back from vacation but not quite back from vacation, you know? good thing we still have a weekend here to hang out before life grabs hold of us again. in the meantime, here are a few photos of our trip to denver. first off...the avalanche game. definitely a trip highlight for our family. mom got us tickets in the seventh row. i am officially a hockey snob and will never be able to watch a pro game from the nosebleed section again. it was something else. they played the red wings and that place was CRAZY. more fun than any other pro sport on earth, guaranteed.

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big j caught an avalanche t-shirt thrown out between periods. my brother mike caught one too.



this is how close we were to the action. you could hear them sweat.



this is us right before the game. we got there an hour early to watch the warm-ups and soak up the fun of the pepsi center.



we also went to watch hubble 3D at the museum, it was amazing. more than amazing. we spent a whole day at the museum and the day before we went to the tut exhibit at the art center. we couldn't take pictures there.



finally, this is grandma being bombarded with birthday wishes on her birthday. she still looks about half her age...people often mistake us for sisters. thanks again for everything mom. we had a blast and the boys will be talking about this trip for ages.

happy new year, everyone!

ok, art girls. what exactly am i missing here?

this piece of art, called 99 Cent II Diptychon, is the most expensive piece of photography ever sold, bringing in $3.34 million at sotheby's.

i think my kids could have taken that.

hmm. art is so confusing.

a little less than a year ago, we moved into the new hood and the first thing the husband did was shovel an ice rink off the ice in our back yard.

this year, he has upgraded to TWO rinks. he also bought himself a fancy motor and a giant rubber hose and an auger. he drills down through the ice, puts the hose in the water and pumps it onto the ice to make it super smooth for ice skating. he does this between the hours of 11 pm and 2 am, because apparently that is "good ice making time."

in addition to the rinks, he also built some outdoor wooden thingys where the kids have to shoot the pucks specifically through the holes. he has also added a firepit and some chairs to the crude little system.

last saturday, after big j's team played a tournament game, half the team came out here to play a little pond hockey. we had kids playing hockey on one rink, kids just skating on the other, parents and bystanders enjoying the fire and even a few sledders on the hill.

the funniest part was that we set up a futon and a bench with a rug under it near sliding door in our unfinished basement, so kids can come and go and get their gear on and off inside.

one of the little boys told his mom, "it was so cool mom. they have ice rinks in their backyard and a LOCKER ROOM in their house!"

he he. "locker room" does sound so much better than empty concrete hole :)

i spent three hours with my mother-in-law last night. it was painful, frustrating, pathetic and turned out really ugly in the end.

he he.

the poor woman was trying to teach me how to sew our loooooonnnngggg last name onto the back of our hockey jerseys.

she took one jersey and i took the other. when she was done with hers, she sat and watched me with a mixture of horror and pity on her face.

the end result is that little j has a nice, straight, tidy name on the back of his jersey. big j's crooked, bunched up name is going to fall off the minute he hits the ice.

after three hours of sewing, re-sewing, sewing the jersey SHUT, ripping it out, sewing it again and basically giving up at the end, she asked if she could help me "just a bit." it was everything she could do not to grab that mess right out of my hands--i know. i've seen the same look on bobbi's face when i am attempting a craft.

i told her i didn't care anymore and that hockey is a really stupid sport.

then i vacuumed her floor in apology and rode off into the snow storm.

sigh.

as i sit down to do this years Christmas card (starting now, finishing sometime before Dec. 24 if you are lucky), i would like to pass on some holiday card tips to the rest of you.

*do not marry a man with 11 brothers and sisters unless he volunteers to help with the Chrismas cards. this was not in my pre-marital clause and i deeply regret it.

*don't keep your addresses in the address book you've had since 4th grade. get a new one, like you say you will every single year.

*don't buy Christmas cards with glitter on them unless you plan to look really festive for a few weeks. i have glitter on my tables, my counters, my dog, my hands, my hair, my clothes, my kids, my dinner. you will have the same glitter to deal with as soon as i get these in the mail. sorry.

*start doing your Christmas cards about July 15.

*teach your dog to lick the envelopes. i may or may not have done this. take your chances.

*if you have bad handwriting like i do, 1707 is probably really 1409. hopefully the postal system will just figure it out.

*procrastination is not your friend. neither is blogging about it. and now it's too late to start the cards.

*tomorrow is always a good day to do Christmas cards.

i avoided it most of the weekend.

then last night little j remembered. "hey, i thought we were going to make toffee this weekend?"

oh. yeah. i may have mentioned that. AND bought a candy thermometer.

really, making it was pretty easy. i did get a little bored with the stirring and the stirring and sheesh, how much longer do we have to stir? we turned the heat up a little and decided it was done when the thermometer was somewhere between 250 and 300, but hard to tell with all those little lines. it shouldn't matter much anyway, most recipes are kind of a general recommendation.

i bragged to bobbi this morning that i actually made her toffee. she asked me how it turned out, and i told her it was pretty but that i hadn't actually cracked it out of the pan yet.

silence.

i told her i would crack it with her right there on the phone.

only it didn't crack. it crumbled and maybe cracked in a bendy way.

she sighed.

i sighed.

i think i am more of a peppermint bark girl anyway, don't you?

we pack our life pretty full around here.

so when your kid gets up at 6:30 on a saturday, looks out the window and runs into your room with a huge grin on his face saying "well, looks like we're going to be trapped here alllllll day. no going anywhere for us!" and bounces out of the room like it's his birthday, you totally, totally get it.

and then you look out the window, burrow down in the covers and smile, thinking "yay. looks like we're going to be trapped here allll day. no going anywhere for us!"

:)

and this is what it's all about. apparently a rash of gold coins has been showing up in the red buckets again this season. i love stuff like this, don't you?

And the mystery begins. A generous donor has dropped the first Krugerrand — a one-ounce gold coin — into the Salvation Army kettle at Kmart.

“It was found in last night’s kettle,” said Sgt. Ann Bennett of The Salvation Army. “That was the same location as last year. I guess that’s where this person likes to go.”

For the past 14 years, an anonymous donor has dropped the special gold coins into the kettles. Is it more than one person? Does he or she have an endless supply of the valuable coins — worth about $1,400 apiece?

While we don’t know who is giving them, we do know that the donation means toys and food for children and families in need.

Thanks to everyone for your gifts — whether it’s 16 cents or a $1,400 coin — the donations add up to meet our goal.

aw, there's my good girl.

i haven't told a crosby story in awhile. let's get you all caught up on the life of a five month old labrador retriever.

first off, she's gifted. just look at her. little j thinks she looks a little on the dim side, but she's tricky that way. she taught herself how to open doors at the ripe old age of 4 months. she can open all the doors in the house. which is why you see a little bell attached to our front door. we're not being festive here people. that bell alerts me to the fact that crosby has escaped or has let herself back in again. it's purely functional and will remain on the door year round. sometimes when she doesn't feel like opening the door, she will sit there and just ring the bell for awhile. it's a fun game. really.

the husband took her on her first serious hunting expedition last weekend. he said she listened and minded him really well and never ran off out of his range. when he saw his first pheasant, she watched it fly up and then she sat down right next to him while sidney ran to retrieve it. she watched sidney chase it down, catch it and bring it back. she seemed to enjoy the show and definitely appreciated a nice long walk with the husband.

i don't think she cared one hoot about the bird.

she is very hungry. as you can see, she's practically starved. just ask her. this is why she eats paper, gumballs, pen caps, army men, mouthguards, apple cores and napkins. and that was just yesterday. it's all about survival.

while she loves to eat small useless things, she does not ever chew up large valuable things. instead she carries them around and puts them in a new location. i think she takes after her aunt bobbi and merely likes to redecorate. again with the gifted.

when we are sitting on the floor, she makes it a point to sit as close as possible. she kind of leans on us and watches tv. i love it that she does this. when my kids get just a little older and refuse to be in the same room as me, at least my trusty hound will sit next to me to watch The Office. and not just next to me. practically on top of me, her pointy little nose just inches from my own.

i could tell you more, but i hear the bell ringing. what a good girl.

sad news about the Can Man.

the husband urged me to talk to our good friend on the highway patrol before even thinking about getting to know the Can Man. he figured our friend would know about a guy who rides his bike all over town looking like he just crawled out of the woods.

so i asked.

apparently the Can Man has been arrested for aggravated assault and he has a shady past. our friend also said "he's mean."

i figured he had a shady past. why else would you decide to ride around on your bike collecting cans and avoiding people? i don't want to believe the Can Man is mean, though. not really.

i still stand by my gut feeling that something bad made him this way, and he just needs a few people to care about him. perhaps i am naive. ok, i am naive. but it's Christmas time.

even if he is mean, and has a rap sheet seven pages long...all the more reason to bring him some cookies or something. right?

doh.

maybe you should come with me. :)

this time of year always catches me on the verge of sentimental. last night on my way to my exercise class, i got all teary because i passed the Can Man riding his bike up the highway in the dark. it was 22 degrees outside.

i have an ongoing fascination with the Can Man. he is an older guy, probably 60, with a long gray beard (you know i love grizzly looking dudes with beards) and long gray hair. he rides his bike around and collects cans. all year long. all day long.

he stops at the grocery store every night around 5:30 to get a couple bags of groceries, then he puts them on his handlebars and rides up the highway past the turn to our house. i don't know where he goes. i'd really like to know.

sometimes we are at the grocery store at the same time. i always try to catch his eye and smile at him. once i got up the guts to talk to him. i told him i see him riding his bike and told him he must be in great shape. he told me that's why he started riding his bike in the first place. the way he said it made me think that riding his bike all day, every day, is a choice--that at some point in his life, something happened that made him choose this way of life. i told him to have a good night, and he said "i'll do my best." i was dying to know more. i just didn't feel right asking.

i think about him all the time. i wonder about his story. where he lives. what his name is. if he has any family. last night i was listening to Christmas music and decided i should do something for the Can Man. what would happen if i invited him to dinner? Christmas Eve dinner? i need to be his friend first, right? i don't know if i have the guts to do it. but maybe i will have the guts to find out his name. maybe he'll tell me his story. every time i pass the Can Man, i say a prayer for him. maybe that's enough for him.

somehow, it's just not enough for me.