Christmas Holiday

When I was first divorced, the thought of spending Christmas by ourselves (Mal, Nick & Me) in Phoenix was absolutely a bummer, so we made every possible effort to get back 'home'. But, as time went on and I took on increased resposibility at my company, it became a bit harder and harder to always get back to Philly. So, this is how and when a lot of our Christmas traditions were started here at home - Phoenix.

This year - for lots of reasons - we are headed back to celebrate the holidays, and meet my new nephew in Jan, so put our 'Phoenix Christmas Plan' into action. We introduced Craig to the things we like to do as well. Thank goodness he agrees that one of our coolest traditions is a road trip North to find the snow. This year, we trekked to Flagstaff on Christmas Eve to find at least 3-5 ft of snow! It was beautiful white powder that reminded both of us of home! The kids loved it and Craig and Nick had a blast pelting each other with snowballs. We walked around the downtown area, had some hot cocoa and then decided to hit the famous 89A just as the sun was setting. Lots of you know that road as the best way to get to Sedona. It was cool to see all the trees and red rocks in Oak Creek Canyon with snow on them. In Sedona we had dinner at a great restaurant, sitting right next to the fireplace and after seeing the annual Festival of Lights at Los Abrigados, we headed home.

This trip always reminds us that Arizona is truly a beautiful state. Where else can you live 5 hrs from one of the World Wonders, 4 hours to snow, 3hrs to stunning redrocks and sunset and back to 60deg weather in one day. It's truly the best of many worlds. We'll be back up to Flagstaff pretty soon to hit the slopes! You can see all of our photos here. (Santa brought me a new really cool camera that I'm still learning to use. I'll get it eventually, but that could be why some of the photos are blurry or whatever. Better ones will come with time...)

Annual Christmas Party!

Last Saturday night was Shana & Carlos' Annual Christmas party. Everything was wonderful, Shana went all out with the yummy warm appetizers and the homemade desserts were fabulous! This is a fun party for me for lots of reasons. Seeing special friends as much as possible around the holidays is not always easy and we get to do that (!)and equally important, it's a very thoughtful party because Shana and Carlos ask all of their guests to bring a toy for kids who wouldn't otherwise get anything for Christmas. I'm sure they brought smiles to many this year.

We always have a fabulously loud(ish) time! We played Partini, the game I've been hearing about from others. It was fun, there was even a certain time where you model clay and try to have your teammate guess what you've made. My modeling skills leave a bit to be desired perhaps, they got Gumby, but not my Kermit the Frog? If I had more time, Kermit would have been better. The boys usually manage to sneak into the living room, rearrange the furniture and begin the intense poker game. Craig looks very serious, almost smug, as he plays his hand, doesn't he? ~ Checking things to his right and his left.. very serious stuff!

Thanksgiving & Weekend

Last Thursday we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at our friends, Shel and Mike's house. This is the second year we've been invited to celebrate with them and Craig and I are so happy for the invitation. Mallory and Nicholas are with their dad and paternal grandparents every year, so we would be Turkey orphans otherwise I guess. We are truly blessed to have Shel & Mike as wonderful friends.

Friday, we left the house a little later in the afternoon to start some shopping. It was not as crowded as we expected, which was probably for the best. Craig was able to last a little longer at the mall and we got everything on our list for that day. Plenty more gifts to buy, but we got started. And we're done shopping for the kids - that's a huge accomplishment.

We also started decorating the house for Christmas. Craig and I picked out our first tree together and I was happy to break out some of the ornaments I bought last year after the holiday. The tree we chose smells lovely - a nice addition to the house. And, the most important ornament is now on the tree. This will be our first Christmas without B-Dizzle - She loved opening her presents, it will be a little sad without her this year.