Merry Christmas!

It has been a few years since we made the trek to Utah for Christmas, so we decided to do it again this year. Once again, we were blessed with amazing weather all the way there and only ran into a bit of snow coming back - all in all an uneventful drive, just the way we like it.

We spent the whole week with the Hamblins, and with the exception of a few moments (kids throwing up and a little Cheney drama) we had a great time. Sure wish we didn't live so far away from each other!

 Making sugar cookies!

We also spent a couple of days over at Weldon and Julies house - Christmas day for a yummy dinner and the next day for pizza and a movie. It was so great being surrounded by all of our family! We love them a lot.

 

Our Pre-Christmas Party

Since we were going to be out of town for Christmas, we got together with all our favorite peeps the weekend before to have a celebration and exchange gifts. We had such a great night together eating and hanging out! I love these people!

 

Chrome Molly at HD Hotspurs

The big Christmas gig was a blast. Getting all decked out for the holiday was super fun, and you know me, I love to dance all night long! I wasn't super impressed with the restaurant but it was still a fun night.

Chome Molly at Gonzos Sports Bar

Well, I was involved with my first bar fight this weekend. Was I in the fight? No! But I had to break it up. Here is the sum-up version of what happened.

I was talking to a gal I had just met that night, he boyfriend is an old friend of Aaron's and played a song with the band. As we were talking a drunk girl jumped up on stage and started using Debbie as a stripper pole and you could tell Debbie wasn't quite sure how to hand the situation. Kristie (the gal I was talking to) was pretty disgusted by the whole thing and we were talking about it.... well, the girl on stage saw her point at her and it was obvious that she was talking about her.... nuff said.

It was a pretty intense situation for about 5 minutes, until a hit was swung and the bouncer finally decided to waddle his fat ass over to see what was going on. Ya, thanks! Where were you 10 minutes ago when said drunk girl jumped up on stage to begin with?!

At least I have a good story to tell now.

On a more happy note, the band played great! They were all really on, the crowd was very responsive and it was a fun night. I had a blast! It is SO fun for me to see Aaron have so much fun with this band and following his passion! I'm very proud of him.

A Victorian Christmas

Mom and I did our annual visit to the Victorian Christmas bizarre. It really helps kick me into the Christmas spirit to surround myself with so much Christmasness ;o) Music, decorations, Santa, shopping - it's just awesome. I think I wear her out whenever we go, but I think she goes home happy.

I found some really fun treasures this year that I am excited to give people for gifts. One of the things I love so much about going is most of the vendors there are local, small businesses. A lot of the stuff is hand-made things, and I just love to see the creativity that other people have! I also am a HUGE advocate of supporting the local economy when I can... I know what it's like to try to have your own local business so I try to support that as much as possible.

This cute little Christmas moose and snowman were gifts to me from mom. She kind of spoils me some times, but I won't allow  her to do it too much. As a matter of fact, she told me she was buying them for herself, cause she knows that, and then gave them to me as I was getting ready to leave the stinker. But, they are so cute I have forgiven her! I LOVE them and can't wait to get the decorations up and incorporate them in! (Decorations are going up late this year because I am waiting for Jess to get home to do it together).

I had a great time spending the day with mom and wandering around the bizarre. It's one of the things I look forward to every year.

Chrome Molly at Baxter's

Aaron's gig this week was clear up in Mill Creek, which is quite a drive for us (the better part of an hour). That, in and of itself, isn't too bad - ya go where the money is - but I honestly didn't think it was all that. 

The bar was clean and nice, but the staff was cold and uninviting. The didn't give you free soda, or even free refills: it was $2.50 a glass! They had a long list of "rules" the band had to follow and the clientele was.... shall we say, interesting. There were a couple of girls that jumped up on one of the speaker cabs and started dirty dancing up there: all they needed to complete the routine was a pole, and yes, it was that bad.

The dance floor was nice and big though, which is more than I can say for a lot of places. I usually love to dance, but this particular night there was a guy sitting on the side oogling all of the girls and I wasn't about to become one of them: like I said, interesting clientele. 

I guess they can't all be wonderful places, but at least we had to dive 50 minutes to get there and finally got into bed around 3:30 a.m. Wonder how many years we can keep that up?

Black Friday

Jess and I really look forward to our Black Friday morning. It has become something we look forward to almost as much as Thanksgiving itself. Not so much for all the "shopping deals" that are out there, but just as some girl time. Shopping, breakfast and pictures with Santa - who could ask for a better day with a better friend?!

 

Jess Is 19

I got Jess home safe and sound for her birthday, but it was so late that I was really glad we decided to have her party for her the following day! All of her best friends were there and it was great to see her surrounded by them again. We ate a lot, played games and had a great time visiting.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!

Getting Jess

Jess called me worried that she was not going to be able to get home for the Thanksgiving holiday. The pass was a mess, and all she has is the little Sentra to drive - that definitely would never make it over the pass with all of the restrictions. Well, I needed to get new tires and chains for the Pathfinder anyway, in preparation for our drive this Christmas, so now is as good as time as any.

I spent all morning getting the car ready. I always go to the Big O' Tires next to our house for all of our tire needs. They were SO good to me on this day. I explained what was going on and he got me in right away, had new tires on my car in less than an hour, and sold me a set of chains he had sitting in the back for $20! Can you  believe it?! They definitely have won my ultimate loyalty.

Then off I went. It took me three hours to get to Jess: normally this drive takes just under two hours. It was quite a mess up there, but I made it unscathed.

Here's what the pass looked like - not too horrible, and very doable with my wonderful 4WD. (I LOVE my car!) It was Jess's birthday, and this was my birthday present to her.

We took off right away to try to get over the pass again before it closed. We didn't take off quite fast enough. We got stuck in Cle Elum for an hour due to avalanche control closures. I got a little bite to eat and then we just sat, and sat and sat. UGH!! Once the pass did reopen, it was SO slow going. It took me 5 HOURS to get the girls home - and the roads really weren't even that bad. I never even had to put my car into 4WD the entire time, there are just a lot of really stupid people out there I guess.

But 10 hours later, with new tires on the car and chains in the back for this Christmas, I had the girls safe and sound at home.

Happy Birthday to you Jess!

The Museum of Rip Off

I'm trying to spend some more time with my mom and have decided to go on an adventure with her once a month - outside of shopping and regular activities. For November we decided to check out the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Mom loves glass so I thought it would be perfect, so we got together, had some lunch and headed out.

$12 - that's how  much it costs to get into the museum - per person.... plus $5 for parking. Okay, no big deal. That's about how much museums cost so it's cool. We payed and immediately headed right to the first exhibit.

We first came to a room with really large glasses (this one was my favorite). They were all about 5-7 feet tall and probably around a dozen of them. Interesting. Next, a room full of paper weights. Pretty, but I made something similar in shop class in Jr. High.  

The room took a turn and there was a wall with..... wait for it..... glass punctuation marks on it. You heard correctly! A wall with just punctuations marks. Um, okay?

The next room was actually pretty amazing, and the best thing we had seen so far. An entire winter scene made out of etched glass hanging from the ceiling. We looked at this for a while. It was very beautiful, extremely artful and very peaceful. I loved it!

Then back out on the other side. Well, that was fun! It took us about 20 minutes at best to look at all of the pieces. Cool, lets see what else there is.... looking around..... I looked at mom, "Do you see where we go from here"?...couldn't figure it out, so I finally just went up to the front desk and asked for a map and where else we were suppose to go..... "That's it. There is some pieces outside, and a glass blowing demonstration in 20 minutes, but that's the whole exhibit", said with a smile on his face. I think his smile was coming from the look of shock and dismay on my face..... Really?! I just paid $30 for my mom and I to get in there and that was it!!! Were you really being serious with me?! Glass punctuation marks and paper weights?! That's what you got for me?

Well, at least the company was good I guess. We are gonna do something way more cool than that next month. I think we'll go to the bakery to watch the buns rise - at least then it will smell good.

Poker Night

We are just party animals this weekend! It was really fun, however, being able to actually go to parties with a husband instead of having to be by myself while he is the entertainment.

Dave and Michelle (Dave is the band drummer) had a poker/wine night. All of the guys played Texas Hold-Um while the girls sat and drank wine. Well, Jess and I don't drink so we brought a case of diet Pepsi and knocked down a few of those each ;o)

Aaron was totally kicking trash and taking home the bootie until the game just got too long for him. At that point he just started making crazy bets to get out of the game. As it turned out he came in third, so he won the $10 back he put in. At least he broke even.

Jensen's Anniversary

 

The Jensen's had their 22nd wedding anniversary on 11-11-11. What better excuse to have a party?! Since they got married in 1989 they decided to have an 80's party. Everyone was to "Come as your 80's selves".... or at least your interpretation of the 80's, so Jess came as an 80's me ;o) lol!

We had a lot of fun going back in time, visiting with friends, and making new ones.

I Love Fall

Since I have moved my office into a much roomier area, I now have a huge window to look out every day. It's so amazing to sit here, while working, and enjoy the beautiful world. I just love all of the different seasons: fall is so beautiful, and though I am sad to have cold weather (especially since we really didn't even get a summer) I can't help be completely mesmerized by the beautiful colors!

This is the view from my desk at the moment, and it is distracting me from working: I can't quit staring out the window at how beautiful it is out there!

Hunter's Moon

 

We had the most beautiful moon tonight. I was sitting here in my office looking at it when I thought.... hmm, I'm gonna play with my camera and see what I can get. The cool part? I kid you not! While I was out taking some shots a coyote howled in the background. How cool is that?!! 

Halloween Party 2011!!

Everyone who knows me well knows that Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. I just love the creativeness of the whole thing and the fact that you can just act like a kid and it's excepted as normal for a short time. We had a blast this year, as usual: I just wish more of my family would participate, and that the rest of them would be closer to be able to, but we had fun anyway!

 

While I decorated the house and did last minute food preparations the "kids" went outside and carved our mini-jacks. I love to put these around the house with tea lights in them.

 

 

We, of course, started out with our annual pot luck dinner at the house with a few friends. We didn't have as many people this year as past years, and many had to leave early due to other commitments, but we had fun despite the low numbers. 

 

 

After a few hours a lot of us headed out to Jack's for the Chrome party. I had a blast dancing all night long while Aaron rocked the guitar up on stage. I was able to get up and play a couple of songs with them as well and it was SO fun!! What a great night!!!!!

That costume of Aaron's sure took me a long time, but it turned out amazing and he rocked it perfectly all night long. That's my man!

and then me!!!! ;p