Christmas cheer in Denver and at home

It's been a Christmas-sy weekend!  Friday the kids were off school except for a brief scheduled assessment.  So it was a lazy kind of day.  In the evening Jack brought a friend to the ward Christmas party.  It was nice to get out and chat with people and enjoy some Christmas music.  They had a few small instrumental performances and had the kids sing "Stars Were Gleaming" - much to Jack's embarrassment, since his friend got to watch him sing.  :-)

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Today we decided to take an adventure downtown for some Christmas cheer.  For extra fun, we took the light rail train.  It was a dreary gray day, but I mostly stayed warm.

Visited the Giving Machine at Writer Square.  

Sam and Ben bought some fancy cheese from an Irish cheesemonger selling Dutch wares at the German market.

All testing the cheese in the Christkindlmarkt Festival Hall.  

I was very tempted to buy all the wurst and potatoes in a variety of forms at the Christkindlmarkt, but it was SOOOO crowded and the lines long.  Instead we went to Mellow Mushroom for a warm meal indoors.  (Notice Sam is piling on the parm while our photo is taken)

I impressed/embarrassed my family with my wealth knowledge for lyrics from radio hits of 1998 and 1998, which seemed to make up the restaurant's playlist.  Here I'm serenading the boys with a Britney Spears ballad. 

There was a pop-up market in Larimer Square.  Mostly fancy-pants boutique wares.  Jack and I ducked into the festival tent and found an a cappella group singing a Disney medley.  They were really good!

Home again on the train.  Sam tried to play it cool, riding backwards away from us.  But he came back after one stop to share a bench and play Farkle on Ben's phone. 

Not pictured, they each picked out treat at Rocket Fizz. Sam took a sour apple Blow-Pop, Jack took a Chocolate Frog.

I spent in the afternoon in a bustle getting groceries and picking up Christmas cards and a popcorn tin.  Then I baked cupcakes for my Sunday school class and did laundry while watching Nutcracker.  We had a lovely brief snow, but no build-up on the ground.  To finish the evening we watched Home Alone 2.  The kids were howling with laughter and declared it just as good as the original.