'Tis the Season

I think I've mentioned before — I'm not a big decorator, shopper, baker or dresser-uper, which makes me bad at almost all things holiday. This year, short of bobbing for apples, I made a concerted effort for Halloween. We carved pumpkins for the first time since the kids were born, baked pumpkin pies, roasted pumpkin seeds, and I decorated the front porch with a spooky skeleton and spider web. I even got a temporary tattoo of a black widow spider crawling up my neck. Awesome.

Halloween this year was a weekend-long event, starting with a costume party at school on Thursday and continuing Friday with trick-or-treating at businesses in downtown Granby, followed by a big insane bash at the elementary school. The kids headed over the pass to Evergreen for the rest of the weekend with their dad while I headed out with Brussels Sprouts and his little cabbage for an evening of trick-or-treating along the main strip in Winter Park, followed by a delicious meal at the local Indian restaurant.

About that guy

So after three months, my Brussels Sprouts guy is still kind of a secret. My kids are getting to know him and he's got a plane ticket to meet the family before Christmas. But we are keeping it on the DL around town ... primarily because it's a small town and, if you've ever lived in a small town, you know, that's all I really need to say about that.

Here's some things I like about Brussel Sprouts:
  1. He took AP French in high school. (He studied Russian and Spanish too.)
  2. He plays the guitar and sings with abandon.
  3. He remembers almost every number he sees (like my license plate number and phone numbers he's dialed one time.)
  4. He's a Yankee but roots for the Cowboys.
  5. He drives 4 hours round-trip to Denver twice a week to see his 18-month old daughter.
  6. He plays Scrabble with me (and sometimes even wins.)
  7. He can hang out with me all day and then still want to talk to me on the phone for hours at night.
  8. He baked an apple pie the other day. Just because.
  9. He plays house with my kids. They make him be the kid. He's good at it.
10. His eyes, and heart, are full of kindness.

Snow day

Snow day, a set on Flickr.

We had our first snowfall of the year in town today. Kids played in the snow and then we hit the coffee shop for hot drinks.