Christmas in Colorado (Friday, December 25th, 2015)

Steve and I had a quiet Christmas Eve by ourselves, as both of the girls spent the evening with the boy's families.  This is a first for us. Very strange in a way, and yet very rewarding as well, since our girls are both in such a good place.  

After a quiet candlelit dinner, Steve and I met up with our oldest daughter, son (in-law) and his family at their church for a very nice Christmas Eve candle light service.  Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit more than Christmas Eve services and the reminder of what Christmas is really about.  After the service, we came back home and watched the news. The weatherman said we are going to have a white Christmas!

Our big Christmas celebration was at Steve's brother's house.  We opened all of the extended family presents together.  Our nephew and his girl friend were in town from New York, so the whole family was there.

There were gifts of every shape and size, and a few with a Star Wars theme.

Steve's brother modeling his new boxers

Uh Oh!  This looks dangerous! 

Most years for either Christmas or New Years, we have Cioppino, a tomato-based seafood stew as Steve's brothers house.  It is said to have been invented by San Francisco's Italian and Portuguese immigrant fishermen in the 19th century.   The traditional recipe changes depending on the catch of the day, which in the bay area was usually fish, shrimp, clams and mussels.  Since we all really like crab, ours always includes a nice helping of snow crab.

Final dinner preparations

Cioppino is a very messy meal, no matter how much care you try to take, so we three girls came prepared this year!  Earlier today, our next door neighbors brought us over an incredible Christmas bundle, which included (among other things) a leatherman for Steve, and these adorable aprons for us girls.  So we brought our super cute aprons with us to dinner!

When we finished with our extended family gifts, we were joined by a friend of the family and our nephew's girl friend's family for dinner. Such great people, we really enjoyed getting to know them.

Grandma's favorite place is right in the middle of the kids.  Nothing makes her happier!

And as always, the cleaning crew cheerfully jumped in and helped clear the table and load the dishes.  We are so proud of all of these kids.  

By the time we finished with all of the festivities at Steve's brother's house, it was around 9:00 and we still had not had time for our own family Christmas.  So we said our goodbyes and headed back to our house for the final Christmas celebration with just the six of us.

So many great gifts were exchanged this year, gifts from the heart that we will cherish forever.  

Steve's mom has spent years making a collection of everything funny that their grandkids have ever said.  And this year, they created a book, complete with pictures of the kids when they were little.  Here is a glimpse...

The whole family enjoyed looking at the book to see what was said, by what kid and when.  This book brought back many memories and created a great deal of laughter.  It is something we will all treasure for a lifetime.  

Our youngest daughter handmade gifts for all of the family.  Here is a sample of her beautiful work.

Our oldest daughter made us a table book of their wedding. We are so excited to share this with friends and family.

And our son (in-law) made a beautiful box for our daughter as he once again leaves for training.

Although the holidays can be a time of stress and strife (for so many reasons), they more importantly are a time to reflect, enjoy and look for the positive in all things.  We have been truly blessed and are thankful for everyone in our lives, whether we were able to spend Christmas with them or not.  We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very blessed 2016!!!

Crafting and Cooking (Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015)

This is my favorite kind of night!  All of the kids are here, and we are spending the night crafting and cooking.  They have been so creative this year, hand crafting many of their Christmas presents for family members. 

Our oldest has hand wrapped all of her gifts in brown paper, hand decorated for each person and tied up with bows.  

and our youngest daughter and her boyfriend are making a great gift for his mom.  He has played hockey his whole life, and his family is Very into hockey, so they are making his mom a Christmas wreath out of hockey pucks.  Such a clever gift!  Our youngest daughter ordered a dozen hockey pucks on-line, and bought a card-board backing, ribbon and stickers. 

The hockey puck wreath is coming together nicely

A little more customization and it will be complete

When the crafting was done, we all pitched in to work on dinner. We are trying to fatten both of the boys up, they just can't seem to keep any weight on, so tonight it is a big, yummy steak dinner.  

All the chefs hard at work

Chef Steve is hard at work at the grill

And dinner is ready!

Did our son (in-law) forget his brussel sprouts?

And then an evening of funny family tricks in the family room.

It's hard to beat a quiet night of silliness.  As they move on in life, I will miss this.  So now I will just enjoy the simple pleasure of each moment that I have with them.

Graduation Formalities (Saturday, December 19th, 2015)

What a beautiful day in Colorado for a graduation.  There is snow in the foothills, the air is calm and warm.

View of the Flatirons on our way up to Boulder 

After the incredible ceremony yesterday for the College of Engineering and Applied Science, our daughter felt like today's university-wide graduation was just a formality.  It was a once in a lifetime event that she was very happy to attend, but knew that it would be very different from her experience yesterday.  

She walked down the long staircase with the other engineering graduates and found her seat.

She's wearing the blue stole which signifies her as a Business Minor Ambassador

Unlike our son-in-law who graduated in May in a torrential downpour (see May 9th post), our daughter enjoyed the comfort of the Coors Event Center, and all of the warmth that came with it.

At this university wide graduation the graduates are presented by their school rather than announced individually, which really helps to keep things moving.  

The honors graduates were asked to stand and were recognized for their accomplishments

President Benson, Chancellor DiStefano and Dean Davis offered the Engineering students to Chancellor DiStefano for conferrence and of course the Chancellor conferred them.

Dr. Davis has the coolest regalia I have ever seen, and the Christmas tie really sets it off!

Again, there are no words to express how proud we are of our daughter for this major accomplishment in her life!  

CU Engineering Graduation (Friday, December 18th, 2015)

Today is a big day for our oldest daughter, and we are so excited for her! She is graduating from the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder with an honors distinction.  It has not been an easy road, but a road that we expect will be well worth the struggles as she moves into her professional life.

She and her husband left early this morning to be on campus with plenty of time to connect with the other graduates, and Steve's parents came to our house so we could all ride together.  It was very cold outside so we bundled up and headed out to Boulder. The Engineering graduation was held in Mackey Auditorium, in a nice intimate setting since it is the off season graduation.

We found the perfect seats, and prepared ourselves for an amazing day.  We expected 16 people in all.  My parent's weren't allowed to travel from Arizona to Colorado for health reasons, so they were definitely missed, but we were blessed with the presence of Steve's parents, his brother and sister-in-law and our niece, our youngest daughter, our daughter's husband's family and a good friend of our daughter's. As it came close to graduation time, we were still missing a few people.  There had been several roll-over accidents on highway 93 because of blowing snow, and the highway had to be closed. Some of our daughter's in-laws were caught in the traffic jam, and we weren't sure they were going to make it.  Our hearts sank for them. Eventually everyone did make it, making for a great day for all.  You can see her excitement as she walks in carrying the banner for her discipline.

She's the first graduate in her discipline, so fun!

Our oldest daughter is in the Engineering Plus discipline, and is the first graduate within this incredible new discipline which came to be three years ago.  Engineering Plus is a program that allows engineers to learn all of the disciplines of Engineering through design courses, and in conjunction add an emphasis that they believe will provide them an edge beyond their Engineering degree (in our daughter's case, a Business Minor).

They started announcing the Engineering graduates, first the doctorates, then the masters and finally the undergraduates by discipline.  They went through several disciplines, and when they got to our daughter's discipline, there was a long pause and a little confusion.  We weren't sure what was going on.

Dr. Davis, Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science

Our daughter waiting as there is a little confusion

They finally called her name but as she started across the stage, Dr. Davis, Dean of the School of Engineering, stopped the commencement and started talking about the Engineering Plus discipline and how our daughter is the first graduate with this degree.  

Her name is finally called, and she starts to walk across the stage

By this point, Dean Davis had switched from is formal regalia to his Santa hat

He then proceeded to talk about her work and accomplishments at the University of Colorado Boulder and how she was the 2015 Student Employee of the Year for the university.  It was a very touching moment between the two of them, as well as for all of us watching this unfold.

A very unexpected surprise!

They pose for a picture as her award is presented

With a lot of pride in his heart, he presented her with an amazing award.  It was a really proud and unexpected moment for her, as well as all of us.  Her Engineering graduation was a very special day.

Oh yeah, and she got her diploma too!

A lot of happy graduates

As we left the graduation, we went back home and were joined by family and friends to celebrate a well deserved graduation.

Our daughter with her husband and in-laws

Our family

A dear friend!

There are no words to express how proud we are of our daughter for this major accomplishment in her life!  

We write this blog to capture the important and fun events in our lives, but this post is especially meant for my parents who were not able to attend. We hope you were able to enjoy the details of this great day through our post!