Warm and Toasty Parade of Lights

Denver's Parade of Lights is this weekend, but with temps predicted to be 12F (-11C) we'll be staying home this year. That's OK, we got to see Tempe's parade of lights while we were in Arizona! And it wasn't cold at all.

Settled comfortably into our lawn chairs under the Christmas-light-bedecked palms, picnicking on Mexican food, listening to the nearby water feature, it was a pretty plush way to watch a winter parade. Next to the water fall were giant bronze bunnies that all the kids got excited about.
Wait! You guys aren't looking at the camera and Oscar-dog is hiding... Let's try that again.
Hmmm. Bad night for portraits I guess.

Better night for trippy light sabre shots. No parade of lights is complete without a light up toy, and Uncle Q and Aunt Karen picked out a flashing-star-mini-sword thingy for FFM. After he figured out he could 'make rainbows' with it he was much more excited about it. There was a lot of rainbow making, right up until the first giant fire truck kicked off the parade.

Of course at the end of the parade Santa arrived, and I think for the first time FFM put it all together and now suspects that the guy in the big red suit is up to something very very good...

Giving Thanks in a Not so Traditional Way

This year we're thankful that it's one week before Travis arrives in Denver. We're happy so many of our family are happy and healthy. We're having a great Thanksgiving visiting family in Phoenix, and I'm extra thankful that FFM is finally sleeping again (of course just before Travis shows up...).

About a week ago FFM and I drove from Denver to Phoenix to visit my brother Q and his wife Karen. It was an easy drive, we're good road trippers and the weather and road conditions cooperated nicely. We're hoping for a similar drive home.

FFM has reunited with his best four-legged bud, Oscar, and the two are again inseparable. When FFM naps Oscar is *so* lonely he sticks his nose at the door jamb every few minutes to check to see if he's up yet, it's pretty funny. When they're both awake, well, the rest of us just stay out of their way.

Today we had a low key, nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner. On the menu: Marinated and stuffed Filets Mignon with Merlot Habenero Sauce, Potato Casserole with Two Mexican Cheeses, Brussels Sprouts with Pine Nuts and Pancetta, Cinnamon bread, and for dessert, Dulche de Leche Chocolate Mousse. It was very yummy.

Oscar didn't get any steak, it was too good to share.

Now we're watching the Broncos and we are hoping they can pull out of their current funk. Sometimes it harder than others to be a Bronco fan, but fear not, we're still faithful fans.

Jacaranda Trees

Early summer in Perth is showtime for the jacaranda trees. These members of the Catalpa family are timid and remain unnoticed for most of the year, but when the warm weather of November arrives, they burst forth with great purple plumes of flowers.

These pictures are from a street near our house in Perth that is heavily planted with jacaranda trees. At the peak of the jacarandas it is like a purple tunnel.

This is what the flowers actually look like. They look a bit like giant bluebells - sort of horn-shaped. I discovered it's tough to take good photos of the jacarandas. The purple flowers tend to blend in with the relentless cloudless blue sky that dominates this time of year, and on the rare overcast day they look sort of gray.

Happy botany- Travis

Two Hands

I know a number of Aussies who gauge the time remaining before some event by how many "sleeps" are left, and I have a work friend from the Dublin days who measures time by the number of "get-ups" that are still to be overcome before the awaited event. In either case, with ten of each left, the number now fits on two hands. Now when someone asks how many sleeps or get-ups are left for me in Perth, I can hold up my hands with the appropriate number of digits and show them "This many!". Departure is close enough to be real now, and I'm getting pretty excited!

Travis

Oh yeah Q, I'm so totally putting that on the blog

Uncle Q and Aunt Karen are busy corrupting young FFM with Guitar Hero. They rocked out to Tom Petty's American Girl this morning. I had to make a mad dash for the camera, totally blog worthy stuff. At which point Uncle Q, who never reads the blog but knows it exists, said, 'You're not putting that on the blog are you?' Oh yeah. Totally.