I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Well, I guess I don't have to dream of a white Christmas. We're getting one - no matter what. Right now, it's pouring snow which is lovely. The way it's swirling around outside is great. So, as it's snowing outside, we put up our Christmas tree and caught up on our television shows that we had missed. So, as we were going through our new ornaments, it was fun to remember our trips of this year. Let's go through them...

When we first got to Colorado, we were excited for many reasons. One of the reasons we were pumped was the multiple places we could visit in the state. One of the places that we visited with our good friend Jason was the Coors Brewery. It's up in Golden (which is only a 45 minute drive away with traffic). It was a blast. We tried lots of beers and had so much fun at the brewery. We bought this ornament in the gift store and I was pumped to hang it on our tree this year.

When my parents came into town, we decided to go up to Vail to vacay for a short time. It was so lovely up there, but it was a more of a resort - where even sunscreen cost $10. So, we decided that buying an ornament at the resort was probably an ill-advised thought. So, we went into downtown Vail and the only ornament that had the word "Vail" on it was this one. So, tis the history of this ornament.

In October, David and I went to Memphis to visit my family. It was really awesome to see everyone. But I realized - having David there - I had never really done tourist-y stuff since I was a kid. One of those things I remember LOVING was the Memphis Zoo. They've done tons of renovations since I went there when I was in third grade, so now was the time. Besides the giraffes, our favorite pen was the pandas. So, when we went to the gift store, we found this lovely ornament of the pandas at the Memphis Zoo.

Every year, David's grandmother gives us the White House ornament. This year was really cute. It had Santa Claus on it and says something on it that I think is adorable.

It says "I hear there are some kids in the White House this year."

And for the first time, this year's ornament is also reversible. I forgot to snap a photo of the back, but it's a heart-warming photo of Theodore Roosevelt with all of his children around the Christmas tree opening presents.

On our Napa trip, we flew into Sacramento. We had a great deal of time to "waste" in Sacramento. Don't worry, I'm not complaining. But still, we decided to go to the California state capitol. I had never been to that capitol building before and thought the outside was really lovely. The inside left a bit to be desired, but the outside was gorgeous. So, we bought an ornament of the outside.

Also on that Napa trip, we obviously went to a billion wineries. Some of them we loved, some of them we liked and some were just plain fine. But overall, it was a great trip with even better friends. One of the best places we went was in Sonoma. The views were stunning and the wine was delicious. So, this ornament is a great memory of that trip and something I hope we can travel to again.

Also on our tour o'the South in October (when we went to the Memphis Zoo), we also traveled to see David's side of his family in Arkansas. One of the things that I really wanted to do was go see the new President Bill Clinton Presidential Library. I had heard great things about it and, honestly, remembering a simpler political time was heartwarming. We went and I loved the library. It originally was designed to be a bridge that spanned the Arkansas River. But, after 9/11. they decided to just have it slightly extend over the river (they were concerned with it being an easy terrorist target). Besides the "redesign" it was so beautiful and really educational. It was funny to look back and remember how many problems we still have that we had back then.

DISNEY WORLD! Ok, so maybe I was really pumped about this trip. I mean, I got to hang out with my brother, sister-in-law, my 7-year-old nephew, my parents and us. I got to see Disney World - which I hadn't seen since 1998. I got to see David visit Disney World for the first time since he was 1. It was lovely. And I knew I wanted an ornament to remember that trip. We found this ornament at one of the thousands of gift shops on the property. We liked it because it hooks onto a light on the tree.

I was really glad that we finally got to go visit our friend Patrick in Seattle this year. He's lived up there a while now, and every time we tried to visit, something would go wrong. But this year, we were FINALLY able to go. We had a blast. I had never been to Seattle and I just fell in love with that city. If the weather was better, I would totally live there. But, I'm too seasonally affected to live that north again. We ate delicious Cuban sandwiches, walked ALL OVER the city, saw a Mariners game and visited the famous, fish-throwing Public Market, which you see painted on this ornament.

And to end the theme of visiting awesome places in Colorado, here's our ornament from Pike's Peak. When David's parents came into town, they really wanted to go down to see Pike's Peak. You can actually take this neato cog-wheel train to the top of the peak - which made my life better because I didn't want to drive up it. As fun as switchback roads with no guardrails sounds... Anywho, we got to the top of the peak and had lovely views of the state that we are now in love with. We are so glad that we live here and can't wait to celebrate more holidays in this town.