A Colorado Christmas

A very merry belated Christmas to everyone!!  We had a lovely first Christmas as a married couple here in Colorado and hope that everyone else had a great holiday too.  I can't lie, it was certainly different spending the holiday out here just the two of us as I'm used big family get togethers.  However, it was nice to start developing some of our own holiday traditions for our new family.

I was fortunate to have both Christmas Eve and Day off work and Matt has two weeks leave for Christmas so we were truly able to enjoy all of the holiday together.  A number of our friends out here traveled home but our good friends Nick and Sarah have all their family here in the Springs and they were kind enough to welcome us into their family.  They have an adorable little girl who turned one on Christmas Eve and Friday the 23rd we went to her family birthday party.  It was lots of fun to watch her with the cake and presents--I swear all kids that age are more interested in the wrappings and boxes than the gifts.  Christmas Eve night we had a lovely dinner with Nick and Sarah's families again and attended church with them as well.  It really was so nice of their entire family to welcome and include us, and we greatly appreciated it.

Christmas Day I was up bright and early, ready to open gifts!  Matt on the other hand, had to be encouraged to get out of bed. :)  We took our time opening presents and had my aunt's skiers french toast for brunch.  There were a number of fantastic gifts: I surprised Matt with a record player and he got me photography classes.  We spent the day relaxing and just enjoying the fact that it was Christmas.  It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone, it's always a little bittersweet once it's over.  Time to start looking forward to the next Christmas! :)

Lots of presents under the tree!!

Cooper enjoying one of his gifts.

I think he likes it :)

The aftermath.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

I cannot believe that we're just days away from Christmas...time has been flying by!!  Of course, it probably doesn't help that we've been so busy lately--I feel like that makes time seem to pass even faster.  Last week we saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert for the second time.  Three years ago, Matt surprised me with a trip to Kansas City to see them play right before Christmas.  Last year he was in Iraq or I'm sure we would have gone to see them then too.  They put on an amazing show that is so much more than just music: there's lasers and lights, videos and fire, moving stage parts and musicians running around the venue.  My favorite part though might be that they really look like an 80s rock hair band...I just LOVE it!!  It's so fun to watch them whip their hair around while rocking out on the guitar in tuxedos.  If you ever get the chance to see them, we highly recommend it!  Here's a few pictures from the night...I didn't get many good ones since we were on the floor and there were big heads in front of me. :)

Waiting for the show to start!

Rocking out!

Part of the stage came down from the ceiling and the
musicians performed on it while it moved back up!

Matt also had his interview for grad school in Boulder last week...we made an overnight trip out of it this time.  He did very well in his interview (no surprise there!) and said he felt great about how it went.  Now, we're just waiting to hear if he's been accepted.  I believe we should know in early January, so keep your fingers crossed and of course we'll let everyone know when we find out.  We really liked Boulder, it's a great town with a nice feel to it.  We ate an early dinner and then walked around to a few different bars and just tried to get a better idea of the town since it was a whirlwind trip the first time.  Here's a couple pictures from the trip:

Not sure the building, but it sure looks festive!

Happy Holidays indeed!

Enjoying the town and celebrating a great interview!

This past week, we've been making cookies and wrapping presents, essentially just getting all ready for Christmas.  We've also been enjoying all the snow that we've gotten the last couple days!!  It snowed Sunday night and then again all night Wednesday night and most of the day Thursday.  We had to get out and enjoy the snow and a trip to Garden of the Gods was a perfect way to do just that.  Cooper loves the snow (must be the Husky in him) and he gets crazy excited whenever it snows.  Garden of the Gods is a beautiful place on a regular day, but with a fresh coat of snow it's transformed into a whole different magical place.  There's just something so wonderful about walking through such beautiful nature and watching the snow fall.  These pictures don't do it justice, but do give an idea of why we love Colorado so much:

And, since this post has gotten so long, I will simply wish you all a very Merry Christmas and leave you with what may be my favorite picture of Cooper. :)

Snow dog :)

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree...

We successfully cut down and put up our Christmas tree this past weekend!  I grew up with the tradition of going to a tree farm, searching for that perfect tree (even if it took hours) and then cutting it down yourself (or rather watching my dad cut it down).  My family did it for years and years and then when I moved back home to my dad's after college, we started it up again!  Matt and I thought it'd be a great tradition to start in our own little family.  We found a tree farm about an hour south of the Springs in Pueblo and headed to check it out.  We brought Cooper along too...and he had an absolute blast.

This tree farm was a bit different from what I'm used to: it was owned by a family and was on their property, there seemed to be only one type of tree, and it didn't appear that they'd done much pruning of the trees as they grew.  However, the owners were incredibly kind, the prices were great, and you really can't beat cutting down your own tree.  There were even a few dogs there for Cooper to run around and play with!

Matt is ready to cut down a tree!

Cooper bounding down the aisles

It really didn't take us long at all to find a tree that we liked.  In fact, we found a couple different trees that were contenders pretty quickly and then had to narrow it down from there.

The winner!  

Matt was determined to cut it down himself...

And he did!

While we were busy tending to the tree, Cooper was busy trying to play with an adorable lab puppy...though the pup wasn't too sure about Coop. :)

The puppy is hiding between my legs from Cooper!

Later Saturday night we trimmed the tree and decked the halls!  It was so great to be able to decorate together since it was the first time we'd been able to do so.  We threw on some old school Christmas movies like the Grinch and then Rudolph, made some hot toddys, and embraced the Christmas spirit!  Here's some pictures of all the action:

Putting on the lights!

Just being silly

Time for ornaments!

The finishing touch, the star!

We don't have a fireplace mantle so we had
to find some other way to hang our stockings.

Whew, decorating takes it out of ya!

The finished product, in all its glory

We finally got the garland on the porch lit up too.

I'm so excited that our home is finally looking like Christmas!  :)

(PS-If you actually click on the pictures you'll be able to see them in a larger size.)

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, Yum!

I've made these cupcakes twice now and they are simply amazing so I just had to share!  I love to bake and try new recipes but don't want to end up eating everything so Matt takes the goodies to work for his Soldiers.  These were a HUGE hit when I made them a few months ago and since he and his guys have worked so hard this week, I thought I'd make some for them again.  I got the recipe from my friend Megan and you can find it on her blog here.

These cupcakes are rather time consuming so I wouldn't recommend them if you're looking for a quick dessert, but if you've got the time (I think it took me about 2.5 hours total) or can split it up over two days, it's definitely worth it!!  The cupcakes themselves are chocolate with Guinness beer in them and it's absolutely hands down the best chocolate batter I have ever tasted.

There's a delicious chocolate ganache filling that has Jameson Irish Whiskey in it.  Personally, I'm not a big fan of whiskey but the combination works well in the cupcake and you can't really tell it's whiskey.

You have to almost "core out" the cupcakes so that you can put in the filling.  I used a paring knife which worked just fine.  If you have a piping bag, you can put the ganache filling in that but a ziploc bag with the corner cut off gets the job done too.

The final touch is the icing with the Baileys in it!  You can definitely taste the Baileys in the icing and it is simply delicious.  I think you could pretty much put Baileys in anything and it would taste great.

Since it's Christmas time I decided to top them off with some red and green sprinkles, just to be festive! :)

While I was baking away, Matt was having fun being playing photographer...

and Cooper was mooching hardcore! :)

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!!

10 reasons why we hate Colorado Springs drivers

*Writer's Note:  This is my first post.  I am the husband.  And when I say "Springs drivers", I mean Colorado Springs drivers.

10.  Ya know when you let someone into a lane, and they give you that little "thank you" courtesy wave?  Springs drivers don't believe in that.

9. Springs drivers simply do not pay attention.  They are too concerned with who texted them, whether their make up is straight, or are too stoned to care.

8.  Apparently, the turn signal will cause the fuel inside your car to spontaneously ignite, turning it into a massive fire bomb.  That is, according to Springs drivers.

7.  To a normal driver, a yellow light means "Slow down and stop because the light is about to turn red.  And you can't go through a red light".  To a Springs driver, it means "Dear God, speed up or you might never make it to where you're going.  Ever".

6.  The accepted rule of thumb is that the bigger your truck, the fewer traffic laws you have to follow because well, you drive a big f---in truck.

5.  The cool thing to do is to drive as long as possible in the left lane of a highway, regardless of the fact that you're going below the speed limit, and there is no one in the right lane next to you.  And that you've passed about 5 signs that say "Left lane for passing only".

4.  That the cops let people get away with all the above.

3.  You might have gotten cut off, run off the road, or almost gotten hit, but the driver of that vehicle didn't seem to notice, oblivious to the fact that you're miffed as all hell at him/her.

2.  Due to all of the above, Springs drivers love to get in accidents, causing massive traffic jams.  Which cause more accidents.  Because of Rule 9.

1.  And for all of these reasons, I have become an angry driver.  Which I hate.  Hence the title.  

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Now that Thanksgiving is over and it's December, it's officially Christmas time!!  Christmas is hands down my absolute favorite time of year.  I've started my Christmas shopping and decorating and will be baking up a storm shortly.  It's been quite cold here lately and we had snow flurries for a few days but no real accumulation at our house.  We live so close to the mountains that most weather seems to pass over us and hit the rest of the city.  However, the weather forecast is calling for snow tonight and tomorrow so we'll see if we get more than just flurries.

Last week was my first week officially on my own at work.  I was put "on call" Sunday night which turned out to be a blessing since I still was a little under the weather from Thanksgiving weekend.  My first night on my own was calm and easy compared to the second night.  Tuesday night was horribly hectic and stressful (four of my six patients were fresh post-ops!) but I held it together and survived.  I'm just hoping this week is  better.  I've been told that things generally slow down around this time of year but it hasn't seemed to yet so we'll see.

This past Friday night we had a Hail and Farewell dinner for Matt's battalion at a restaurant not too far from our house.  After dinner a group of us went out in Old Colorado City so we were able to walk to the bar.  It was nice to go out with a big group now that all the guys are back from training at JRTC in Louisiana...it had been quite awhile since we'd gotten drinks with some of our friends!  We paused in the park on our way home to get some pictures with the Christmas decorations:

Matt in Santa's sleigh

My turn

All bundled up with Santa's house behind us!

Saturday morning was spent doing some Christmas shopping and getting a few more decorations for the house.  It was SO cold outside but we put our lights up nevertheless...Matt was such a trooper and put our icicle lights on the roof while I did the garland on the porch.  We still have some lights left to put above the bay window but we have to find a taller ladder first.  We also still need to get another extension cord so that the lights in the garland and the icicle lights can be on at the same time.  I took a picture of the house once the lights were on but it definitely isn't the finished product.  Our poor icicle lights are still pretty tangled up since they're brand new...we're hoping they'll fall out and straighten out here shortly.

Carefully hanging the lights

Working hard...and probably freezing!

A bit blurry but gives an idea.  The garland has white lights in it as well
and we'll be hanging more icicle lights over the bay window too!

Our plan is to go cut down our tree next weekend and put it up and decorate the house.  I can't wait to get all our great decorations up.  Since Matt was in Iraq last year and this is our first Christmas as a married couple, I want to make sure this one is extra special!!  I'll be sure to put up pictures next weekend of the house all decorated and the final product of the outside lights.  Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season as much as we are! :)

Cooper enjoying the decorating festivities...
and avoiding the camera.

Garden of the Gods

A couple weekends ago Matt had an unexpected Friday off and we took advantage of the amazing weather and headed over to the Garden of the Gods for a nice long hike with Cooper.  One of the things we love about living here in Colorado is all the amazing outdoor places we can go to and hike and just enjoy the beautiful views and nature.  We are fortunate enough to live about 10 minutes away from a number of these places and we try to take advantage of that whenever we can.  We took the camera along with us and I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took...and since there were a number of pictures I thought it deserved it's own post.  Enjoy!

AND, some important news that I cannot believe I forgot to mention in the previous post:  Matt has an interview for CU's MBA program on December 16th!!  I'm so proud of him and I know that he is going to nail the interview...but, keep your fingers crossed and send good thoughts our way nevertheless!! :)