wonderful that you are coming to support the film festival, but not as wonderful as your kind donation to the Food Bank of the Rockies and the Denver Rescue Mission. Generosity, kindness, devotion to family, and a remarkable talent are the reasons you are one of my all time favorite movie/tv/music stars.

I hope our city treats you well, you are welcome to back anytime. I'd love to sit down and talk with you someday, I'm sure you have a lot of interesting things to say.

Best of luck in all your future projects,
Love Melissa Armstrong

What A Weekend

Friday night, our friend Cristina came over to babysit while Geoff and I headed downtown to take in Night At The Museums. This is the 2nd year (I think) they've done this. Museums stay open late, for free, and you can museum hop. Shuttles were added this year, to make it easier. It was a chilly night, and we only made it to one museum, the Denver Art Museum. We ran into some friends there, and I discovered that I'm not all that crazy about modern art. Most of the pieces left me feeling disturbed, or depressed. There were a few standouts, like Fox Games



And the Houdon exhibit from the Louvre. Next year, I think we'll try to start earlier, and hit the Molly Brown House and the Natural History Museum.

Saturday night, I got the opportunity to attend the Starz Film Festival and see Slumdog Millionaire.



I heard good buzz about it, and it lived up to it. I think it will fare okay around Oscar time. I was the guest of a co-worker of Kelly's, who moved here to Denver with his wife. Back to the movie, it was moving, and at times hard to watch, other times I was laughing out loud. I obviously don't get out to the movies much (this was my 4th this year!), but I would encourage everyone to see it when it opens near you.

I think the one thing I walked away with was how blessed I am, to not have to beg for a living. I had parents, a house, clothes and toys. Seeing children begging and stealing to get by, it's hard to imagine. For me, anyways. I've lead a sheltered life, the "bad side" of Edmonton pales in comparison to the slums of Bombay/Mumbai.

In tv news, Top Chef is back, and there are two cheftestants from Colorado. Whoo! Represent! And are you watching Fringe? Because you should be. I'll close with a quote from it.

Walter: (on the phone) Uh, hello, Peter. This is me, your father. Walter Bishop.
Peter: Thank you, Walter, I know who you are.
Walter: Excellent.

November?

Yeah, it's almost mid-November, and I'm behind on my Christmas schedule. Don't start judging me, I have to mail stuff to Canada, and the mail always takes forever to get the job done. So I like to start early. And I'm behind.

What's been going on? Uh, the usual. Mom stuff, bible study (which I am so not focussed on), and it seems I flucuate every other day on having a pity party. A case of the "maybe I think more highly of my friends than they do of me". Feeling a little neglected from some people I've been trying to reach out to. I'm dealing with it, and putting more energy towards those friends who do make an effort with me.

The days are feeling too long, the weekends with Geoff feel too short. With the kids up at 6-6:30am then going to bed at 7:30 & 8:30, that leaves about an hour alone with my husband before we retire to bed and we start the cycle again. This is why marriage is hard work. :)

Trying to find time to watch movies in that schedule, I have to say we haven't been able to stay awake to achieve that. We do watch tv that we have on the DVR. Like Living With Ed, Dream House, and endless episodes of Arrested Development. But don't feel bad for us, we've got a date on Friday night. God Bless Christina, who is coming down from Boulder to babysit.

I missed my KUCI reunion on the weeekend. I was not able to find a cheap flight out to O.C. Bummer. Maybe next time. All these trips that I miss out on, will hopefully be made up for if we can pull off the trip to Monterey, CA in the spring. It would be lovely to get more visitors here in CO, next year already has the parents (naturally) and probably Athena. We'd like to get back up to Canada for a visit, but the visa situation is unclear, and money for 4 plane tickets is hard to come by.

Lastly, there are hardly words to convey how happy I am the election is over. It was really driving me crazy those last two days with all the phone calls.

Elijah is up, and he wants to watch Shrek, so I'll close with a quote from that.

Donkey: You, uh... you don't entertain much, do you?
Shrek: I like my privacy.
Donkey: Y'know, me too. That's another thing we have in common. I hate it when you've got someone in your face, you try to give someone a hint and they won't leave, and then there's that big awkward silence...
[big awkward silence ensues]
Donkey: ... Can I stay with you?

November Birthdays

Happiest Birthday wishes to Kelly, Chad, Heather, Dylan & Dawn!