The Party Animals

So I'm not sure where my homebody, couch loving parents went because we have been out and about a whole bunch this week.  And by george, we're a little tired because of it!

First stop, the weather.  It has been C.O.L.D. cold here.  This was the low on one of the warmer mornings this week.  Mom broke out her Denver Puffy Coat and was mighty glad to have it too.  Most of our plants survived and our oranges didn't freeze so we weathered it pretty well.

Now. Onto our social life.  It all started Tuesday with dad going to a happy hour after work so mom and I hung out at home and ate some soup.
On Wednesday, our old neighbor Nicole, graduated from the University of Arizona with her Masters in Nursing so they had a little party at a pizza/beer garden place downtown.  She and her husband live in Dallas now so it was good to see them again.  That was a semi late night.
Thursday was the BIG BIG NIGHT.  Dad's birthday is December 22 and he is a long time Star Wars fan so many weeks ago, mom and I bought reserved seat tickets to opening night of the new Star Wars movie as a present for him.  We were all so very excited!  I had mom do my hair up in a Princess Leia style, hauled out my light saber and off we went.

We went to the very first showing at this theater and it happened to be in 3D so we got limited edition 3D Star Wars glasses.  Dad got Kylo Ren, I got a Storm Trooper and mom got BB8

It was an awesome movie and we have full plans to see it again.  I have already started the count down to the next movie coming out in May of 2017.

After two late nights, we were all toast on Friday.  Thankfully, dad and I only had 1/2 days at work/school so  I came home and took a nap.  The afternoon ended up being warm enough that we were able to get out back and sweep up more damn acorns.  Happy, happy, joy, joy.

I spent the weekend at the Mike Candrea, Arizona Wildcat softball camp.  I had a good time and learned some things to work on.

And if that wasn't enough, on Saturday evening, our neighborhood had a Lights and Luminarias Walk through night.  A lot of people in neighborhood decorate their houses for the holidays and as one of the new families in the neighborhood, we got to judge the decorations over the week and then prizes were awarded that night.  We also had a hot cocoa and s'mores stand at our house and we won for best hot cocoa stand!  We had invited our friends Mike, Audrey and Madeline over and it's a good thing because our stand was super busy and Mr. Mike and Dad were slinging hot cocoa like nobody's business and Madeline and I were whipping out s'mores like crazy.  (The mom's conveniently decided to go for a walk about that time.....)  We had a little something extra for the adults (think cinnamon whiskey and Bailey's) so that probably had something to do with our win.

And then last but definitely not least, we celebrated Richmas with dad, grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue with dinner out at Takamatsu.  Mmmmmm- I love the miso soup and pork mandoo AND the teriyaki chicken.  Richmas is coming on Tuesday so there is more celebrating to do.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week- we are going to bed!

A Mixed Bag

Here we are- so close to Richmas we can almost taste it!  We can hardly wait but until then, I'll update you on the last two weeks.  We've had some very fun holiday stuff and some not feeling so well stuff.

We left off last blog, the week after our great Thanksgiving weekend.  I was actually sick on that Saturday and Sunday and still didn't feel well on Monday morning.  So after driving to school, I decided I needed to go home.  Mom got all of her patients cancelled, picked up some chicken noodle soup and got us home by 9.  And then by 10, I miraculously felt better.  This is mom deep sighing.  The day wasn't a complete waste because I got two big school projects done.  On the down side, I had to stay in at recess on Tuesday to complete Monday's work AND had homework when no one else did.  Mom suggested that next time, I should kind of decide how sick I really am......

Anyhoo- onto the fun stuff.  The next Friday, dad's work had a President's  Award dinner for work.  His team was nominated and won an award (his second such award by the way) and because they won the award, all the team members got to bring a guest.  Dad wisely chose mom as his guest.  Mom was so excited to have a fancy night out that she got a whole new outfit AND new make up.  The dinner was at the Ritz Carlton Resort and since it was so far away from our house, they pawned me off on Claire for the night and they got a room up there.  

Mom really enjoyed the night- the guest speaker for the night was a retired Navy Seal who came back and started a foundation to help injured veterans return to life out of the military.  It was a nice combination of dad's work and mom's work.  The food was delicious and the company wasn't bad- even if they were a bunch of engineers. 

After a late night (after midnight) and a crappy night sleep, both mom and dad woke up feeling not great.  Mom took a bigger hit and was nauseated to the point of not being able to sit upright for most of the morning.  We had big plans to get stuff done on Saturday but since everyone was exhausted, we ended up taking a long nap at home.  

We roused ourselves for our next holiday paartay.  This one was with all our camping friends and we went to the Tanque Verde Ranch.  We had a great time, as usual.  Beautiful weather, fun people, good food- what else could you ask for?

Mom spent the rest of the week recovering from the weekend and was a little bit crabby so dad was thankful he had to go to Dallas for work.  He got to stay with Uncle Tim and it just happened that Grandpa Vern and Grandma Sue arrived for a week as well.  It was a good Goedel reunion except mom and I weren't there.

We were very thankful dad came home on Thursday because mom's precious Subi had to be towed in because something was going on with the brakes.  Mom and I hung with the homeless people in the parking lot of the shopping center we ended up in, waiting for the tow truck and dad.  Luckily, mom still has one month and 3000 miles left on her warranty so it was all taken care of.
Things were all good on the home front until mom bent over to pick up a watering can and pulled a muscle in her back Thursday night.  Sigh.  So Friday was spent in a semi upright position.

Friday night, we were supposed to go to a Christmas party but because mom wasn't 100% functional, we decided to stay home and drink beer instead.  That was probably more fun anyway.

Saturday was a cold and rainy day so we took advantage and started our Christmas cookie baking.  We made my favorite lemon short bread cookies and it was all mom could do to keep me from eating all of them as we went.

Sunday was spent Christmas shopping and getting ready for the upcoming week.  It's my last week before Christmas vaca!!  Woot woot!  See you in a week!