With our special-order Sun Prairie Grass-Fed Beef, we prepared two delicious pot roasts, using two different recipes, and homemade pumpkin pie with the last of our garden pumpkin for our Christmas Eve meal. Everyone ate it up, even picky little Riona! We then opened our presents and watched as the girls squealed over every little item. The best was when Mythili and Isabella opened their iPod with an amazed expression and Isabella said, “I’ve wanted an iPod my whole life!” which is probably, sadly, true.

The next morning, Santa brought Isabella a Barbie scooter, Mythili yet another Barbie set with formal wear for Ken and Barbie, and Riona a new train set to add on to the one we already have that she cherishes so much. The girls just LOVED their Santa presents–he somehow knew exactly what to get them! Truly magical!

We went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for dinner, the best Christmas dinner ever–prime rib that Dad gets for free every year from his job. As usual, it was mouthwatering, and just writing about it now makes me already look forward to next year.

By the weekend, everyone was gone, and I felt like I was running a bed and breakfast, washing a million sheets–again–and cleaning up holiday remnants. After a couple of days of recovery, we celebrated Dad’s birthday with snowshoeing and cross country skiing in the mountains, then came back into town to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the Mentzers. We partied hard to bring in the new year, and the kids, as usual, had a total blast.

And here we are, MLK day, year two of us participating in the Denver Marade. I’ll say it again–I loved it last year and I loved it again. It makes this day so much more meaningful. But if you’d like to read more about what the Marade is like, check out my new writing blog: Step Write Up.

So, that is what I’ve been busy doing, in addition to working full time, running the Girl Scout troop, selling cookies, and spending quality time with three little girls every day… life is good.

It’s so peaceful to watch, to see the frosting on the grass, the branches of trees glistening under the clouds that tickle them with winter’s early gift. It’s wonderful to take a moment between pouring batter for homemade chocolate pancakes, changing Riona’s diaper, and running off to visit the grandparents, just to watch the giant flakes float languidly down from the sky. It’s exciting for all three girls to try on their “new” boots–Isabella’s from the used clothing store, Mythili’s and Riona’s from their hand-me-down boxes of shoes–and to watch them as they rush outside, gather up every flake they can on their tongues, and pound miniature snowballs into their hands, relishing in the very idea of winter.

But we must remind ourselves that it is only October, that winter is just visiting us for a day, that we still have pumpkins to pick, Halloween decorations to put up, fall break to enjoy, and Thanksgiving to celebrate, before winter rears its blindingly cold El Nino head and pounds us with what I hope will be inch after inch, foot after foot, of beautiful white powder.

So the next night, the girls and I went to a 4-year-old’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. Not exactly my cup of tea, but that night was all about them. On Thursday afternoon, we had our biweekly Girl Scout meeting. This time the girls were earning their strength and courage petal, so we decided to do a push-up contest. It was pretty hilarious to watch all the 6-year-olds attempting to do push-ups, especially as most of them looked like they were, um, humping the ground!

Meanwhile, I had to administer CSAPs all week, which has its benefits: I was able to read three and a half books! You gotta look at the bright side of those boring days. And to “decompress”, our staff had a happy hour on Friday, and since Isabella was getting her cavities filled and wasn’t going to need me to pick her up, I decided to go. Had a good time hanging out with the people I work with, and then Isabella and I went to a GS birthday party to celebrate the birth of GS and to collect items to make birthday parties in a box for disadvantaged kids. And as if we hadn’t had enough of GS, we did our cookie booth sale at Safeway the next morning, then went out to lunch with the girls from our troop who were there.

This week isn’t as crazy, but Isabella is still in dance and might soon be in soccer (if they get her a coach), and soon Mythili and I will partake in a parent/tot roller hockey course. I’m still wondering how I’m going to juggle all these activities when I have three girls involved in things, but I guess we’ll figure it out!

And, at last, it snowed this morning. Denver weather likes to pretend it’s winter for just the amount of time it takes to drive to work, because by this afternoon, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky or a speck of snow anywhere. I guess I can just give up on having a snow day this year and instead welcome the busy-ness of spring!

When we got up to the Bear Lake parking area, we got on all our winter gear and snowshoes and started our hike. When ever we go snowshoeing, we never know which way we will go or how far. This time was no different. We ended up crossing over two frozen lakes, Nymph Lake and Dream Lake, and after approximately 2 miles of walking, made our way to Emerald Lake. We didn’t realize where we were heading until about half way through when we asked some other people what was ahead of us. Overall we traveled about 4 miles during our peaceful but tiring trek through the snow.

If you would like to see more pictures of our snowshoeing adventure, click on over to our flickr photostream to check them out.

So here they are: Bruce and I are both in search of employment, and Bruce really wants to start up a tech business helping people with technology issues in the home, such as setting up wireless networks, backing up data, cleaning out slow computers, etc. We are currently trying to think of a creative name, and hope the business will be up and running by summer. Meanwhile, Bruce will be taking 11 credits this semester, all of which will take up 3 evenings a week, so he’ll be very busy.

I am looking for employment online. I am hoping to do some university-level teaching and a K-12 charter school online. Our goal is for me to be home doing that and Bruce to be working part-time with his business, so he will still be the primary caretaker of the kids and I will be the primary breadwinner.

But my most important resolution of the year has more to do with the environment: I am not going to buy anything new for a year. Used clothes, toys, gifts. Or handmade items. I read about this in an article and thought it sounded like a great idea. We live in a consumer-driven society and we fill our homes with things made in Chinese factories. With the technology available today (mainly Craigslist, of course), there is no reason to buy anything new. It’s recycling at its best: recycling our products, not just paper and plastic. So for our grand audience of Vittetoe Times readers, please do not expect store-bought gifts in 2009. What you receive will be just as glorious, if not better, I promise! It comes without the hefty price tag of guilt.

Our new year has begun with much business. Isabella and I have begun our Girl Scout cookie sales, Mythili has returned to preschool, and Riona is still enjoying being 2 (such an easy life!!). We hope it calms down soon, as we are entering our venture of the Used New Year. We welcome, and invite, any comrades.