Since Charlie didn't get to see Santa at the Holly Jolly Jamboree, I took him to Nick's Garden Center where the Aurora Animal Shelter was hosting pet portraits with Santa. This was a really congenial Santa who was even letting dogs sit in his sleigh, but when Santa reached down to lift Charlie into the seat, Charlie just freaked and tried to run away. I think it was that big white fake beard that scared him. It was all I could do to get him to sit on my lap for this photo.
Bruce and I took Charlie on a hike to Castlewood Canyon State Park. There was still quite a bit of snow on the trails, but Charlie thought that made the hike that much more exciting (he seems to love snow). Luckily there wasn't much ice, or we all would have been sliding down the hills.
It's been a busy week for holiday club parties. Almost all of them involved a gift exchange. First up, was the Quilt Club. Since we meet in the morning, we turned it into a potluck brunch - great quiche and cinnamon rolls. I got kind of an odd gift at that one - a pack of post-it-notes. Not sure how that relates to quilting.
The next party was the Craft Club. Since they meet in the afternoon, the treats were cookies and candies. Each person was supposed to bring a white elephant craft (something you already own, but didn't finish). I got a set of 48 brush markers in that one - much more practical for me.
Then that evening, I went to the Baking Club party. Since it was a soup and salad potluck, I brought chicken sausage and sweet potato soup (one of my Hello Fresh meals - very tasty and easy to make). This time, I really hit the jackpot, because I got a gift bag full of kitchen utensils, some maple syrup, and some cranberry pepper jelly (the stuff you put on top of brie cheese). We also had a cookie exchange, so I brought home a couple dozen assorted cookies.
I went out to lunch this week with one of my St Louis friends who lives in the neighborhood. Both our daughters went to Nerinx together. We went to Cane's Chicken. It's nice to have a friend who likes simple fast food as much as I do. My Ladies Out to Lunch groups always want to go to expensive salad restaurants.
On Monday, I went on my first Senior Center outing to the ChristkindleMart in downtown Denver. It was nice, but not nearly as big as the one in Chicago. There was a stand called, "S'mores Haus" where you could purchase marshmallows to roast on the firepits in front of the stand. It would probably be a bit more impressive at night. I stuck with having a German pretzel and beer for lunch.
To celebrate the winter solstice, the Bike Club went on a nighttime ride to see the neighborhood Christmas lights. We had a fairly small group, because the Saturday before Christmas is a really busy time for people. We met just before the sun went down, and then rode around several streets, before coming back to our house for mulled wine and popcorn.
