It's the OFF-SEASON!!!

It's over....the Broncos 2008-2009 season that is. For some tonight was a sad, disappointing, humiliating loss and for others it means we can get our players healthy, get ready for next season, and get our husbands back!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Selfishly, I am very excited it’s over. I don't really know that much about football, but what I do know is that tonight is the last night my wonderful husband will have to work 60 hour weeks, deal with last minute "to do's" on Friday afternoon, work 7 days a week, and come home at 4:00, 5:00 or 6:00am after a game. By the end of December, it has been a long 6 months, so ending in the regular season is fine. It's not what we want, but this is just another year to improve upon.

So, to all the wives, girlfriends, kids and parents of footballs players, congrats!!!! It's the off-season!

Big Birthdays!!!

We are so excited for the healthy and surprising birth of Miss Haylei Ann Tabb. Andy and Melissa we in Missouri with Melissa's family for the holidays and little Haylei came about two and a half weeks early. She was born in Springfield Missouri on December 25th 2008! She is a cutie, and looks just like her brother. Congrats to the Tabbs!!!


In other big news, Caroline turned 16 and got her license yesterday. She called to tell me she had passed her test, and was on cloud nine. She wants to meet up for coffee in the next couple of weeks. I can remember how liberating it was when I got my license. The Cramers are in for a whole new world!


Happy birthday to Caroline and Haylei, both Christmas babies!!!

Our Savior is born today

What a wonderful time of year!!!! Christmas Eve we spent at CC's house. We had a big group this year, or a big group in comparison to the last few years. The Eve attendees: CC, Aunt Marge, Mom, Kelly, Dan, Andrew, Kyle and me. It was delicious, fun, many laughs, thanks Aunt Marge, and we were blessed with Andrew's hilarious presence. This was Christmas Eve, not an ugly Christmas sweater/outfit party......Oh how he keeps us laughing! Kyle and I spent the night at Mom's and woke up to a beautiful, unfortunately sunny, Christmas morning. Snow is always preferred on Christmas!!! We knew Kyle had to work about noon, so our morning was planned around him being apart of the celebration. While we were getting ready for the day, he got a call saying coach had pushed up practice, and he needed to be in earlier. We pushed up breakfast, so he could enjoy, and it was wonderful. We started opening presents about 9am, and it continued until about 10:30. It was the same group from Christmas Eve, but Aunt Marge joined us for breakfast only. Kyle left for work, which was hard.
Many people have asked me what we were going to do for Christmas...."it’s your first Christmas as a married couple." I honestly hadn't thought much about it. Well, other people did, and it was a very emotional day. Mom Randy and Dad Frank sent gifts that were VERY sentimental. We all got chocked up a few times while opening gifts from them. Truly wonderful gifts that you can't buy at a store. It was awesome. Needless to say this was the beginning of what made the day so emotional, and then Kyle having to go to work.

After he left, Kel, Andrew and I headed down to my dad's house to celebrate. It was nice we had an early dinner with Dad and Marlo and gang.

Since we were eating early at Dad's house, and Kyle wouldn't have a Christmas dinner, I was going to start our own Christmas dinner tradition. I made New Mexico enchiladas. It is something we learned from Ganny, my Dad's mom, and absolutely love. This would be our tradition on Christmas night. It was still a little emotional, but we had a wonderful time the two of us. I made enchiladas and we watched a movie. Glory to God!

Christmas Tea

This is my all time favorite thing during the holiday season. We make reservations nearly 12 months in advance, (made January 2nd for a December tea). The Brown Palace is a beautiful, classically historic four star hotel in downtown Denver. It is gorgeous on its own, but when the holidays come around and the decorations are up, it is truly breath taking.

They serve high tea through the year, but with Christmas all around, it is warming during the holidays. This was our 14th year, just the girls, and as always was a very enjoyable afternoon of delicious tea sandwiches, scones, Devonshire cream, and sweets. Of course we also had tea. We have learned what we like over the years and all get the same, Black Currant. I know it doesn't sound great, and I honestly don't even like currants, but it is so good! We also enjoyed a little bubbly! It just makes the entire occasion so much fun and special. A wonderful tradition I hope to continue.

Jersey Boys

An awesome...."Must see" show!!! We all absolutely loved it. Kyle came down with something like the flu yesterday afternoon and didn't go to the show. I was really sad because out of this group, he is the one who really wanted to see it. So....we, Mom, Kel, Dan, Mom's friend Jim and I started the evening with a gourmet Mexican dinner then headed downtown. It was a great show, fun, fast paced and singing along. "Oh What A Night...."

Hustle and Bustle!

Our weekend was great but VERY busy. Friday, I did a little Christmas shopping, and then met Mom, Kel and Grandma (CC) for dinner and The Nutcracker. It was so much fun. We had a great dinner at The Corner Office, a very cool place across from the theater. I have come to really like ballet! As a kid, I think we went nearly every year in elementary school, but I haven't been since. A great show for the holidays.

Not far from the theater Kyle was enjoying an Av's game. He got tickets from a friend and Andrew and two of his friends came down for the game. It sounds like they had a great time.

Saturday morning we were up and running. I had a full day of things to do and Kyle was off to North Carolina for the game. Saturday night I had my company holiday party, it was nice. I don't think I enjoyed it as much with out Kyle there, but that is life.

Sunday we had a baking day over at Mom's house. We had about 10 items on the list and believe it or not, got them all done in about 4 hours. It was a lot of fun. I ran home to get ready for holiday open house and another party that night. They were both fun, although I was so tired by the time I got home at 9:30pm. I had a cookie exchange at work the next morning, so I began my biscotti baking at 9:30....and went to bed WAY after my bedtime!

This is another busy week, with something almost nightly. Yeah for the holidays!

Zoo Lights

Last night knocked out two of the holiday events. First was a Gingerbread house contest. A few of my reps at workput this on. It is great fun and all the houses go to Children's Hospital for the kids, and are then auctioned off. Last year I went all out, decided on a building to replicate, drew up plans, make a ton of gingerbread and then assembled. Two weeks later and "over" the gingerbread house, this year I decided I just don't have the time, so I did the kit. We, two of my co-workers, and I did embellish a bit, but for the most part, it looked like a standard gingerbread house.

It is amazing what design firms come up with.....I guess that is the mind of a designer. Truly amazing. The rules are simple, all of the ingredients must be etible. There were about 25 houses and lot of creativity! I completely forgot to take a picture so that will have to come in a few days.

Last night was also the Zoo Lights preview!!!! It is such a fun event and they changed it up a bit this year, and we all think it was great. This is a preview for donors and sponsors, with food and drink. We took it in for about the 5th year now, walking around the zoo, looking at animals with lights, listening to music, and stopped at almost all of the food and drink stops along the way. A few of the exhibits that are inside are open, the packaderms a.k.a. elephants, hippos and rhinos and the giraffe house. We all had a great time!Kel and Dan in the hippo's mouth

Mom, Kyle and me with a great Ape!

A LONG drive home

Thanksgiving was awesome! We spent it at mom's house and had a few new guests this year. It was an enjoyable day cooking, cleaning, football and Christmas music.

Friday, Mom, Kel and I headed up to Aspen. It was an easy drive, no traffic or weather conditions to deal with. Once there, it didn't stop snowing. Such a beautiful site to see. It has been so warm around here that it didn't really feel like the holidays yet, but with three days of snow, it finally felt like winter. We didn't do much, played cards, ate, drank, and watched movies. We decided to get going early on Sunday, as we all had things we wanted to accomplish at home. We took off at noon, and I arrived home at midnight!!!!! YES, this is winter in Colorado. The holdup started at Vail, and cleared about 25 minutes outside of Denver. The highway was closed for a number of hours, and thanks to Erin, Tom and Patty, we parked at their place in Frisco while we waited. Thank you again Hoffmans!!!! We enjoyed a few more hours of card playing, and when the highway opened, "back on the road again.....". It was a long exhausting 11 hour drive, record time for us!

As usual, we have been busy with various events that the holidays bring. The next two weeks are very busy with fun events....zoo lights, The Nutcracker, Jersey boys, and Christmas Tea. I'll write more as they unfold!