Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Santa Jamboree

 


I volunteered to work the cookie table at the Santa Jamboree last weekend. Santa and Mrs Claus rode through the neighborhood in a horse-drawn carriage. The horses had a mind of their own, though, because they didn't follow the route that was spec'd out by the organizers, but went wandering off on some side streets. Good thing we had the cookies to keep the kids entertained until Santa finally showed up.


A new neighbors joined in the festivities by dressing up and forming an impromptu parade. My favorite was Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas movie. Even Bruce rode his bike over and joined in the fun (that big shadow is Bruce taking our picture).


Courtney came for a pre-Christmas visit. We weren't going to do a big gift exchange, but we still had to keep up the tradition of a few presents in our stockings (how else are we going to get our annual toothbrushes???). 


Bruce made a big turkey dinner with all the trimmings. This turkey was much better than that shoe-leather mess we had at Thanksgiving. Luckily Courtney stayed for several days, so we made a big dent in all those leftovers.


That evening we did a Zoom call with Brian. Bruce jumped in to say hello, but then Brian, Courtney, and I played a round of Splendor. Of course, Brian won.


We finally got our first snow in Denver. I think we were close to breaking the record for the latest snowfall. While this one barely dusted the front driveway, it was enough to test out our new snow shovel. We need Courtney to come back when we get one of those 6-inch snow storms everyone seems so worried about.


On Sunday, it warmed back up, so Courtney and I did a little outdoor sketching at the Depot Gallery in Littleton. Santa brought us new fountain pens in our stockings, so we had to try them out.


Afterwards, we went down the street to the Town Hall Arts Center to see the Winter Wonderettes - a musical production featuring holiday songs from the 60's. The show starts with 4 female employees performing at the annual Harper Hardware Holiday party, but when Santa (Mr Harper) doesn't show up to hand out the Christmas bonuses, one of the singers decides to do it for him. However, as the actresses ran through the audience handing out bonuses, we all discovered that the envelopes were filled with termination notices. The show was really funny.


The last day Courtney was here, we went down to Hidden Mesa. Courtney and Bruce went on a hike. I took my bike along and rode to the end of the Cherry Creek Trail. The trail ends in Frankton where there are a few restaurants, including a cute little coffee shop. Unfortunately, when I got down there, I couldn't find a way to get to the coffee shop without walking my bike along the highway - a little too nerve-wracking for me. So instead, we all met back up at the car and drove to Adriana's - a great Mexican restaurant in Frankton.