Thanks-giving

December is almost upon us, and with it, one of the busiest months of the year for our little family.  December is home to Matt's birthday (Dec 3rd), my birthday (Dec 25th), and Christmas, not to mention all the holiday parties that are so fun to attend (and finals for me once again, oh joy!). This year seems to have completely flown by, and I'm having a hard time believing that December is but two short days away.

In the meantime, we've certainly made the most of November.  We've had some great weather lately, and as Thanksgiving snuck up on us, we have been able to get a lot done and spend a lot of time with friends and family.

A few weekends ago we celebrated our friend Nick's 30th birthday with a huge potluck dinner at their house in Congress Park.  It was Thanksgiving-themed, but vegetarian :)  Surprisingly, the meal was still quite delicious :)

Bryan has been so awesome about coming to see and stay with us whenever he's back home visiting family, and I'm so thankful for his diligence in making time for us!   I picked him up on Tuesday night (he got a chance to meet my Bible Study friends on the way back into the city!), and we spent a nice evening with him catching up.  Matt had to work on Wednesday, so Bryan and I headed to El Diablo for brunch then cruised around Denver so I could show off the great city and give him many reasons to move here :)  In the afternoon, I drove him up to Fort Collins to drop him off at his grandparents' place.  It was great having him here and I'll see him in less than a month when he's here for Christmas!

After Thanksgiving dinner number 1 with my stepmom's family at my folks' place in Louisville earlier in the week, we decided to stay in town for actual Thanksgiving to celebrate with our new friends ("family") here in Denver.  Keri and Joe planned an amazing feast, complete with a pilgrim and Indian theme.  We spent the day at their place enjoying a delicious brunch and spiked cider/mimosas and then an absolutely amazing dinner.  I'd have to say it was one of my favorite Thanksgivings that I can remember!  There's so much Matt and I are thankful for, and our friends in Denver who have really taken us in are certainly high on the list. God has really blessed us with a home here!

 
We're looking forward to more fun next month as we have so many fun things to celebrate.  We'll even be heading to New Mexico to enjoy a night in Taos that was an anniversary present (way back in March!) from my mom and stepdad.  We're excited to see them and get away, even just for a brief weekend.  I'll be finishing my first semester of grad school in mid-December (woah!) and getting anxious about starting more classes and in a high school come January 4th.  And in about 26 days from now, I'll be THIRTY!  Oh boy... it's going to be a great December!  (We even got our tree and Christmas decorations up this weekend to get in full holiday spirit!)

November and whatnot

It's been a busy last week or so which is causing Fall to go much too quickly!  I sound like a broken record, but I can't believe that it's already November 10th!  What on earth??

On top of the usual, we've been keeping busy with some of our great friends here in Denver.  This is a quick glimpse at our last week or so... I'm tired!

Thursday night: Supper group (though we modified it and met at Rievers in Wash Park for grub and drinks)

Friday: An old friend from DC happened to be driving through town, so we met up for lunch at Steuben's in Uptown.  It was great to see her!  Her husband has been serving in Afghanistan and hasn't even met their 1st child, adorable baby Fiona) yet!  Can you imagine?!  He comes home from him 7 month tour this weekend, and I teared up just thinking how special that moment will be for him.

Friday night: Met up with some of my new friends/classmates from my program at Skylark here in Baker - it's been great getting to meet some new people that I can commiserate with in school :) Afterward, Matt and I headed to Keri and Joe's place for a great night with friends.  We honestly love that we have such a great group to hang out with.

Saturday night: We met up with our friends Jess and Nick to take advantage of Denver Arts Week (where a bunch of stuff is FREE!) :)  They kept about a dozen museums/galleries open late on Saturday, so we visited the Kirkland Museum and then the Molly Brown House (I'd always wanted to go!) before heading to City O' City for a nightcap (that place is fabulous if you've never been).  It was a great evening!

Sunday morning: While Matt went to meet some of the guys to play what will likely be the last game of golf for awhile, I met up with a few of the girls for brunch.  We enjoyed a delicious brunch at The Kitchen and got to walk around Pearl Street window shopping.  A great way to spend a Sunday!

Tuesday night: I had the Baker Historic Neighborhood Association Board and General meetings which ended up being quite eventful.  We had a representative from DIA come to give us an update on their expansion and the train that we'll soon (5 years) be able to take to the airport.  We then had a local businessman give us a presentation on the plans he has for a vacant building in our neighborhood.  (For those of you that know the area, he'll be turning the old Big Lots on Broadway into an amazing bowling alley and gastro pub/diner - the plans looked incredible!).  After the meeting, I headed to Bible Study to enjoy some great discussion with the fabulous ladies in my life (Matt headed to play poker with all the husbands :) ).

Overall, we're loving Denver more and more and really enjoying life. Adjusting to our life sans one income has been tough, and we're not very good at it yet, but I keep hoping we'll get better.  I mean, we don't have a choice!  :)  That's about it for now...

Congratulations Cory!

Election night 2010 ended up being much more fun than I anticipated.  Having been out of the political world for awhile now, I have felt really detached from it all.  In an attempt to do something other than just watch returns from our couch, I decided to take Matt up to the GOP victory party in Loveland where I was hoping we'd watch Cory Gardner become the next U.S. Representative from Colorado's 4th Congressional District.  Cory and I (as mentioned in the previous post) worked together in DC many years ago before he went on to bigger and better things (like becoming the Minority Leader in the CO State House!).  I was hoping to catch a glimpse of him and maybe get a handshake out of the night (for all I knew, I didn't know if he'd even remember me after such a busy campaign year meeting thousands of people!).  

Once we got there, I immediately questioned my decision remembering that I am no longer in this world- why would I think I could just act like I never left!?  Maybe we shouldn't have come?!  But - to my surprise, and enjoyment, I started running into people I hadn't seen in ages.  It felt great!  Within a few minutes, I even ran into two of my previous Legislative Directors (Doug Flanders and Chuck Cogar - who now works for Congressman Coffman but wanted to see Cory win as well - below):

It was also fun just being back at an election party!  Nothing beats the memories from election nights in DC, but it was great to be in a room filled with people who were passionate about the candidates and results.  

As I was thinking that I probably wouldn't be able to see Cory with the huge crowd, here he came, ready to give his victory speech.  We caught him in the hallway before he came into the main room, and he walked right over and said "Ali! Where have you been?!", gave me a hug, and then turned to introduce himself to Matt.  It was so worth the drive up to Loveland!

(This is right before he made his speech)

 Awkwardly close pic, but we didn't have any time to redo it!

Also ran into Courtney, someone I used to work with in the Senator's office as well.  Her husband was running a local campaign and at a different party, but I got to meet their son Finn!

Here I am with Cory, ahem, Cong. Gardner's wife, Jaime:

And the other best part of the night was seeing the Senator and Joan and catching up with them.  I hadn't seen them since our wedding, so it was great to hear about what they've been up to and how they're doing.  I really miss seeing them on a regular basis, I must admit!  But even after all this time, things certainly haven't changed much!

While Cory was working his way through the crowd after his victory speech, I got a second hug that happened to be captured by an Associated Press photographer.  Pretty hilarious.  I googled my name yesterday to find that the pic was indeed used in the Pueblo Chieftain's article on Cory's win!  I look so awkward as I'm telling Cory how happy I am for him.  But pretty great!