Winter Arrives

Christmas arrives in six days, and we've been doing our part to usher it in the past few weeks!  Actually, our first taste of winter came in November when we were blessed with two nights at Bryan's company's condo in Vail.  He didn't tell me much about it before we went - just that it was a little place up in Vail and was open for a few days, so did I want to go...it started snowing as we drove up to the mountains, and when we pulled into the underground garage Bryan told me to go on inside and check it out.  When I opened the door from the garage, I realized that "little condo" was accurate.  IF you're an oversized giant.  For us normal-size folks, "three-story luxury home complete with a projector movie screen, built-in music system, personal hot tub, gourmet kitchen, and board room" was more fitting.  Though we both had to work while we were there, it was a beautiful place to spend a few days and we enjoyed our relaxing getaway.

 

Lots of semis on the way up to Vail were pulled over to put chains on



Nice view on the way up





"Condo" living room



Big screen downstairs



It was still snowing!



The few inches of snow in Vail have been pretty much the extent of snow we've seen so far. In fact, it's sunny sweater-weather out today.  Despite the lack of white stuff, we arrived back from our Thanksgiving travels and got out our Christmas gear.  I'm looking forward to stocking up on after-Christmas sales, but we managed to decorate three trees (two in and one outside) and put a few other decorations around. 





Kristi must deserve TWO stockings this year!



Standing guard by the front door



We've also been to three parties thus far, and Bryan has one more Monday evening.  The Friday before last we went to a gathering at the home of one of Bryan's colleagues in Evergreen.  It did snow there too...so I guess we've seen some, it's just stayed in the mountains so far.  The home was lovely and the party fun...in preparation for next year's gathering, the hosts had everyone write down their guess of what the Dow Jones would be a year from now.  Closest guess at the 2011 party wins "a grand prize."  I later found out from one of the finance guys in attendance that my guess was extremely optimistic.  But hey, I bet everyone will be pulling for me cause who doesn't want the market to go way up? : )

This past Friday we dressed up and headed downtown to the Marriott for the general Denver-area DaVita holiday party.  Santa made an appearance, but the entertainment highlight of the evening was a company-specific version of the 12 Days of Christmas performed by a group of executives.  Then last night we went to a holiday/graduation party for our friend Karin who just received her Master's degree in education.  Most of our small group was there along with various other friends and family, and we had a great time chatting it up.  And laughing.  Which reminds me - those of you who see us over the holidays should make a point to ask Bryan what his second/secret career is...or just ask him to bust out a rap - either one will produce the same story.

At our friend's graduation/Christmas party


The best part about all this is that we still have lots of holiday adventures with friends and family coming up!