Christmas Festivities

Me and DaVinci snuggling on Christmas.

I found an old prom dress from high school in the basement. It was a tight squeeze, but I still felt like a princess. I'm in front of one of Mom's three trees in the house.
This is the gingerbread tree.

Brent mastered a "Figgy Pudding" for Christmas Day.

Darcy taught Tawny how to make her famous deviled eggs.

We mortified Jazzy and DaVinci by making them wear this elephant costume. It gave us some good laughs.

Vinci seems to think he's the best present anyone could ever get. I agree. Receiving him on Christmas Morning two years ago brought tears to my eyes!

Brent and I show off our new Christmas pajamas on Christmas morning. Brent opts for scrubs these days. Sexy.

Brent and I tackled Christmas Eve dinner on our own...complete with
Brandied Chestnut Soup

Celery Root and Blood Orange Salad
Winter Root Vegetables
Bourbon Glazed Ham
Baked Pears in Custard

White Christmas in Coeur d'Alene

My little sis is an up and coming photographer, so I stole a few pics from her blog! Cool, eh?

Much more artistic and lovely than our photos!

It's always a white Christmas in Coeur d'Alene, but this year we traveled to my home town only to find it BURIED in snow! Coeur d'Alene beat some kind of 1955 snow record for the most snow in 24 hours sometime during the middle of December. It was lovely to look at, a pain to drive in, and Brent had way to much fun snow-shoeing around the neighboring hills.

The icicles coming off of the house were twice my height!

Halloween 2008

This is my old Dorothy costume from when I was in my first play at 13 years old. It's more snug now. In fact, what you don't see in this picture is my inability to breath with it on. It seemed to be a popular costume anyhow.

Brent dressed up as himself for our ward trunk-or-treat. Any chance he can get to wear those spandex bike shorts...

We had a little halloween dinner at our place with some buds from med school.

Dave and Cara were so charming as to create a dessert in honor of DaVinci.

Still stuck on "The Wizard of Oz", I made little melted witch puddles out of melted white chocolate, oreos, pretzels, coconut (dyed), and chocolate dipped Bugles.

Step aside Edward Cullen...my hubby is the hottest neck biter around! I did his makeup, of course.

I was a less convincing vampire.

This RIP cracker dip was a hit!

This is what kind of teacher I am...

Fashion disaster day during Spirit Week at my school. I had fun.

Rockclimbing Rules!

After several years absence from rockclimbing, Brent is back in the harness again, and he's taken me with him! Here are some pics from our recent trip to Golden, CO with some med. school buddies.

Isn't he sexy on the rocks???

The view of Denver from the rocks was amazing!!!

This was the point at which I about gave up!

El Dia de los Muertos---Una Fiesta Espantosa!

In my classes on Friday and Saturday, we embarked on a journey 3,000 years into the past, taking ourselves back to an ancient Aztec tradition. As many of you probably know, there is a holiday in Mexico that is often (and sadly) confused with Halloween. For you gringos, it's known as "The Day of the Dead." Though it may sound rather grim, put all your assumptions aside and prepare to be enlightened! When the Aztec goddess, Mictecacihuatl died, this event was created in her honor. She is also known as the "Lady of the Dead" or Catrina. On this day, people honor their loved ones who have passed on by gathering together as a family, cleaning and decorating graves, creating altars in their homes dedicated to those passed on, and celebrating the life they lead with dancing, singing, and lots of great food! The most famous image associated with the Day of the Dead is a smiling skull, representing the joy a spirit feels when it can move on to the next stage in his/her existence. Some actually believe, that these happy spirits will come to visit them on these couple of days in which they're allowed to once again enjoy their earthly pleasures. When the conquistadores, plundered the Aztecs, they saw some merit in the holiday and added some catholic touches. Today, those of many cultural and religious heritages take part in this great celebration of life.

My students made "ofrendas" for people in their lives who had passed away. Though most were family members or homies, I also had some tributes to Selena, Heath Ledger, Bernie Mac, and other famous figures. I was impressed with the great job they did. They also brought in the traditional "pan de muertos" (Bread of the Dead) and horchata and all sorts of authentic treats. We had a great time. The actual days of celebration are the 1st and 2nd of November (at which time Brent and I hope to have our own little celebration) but we're currently on fall break, so I had them do the projects before heading off on their respective vacations and whatnot. Here are some pictures of the little tributes they created and my own life-sized "ofrenda" to my paternal grandmother, Betty Dunn. And yes, I burned candles and incense in a classroom full of teenagers.

Denver & Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

We've been visiting a lot of gardens lately! First, we went to the Denver Botanic Gardens on free museum day, then enjoyed the Cheyenne gardens last weekend while in town, and yesterday I volunteered at the Pumpkin Festival in the Chatfield Botanic Gardens! Unfortunately I have no pictures of the latter. It was so much fun! Acres and acres of land were covered in cornstalks and pumpkins, and when they opened the gates, throngs of people swept in with their little kids dressed in costume (in spite of the drizzly weather). Each one eagerly searched for the perfect pumpkin. We are thoroughly enjoying all the colors of fall and the festivities that come along with it!