Author: eaumaison (Page 37 of 210)

Hooray, we went on a vacation! My gift this year was to organize the flight, hotel, entertainment, and child care for a quick getaway birthday trip. It’s been 3 1/2 years since the last time we left the kids for more than a single night. About time for another break, wouldn’t you say?

Why on earth would I choose Chicago in January, such a bitter cold and windy destination? HAMILTON. That’s why! Ben really wanted to see the musical when it was in Denver, but like every other Colorado citizen without connections (thank you Amanda!), was unable to get tickets. So I’m making up for that with this trip. It’ll be the final event of the week before flying home Saturday morning.

With the kids in the capable and loving hands of Grandma Betty and Grandpa Rick, we enjoyed a quick airplane jump to the Second City.

We arrived at the hotel early afternoon and decided to relax with a movie. With our date night movie habits we’ve seen nearly everything out there already. Ben was trying to talk me into the Hindi movie Simmba. Luckily I found a convenient showtime for a movie we had missed: The Green Book. Here we are feeling bad for cheating on the Alamo Drafthouse.

The Green Book was very good, exceeding my expectations. A thought provoking historical story with incredible performances. It gave us a lot to talk about afterward.

Having had snacks all day, we descended on Pizzeria Uno for some Chicago deep dish. Ben claimed to hate deep dish pizza, harboring bad feelings from previous dining encounters with the iconic dish. Pointless with a soggy bottom, to sum up his criticism. I urged him to give it another try and think of it as pizza lasagne.

Well done, Chicago, you changed his mind! Or maybe we were just that hungry. But Ben said it was delicious, and Mary Berry would agree that there were no soggy bottoms.

December has been a jolly month!  We did all the classics: decorating, advent calendars, Hanukkah, ice skating, caroling, cookies, class parties, Santa Claus, secret presents, visiting family, and other general merriment.  The only thing missing was snow to go sledding or make a snowman.  Oh well 🙂 My parents came to celebrate the big day itself and it was so fun to have them here!  Here’s a smattering of photos to mark the month.

The MBMBaM live podcast that we saw with the Walkers at the Buell has been released.  If you’re curious, check it out here.

My favorite part was the pre-show, Sawbones.  They’ve also shared that live recording and I definitely recommend it, click here.

(Or, you know, use your podcasting app to search for these things.  I’ve never understood the podcasting thing.  It makes me so out-of-touch whenever I try to “get into” podcasts.)

My little Nissan Sentra hit the big 100k! I had the family in the car with me so Ben kindly documented the milestone.

Our good friends the Walkers came to Denver to see a show and we got to play along! This was a love podcast of the “My brother, my brother, and me” show. I wasn’t too familiar with it, but enjoyed the show immensely. It was the weirdest theatrical event I have attended. The audience was a narrow demographic of 25-45 year olds who look like they love a good board game. They were extremely attentive and orderly and laughed and yelled louder than any crowd I have ever experienced. The show itself was hilarious, and I enjoyed that the intro was “Sawbones,” a podcast I used to listen to.

Later that weekend we saw an anime film, Mirai. Jack came along for his first subtitled movie in the theater. It was a really touching, beautiful film. Highly recommend it. We also treated the Walkers to good pizza, because their town in Idaho is strangely devoid of such delicacies.

It’s always a real treat to see our friends! A wonderful addition to our holiday season.

It’s going exactly as we thought it would. Nimbus loves the tree. The kids love Nimbus in the tree.

Today I had the pleasure of chaperoning a field trip….not with my kids! Amanda needed a spare adult for her drama kids to see A Christmas Carol at the DCTC and I was happy to oblige. I packed myself a PBJ and rode a school bus for the first time in 20+ years. The kids were well behaved and we all got some Christmas spirit brewing.

While visiting Grand Junction my Dad showed the kids some clips from Home Alone.  Last night they clamored to watch it and were beside themselves with joy.  Even Sam, who, as a rule, does not like non-animated movies.  Kevin McCallister wins over another generation.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving in Grand Junction: great food and great family time. It seems I neglected to take pictures from the big meal itself, but let the record state that it was delicious and decadent.