Showing Them a Thing or Two

My friend Jenn T. and her husband Mike came into town last night and we all went to breakfast this morning to catch up.

I suggested the Luxury Diner, my go-to for fine diner dining. (Trying saying that 10 times fast.)

Surprisingly, Jenn, a Cheyenne native, had never heard of my favorite little breakfast stop. Not surprisingly, they were both delighted.

After her Santa Fe platter, Jenn declared she would bring her grandma there and make sure her sister and brother-in-law were aware it existed.

Yep, that's right, look at the new girl showing the native a thing or two!

Christmas Catch-Up

My first Christmas to host has come and gone. I think everyone had a fun time and I was really excited people were here.

Below are some pictures from the big weekend!

My beautiful tree and the boys on our Christmas morning...

I made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls for our Christmas breakfast...


Mom and the boys with forks high about to dig in...


Later that night, Mom and I slaved over the stove making our Christmas dinner...


Tensions sometimes ran high. It felt like an episode of Hell's Kitchen!

Meanwhile, as Mom and I worked in a hot kitchen, the rest of the family lounged...


...and relaxed...


...some with sugar plums dancing in their heads...


Finally, dinner is almost done and everyone is ready to eat...


Here I am carving our giant ham...


And, one of my favorite pictures of the weekend: Aunt Kimmie and Judd...

A Christmas Comparison

I have a lot of posts about the differences between D.C., and living in the West.

Today, I have a comparison.

I made a rather huge mistake in going to Wal-Mart today. Yeah, I know...Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve day. Not smart.

But I needed to get groceries for when my family comes tomorrow and I thought Wal-Mart would be the most cost effective place to get this done. It was. But it was also the most out-of-control location in the whole town, I think.

Traffic was bad, drivers were bad, crowds were bad - all like D.C.

And then it happened. I nearly had an altercation in the parking lot. Like an I-want-to-get-out-of-my-car-and-get-in-your-face altercation. The kind of feelings/incidents I would have in D.C., on nearly a daily basis.

No matter what those of you who know me might believe, I HAVE become a more lenient, nicer person since being here. I let things slide much, much more than I ever, ever did in D.C.

Today? Nope, couldn't do it. It is the first time I actually leaned long and hard on my car horn with some very choice words for the idiot driver. Now, I had actual words in Colorado Springs earlier this year with another idiot driver, but it had yet to happen here.

So, I left Wal-Mart feeling decisively un-Christmassy, and wishing very un-Christmassy things on that driver.

I am over it now, and very much in the mood to celebrate Christmas, as you will soon see in my next post...

Small World Spinning

This morning I went to my first spinning class at my new gym. I was so proud!

I attended a class pretty regularaly in D.C., but haven't been to one since leaving. The bikes are different than what I'm used to (but are really nice) and the music was hard to get in to (definitely not my old instructor's playlist, which was super fun and so many times finished with techno Whitney Houston. Oh, Stacy.) I think my new classes will be good though, and the instructors all look really hardcore.

Funny story: I got to the gym early to fiddle with the new bikes and get myself adjusted. I was having trouble getting it figured out and asked the second guy there for some advice.

As we chatted it came out that I had rather recently moved back from D.C. He seemed intrigued, "Do you know Alison McGuire?" I sure do!

Turns out the man helping me was her dad. I knew Ali in D.C., and her sister from college.

Who knew the world of spinning was so small?

Road Kill - Something Squirrley Going On

I would like to share an observation I realize is rather odd:

There are lots of dead squirrels in Cheyenne.

Don't get the wrong idea - it's not like piles of dead squirrels are just lying on the sidewalks. It's that they just don't seem to be able to make it across the street. Ever.

I never really noticed this to be an issue in D.C., where with so much traffic you'd think it might be. Here, however, I noticed probably no less than one squished squirrel a day last week alone.

And yes, I know I have now solidified any speculation that there are less things here to occupy my time...