Who knew!??

I seriously had no idea that a company holiday party could be as much fun as mine was on Friday night. I can honestly say it rivaled some of the best sorority/fraternity formals that I attended in college. It was freakin' awesome! It was all held at a hotel near our office in downtown Denver. We started off with a really neat cocktail hour, offering different 'cultures' in different rooms. There was a 'South of the Border' room which was serving margaritas and coronas, an Asian inspired room offering saki and Japanese beer as well as an Italian room with yummy sangria! Once the cocktail hour was over we were heading across the street to the hotel ballroom. This is where the dreaded carriage rides were taking place, ugh! Luckily, my date, who was a fellow co-worker who's husband couldn't make it, and I had a blast!! We boarded the carriage with two other single ladies and had a wonderful time cruisin' down the 16th street mall in our carriage. Food and drinks were flowing like crazy and I don't think I have ever seen so many people dance at any function, even a wedding, than at this reception. There were people doing the worm, swing dancing, and two stepping up a storm! When the party regretfully ended there were a couple of 'younger' individuals including myself that headed out for a couple more hours of drinking! What a riot!! The night finally came to a close at nearly 5:00 AM where I dreadfully hopped in my chariot (AKA a yellow cab minivan) and colapsed as soon as I hit my bed. I was so sore from dancing the night away the remainder of the weekend...TOO FUN!!! Hopefully next year will be twice as much fun, who knows if I will even be able to survive that though. Haha. Here are some of the few pictures I took of the evening, there aren't to many becuase I was clearly too busy bustin' out my moves on the dance floor. :)

Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy this time with your friends and family!!!

In the horse and carriage, YEAH!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

If you can't tell that says 27 in cupcakes, h's fav!

Happy Birthday to my oldest sister H, who lives in Chicago. This will be her 27th birthday and I just can't believe we are getting that old. I remember like it was yesterday looking through our neighborhood 'buzz' book (phone directory) trying to figure out different neighbors who we could call with kids who were close in age to us. If we came across someone in the book who had kids that were older than 12 we thought they were sooo old and they most certainly could not play night games with us. Ooohh how the times have changed!

Oh formals!

Good times at the Tri-D house. They had no idea what was in store for them with all 3 sisters living in the house at the same time. Oh boy!

Best Halloween ever. Too bad you lost your big toe nail that night. SICK!!!

Nothing better than tailgating with a whole bunch of family ram fans!

Great family vacation 2 years ago, loving life in Beaver Creek.

I hope you are doing a little bit of dancing like this evening!!

I love you very much H, and hope you have the best birthday and year yet!

Ice Capades, encore!!!

Lately W and myself have been having some car issues. As previously posted, W's brief encounter with a median on I-25 which in turn will cost her about $450 dollars in new tires!! I don't think I mentioned that one, but are you freakin' kidding me!? We had gone back and forth as to actually purchase the new tires or just wait and see if we can get through the winter and then she is purchasing a new car. After putting on her very own display of ice capades, we both decided it is probably wiser to just go ahead and purchase the tires. Damn!

Fast forward a week or so and you have my cute little mini cooper, lovingly name miss minifred. There have been a couple of different issues with this car and I finally scheduled to take it in and have the dealership look at it. One of the reasons I took it in is becuase I thought the tire pressure light was malfunctioning and needed to be reset. I told the service man exactly this which looking back on it I guess I could have been a little bit nicer to the poor guy. I just got off the phone with the dealership and it turns out that sure enough most of the funny noises and flashing lights in my car all have to do with the fact that I have two severely damaged tires. Apparently minifred has been four wheeling while I am asleep. Going through nail beds and getting them stuck in her two left tires. I mean seriously!?? So now I am left feeling like a complete dummy to the people at mini and my wallet is a good $450 dollars lighter. Get outta here!! A week before Christmas!?? Ugh, oh well. I'm just considering this a very lavious gift to myself for being so good this year :)

In the meantime they gave me this beauty to drive. Yeah that's right its a convertable. Which is totally awesome, minus the 40 degree temps. Unfortunately I don't think I will be feeling the wind in my hair any time soon. ;)

Have a great afternoon!

Are you a Fanilow?

Of Barry Manilow!?? Well I am just bopping away listening to some amazing X-Mas tunes and what'd you know, Barry Manilow's 'Christmas is Finally Here' came on. One word is WOW!! Haha, I love the cheesy pop inspired Christmas music, darn right cracks me up. Did any of you watch the lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockafeller Center last week? He was sporting some sweet moves on stage while crooning in his best holiday voice. Man, I love the holidays.

I promise you I will take a picture of my little Christmas tree and post it soon, and I won't do another post on Barry Manilow, haha! To tie ya'll over. here are some other great X-mas trees I can only aspire to. (sigh)

Just a nice, pretty, traditional tree. You just can't go wrong.

Can't beat the beautiful tree in Rockefeller Center!

I love this tree, it is lit in the center of my favorite mountain town, Vail and it is GORGEOUS!



A little nautical inspired X-mas tree, love it! :)

It was like freakin' ice capades!

Don't get too excited, I did not go see ice capades, although I am seriously thinking about getting tickets to Disney on Ice. Too childish for a 24 year old?? Haha, never!!

Anyway, onto the situation at hand. So this morning W and I were just talking about her possibly replacing the tires on her car, even though they seem to be in OK condition(not like we would know), but she has been sliding around a bit on the highways when it snows so better safe than sorry. While on the phone with her I am trying to find that quarter trick on the interenet, the one where you stick a quarter in your tread and if its below a certain point its probably time to replace your tires. So, I tell W to do this and we both agree that at least 2 tires should be replaced. Cutting to the chase, I just got a phone call about an hour ago as I was getting set to go to lunch from W. She sounded slightly flustered but thought, meh no big deal, its W. In her very exasperated voice she says "you will never believe what just happened to me?" I'm thinking to myself, oh goodness what has happened know. She claims she just put on her very own performance of ice capades on I-25 WITH HER CAR!!!! She said that she was driving in the middle lane of our main 5 lane highway minding her own business when she suddenly began to slide all over the place. She started by swinging the car towards the 'fast' lane and was sure she was going to hit the median on that side and then she started to slide the opposite way across the other 4 lanes of traffic. Somehow in this whole debacle she has managed to avoid every other car out there and ended up slamming front first into the median on the opposite side of the highway. Now, I haven't seen the car yet but she says there is minimal damage becuase good ol' Felicity(her car) is built like a freakin' rhino. I guess that's a plus, and she has been looking into purchasing herself a new car within the next couple months. But still back and forth across 4 lanes of traffic completely unscathed!?? I swear only W can manage this kind of skill, especially from someone who is a self-proclaimed passenger NOT a driver! Oh goodness! I guess we look at this as a sign to get new tires, what do you think?

Drive safely everyone! We have a heat wave coming through tomorrow, I'm talking highs in the mid 20's, we're really getting up there!

What a whirlwind!

Quite frankly I am glad this weekend is over!!! W worked really hard for most of last week on top of her reagularly scheduled nursing shifts in order to get all of the food prepared for our annual holiday cookie exchange party. I'll post more on that later, but as far as we are concerned it was a huge success!! Everyone brought the tastiest treats and it was great just to gather and mingle with friends who I had not seen in quite some time. Loved it!! Also, the Big Brothers Big Sisters party I had been talking about all week long was a success as well. All of the children loved the different arts and crafts we had set up for them and each of them loved the gifts from the sponsors. All in all, it was a great day!! I was exhuasted by the time I got home on Saturday morning from the party and crashed for a good 1.5 hours, what an awesome nap. W and I had been wanting to see the movie with Robert Dinero called 'Everybody's Fine'. Oh. My. Goodness. What a tear jerker! I would see it again in a heart beat but bring your own box of tissues, you will need it for sure. Sunday, it was fuuuuhhhrrreeeezing cold and W and I did not move off the couch for pretty much the whole entire day. I'm talking NO MOVEMENT. We ordered dinner in and watched lifetime movies all.day.long. Can't beat a cold snowy day and some classic lifetime movies! Can't wait to show you all of the fun pics and to re-cap our stellar cookie party. Happy Monday everyone, Christmas is sooo close, can't hardly wait!

Carriage for one please!

Okay for real, 14 flipping degrees, that is straight up ridiculous! Not to mention that does not include the wind chill...BRRRR!!! I have worn my warm wool sweater and a long sleeved button up under, and man oh man, I am still chilled to the bone. I am seriously considering putting on some gloves to type this post. Mental image??

Onto a little bit of a rant, sorry I need to get this off my chest. So a particular indivdual we will call her A, had told me a little secret about a surprise at our annual holiday party that our company was throwing and had asked me not to repeat it because it was a surprise. Since I am 100% positive only 1 person reads this from my office I will let it out...we are having horse carriage rides. Wow, totally awesome right?! Well, yes and no. For every married couple (I'm going with 99% of the people that are attending) totally awesome romantic, blah, blah, blah, vomit! For me the fabulous single girl in the city, not so much. What am I supposed to do when I get up to the horse and carriage? Ask for a carriage for one?? Or worse yet have to ride with another married couple while they feel bad for me for not finding a date...not so awesome. Annnyway, the problem. So A told me this 'secret' and I was out for a friends birthday at a bar on Friday and ran into we will call her B who also works in HR at our comapny. I was joking about the carriage, for one thing because let's be honest here there is some humor in the situation. Didn't think twice about the situation, she already knew the secret, not a big deal. Haha, all is good and dandy until this morning. Before 8 O'clock A was in my office all flustered and angry that I had talked to B about it even though B already knew!?? What the H!??? Anyway, I got a swift reprimand from A, even though she is 2 years older than me, which for some reason jabs the knife in my back a little deeper, and basically at the same level, and was left feeling like dog poo. I hate it when people make you feel like that. I feel like for the most part I am a kind, caring, and generous person, but I feel like more and more each day people are throwing me under the bus. Why?? On top of it all I had planned on making a quirky little post about the carraige for one and now look where I am?? Bitter table for one? Now!!! I realize that is a rather pointless story to most of you out there but I needed to put it in writing somewhere where hopefully it didn't get repeated to someone else and in turn another reprimand. Not a fun day.

On a brighter note, some of the bows turned out pretty darn cute. Others turned out like I had been sitting on them the whole night, haha, whatever, they are still cute. I forgot to take a picture but you can take my word for it. :) Now all I have to do is celebrate at the infamous cookie party tomorrow and show up for the Big Brothers Big Sisters event on Saturday, then home freeee!! Can't wait! Sorry again for the ridiculous rant but my oh my what a morning!

I just need to put on my happy face in a sea of debbie downers and

maybe buy me one of these on my way home just for good measure.!

Wrapping Extravaganza & the Perfect Bow

I'm not sure if many of you remember me talking about my company sponsering a Big Brothers Big Sisters party for all of the mentors and children this year, however, the time as come!!! It is this Saturday beginning at 6:30. After our cookie exchange party that may be quite a challenge to have me up and in the car by 6 AM, looking presetable nonetheless. Oh well, all for a good cause right? It should be great!! After all that has gone in the last year with the economy and so many parents jobless, therefore unable to purchase even the smallets gifts for their children it really got me thinking. Am I selfish for 'wanting' everything in sight and occasionaly buying for myself?? Is it bad if both W and I bought each of our family members rather nice gifts instead of buying them for children and parents that perhpas have nothing?? In turn, I have decided to really try to make this party special for all those children who will be in attendance who may be less fortunate than myself. All of the crafts are bought and the decorations are coming together so well!! I spent almost an hour and a half this morning wrapping over 40 EMPTY boxes, just for decoration. Let me tell you they are soooo darn cute!! Last week I ventured over to Hobby Lobby and found the cutest wrapping paper for 50% off. Top quality no less!! I wrapped my till my poor fingers could wrap no more, brining me to the finshing touch on these presents. I bought some absolutely darling ribbon in all different colors to finish off the gifts, however, I have no idea how to make one of those big fluffy bows for the top of the presents.

Something like these??

Does anybody have any good tips on putting these types of bows together. I kind of attempted it and it didnt' seem to hard but this is for 300 people so I don't want to put my name on something that is not top notch. Picking up what I'm throwing down here? Suggestions and comments welcome!! Have a wonderful day. The weather here in Denver is supposed to top out at a whopping 18 degrees tomorrow, YES!!!

Gobble Gobble and a little shopping

I'm back!! Phew, it had been a litte while since I had posted but figured I would give you the full recap here and now. Our first Thanksgiving hosted at our house was a great success. Let me just tell you it really puts you in the holiday spirit to be able to wake up early on Turkey day, pick up the last minute meal items, cook, and watch the parade. It really did something for me. My mom, dad, brother, and oldest sister all came over and we munched on some really yummy appetizers while the boys and W put the steaks on the grill. Oh.my.goodness. those steaks were so flipping tastey I can't even describe it. W and I let them marinade in a peppercorn marinade for only a couple of hours, but man oh man, they rivaled Del Friscos (Not to toot my own horn or anything :) So we all drank too much wine and ate too much delicious home cooked food and then watched 4 Christmas'. Usually our Thanksgiving's are drama filled, someone leaves the table crying, etc, etc, but this year was awesome!! No drama, no expectations made for a wonderful day. Let's just keep our fingers crossed Christmas goes just as well.

Friday, W woke me up and we hit up the Coach outlet for some awesome deals! We pretty much were stealing our goods from them it was soo cheap. Love me a good deal, whooo hooo. I have most of my list complete except of course for W who is the hardest person on the face of the planet to shop for, any suggestions??

All of that pretty much sums up our awesome weekend and Turkey day. Christmas is a mere 25 days away, are you ready!?? Here are some great photos from our impromtu photo shoot with brother and the girls. Have a great day everyone!

Once again the quality stinks, I really need to charge my camera!!!

Good morning!

Once again please excuse the poor quality of the Iphone pics but I was STRUGGLING to get out of bed this morning, that is until I turned over in my bed and saw this magnificent sunrise. Not too shabby for the day before Thanksgiving and hopefully a short work day. You just can't beat living in Colorado on days like today. Happy Turkey day everyone!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

I know there may be a large number of 'haters' out there but W and I have decided to put up our Christmas tree! Finally. I love love love deacorating for Christmas and your house always looks that much warmer and cozier when all of your ornaments are hung on the brightly lit tree. Don't worry I won't post a picutre of our fabulous Christmas tree until after Santa has made his grand entrance at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, but I am already sooo excited!! W and I have our annual Cookie Exchange party planned and the e-vite has been sent. Last year was just too much fun so I know that we are both very excited to see what this year has to bring. No one here fret there will be a whole post dedicated to this day, get excited.

On a totally different note, we went to go see Blind Side this weekend and let me tell you it was A-MAZ-ING. Completely awesome! It was one of those movies that you leave the theatre wanting to make more out of yourself and help people who are less fortunate than yourself. I would highly recommend seeing this movie, it woudl be a great post Thanksgiving flick! Other than that I'm just bopping away to Christmas music while putting up my decorations. Hope everyone has a great Monday! Here are a couple of wish pictures. How I would just die for any and all of these trees/houses for that matter.

Wouldn't you just love to be tying your bows and putting your finishing number on all of your gifts with this fabulous wrapping station?? Please, please Santa!!

S.W.E.E.T glasses!

Yeah they are pretty much the most amazing glasses you have ever seen, no?? Haha. W and I went to go see a Christmas Story 3-D this weekend and we had to wear this goofy glasses. It was pretty funny to watch people throughout the movie with their dorky glasses on, but hey it made for a fun afternoon. Overall, the movie stunk!! It was so disappointing. I was hoping for something more along the lines of The Grinch that Stole Christmas and I was so sad when it was not even coming close to it. Oh well.



Yes I did just post that totally awesome picture of myself on a less than glamorous day because of the comic relief I thought we could all use. I don't know what was with the goofy glasses this week but we had to go to the dermatologist office yesterday with our aunt to look at some crazy cool laser skin treatments and we were forced to wear those babies. I know it is extremely hard not to be jealous right now, but please refrain, it's embarassing to get asked for my autograph all the time! Just kidding. I think W pulls off the doctor look to a tee, don't ya'll think so as well. Oh man! I dont' think the doctor thought it was funny as W and I did, but whatever! Anyway, this week has been pretty good so far, I took a couple of sick days from work with a crazy stomach bug (not fun) and have finally returned back to work today. Luckily, I was just in time for our annual Thanksgiving pot luck. My favorite of the whole year. I will post on my delicious concoction tomorrow, but man oh man was it tasty! I believe some co-workers of mine were referring to it as 'creamy crack'. Totally appropriate, I realize this, but I could've eaten the whole thing. YUM!!!

Karma is a what!?

I strongly believe in Karma. What goes around comes around. If you treat soemone unkindly I would not think twice about some other aspect of your life coming around and kicking you in the booty one way or the other. Recently, I have really come to realize that this really holds true in day to day life. I have been trying to treat people more kindly and not gossip about what happened at last night's work gathering, friend gathering or whatever, its just plain old not nice. I would not want someone airing my dirty laundry all over the state of Colorado, no thank you. All of us have a friend, (or 2 maybe) that make deicisions we would not necessarily make, but does that make them a bad person?? I have recently been on a kick that I do not want to surround myself with poisonous friends. If we all have those friends out there perhaps we should do a friend cleanse. Of course, easier said then done, but you want to surround yourself with people that are like you, or bring out your best qualities. You don't want to be around people who bring you down or make you feel bad about yourself...not okay!! You also don't want to be put in a karma situation where you are constantly thinking 'will this come back to bite me?' I have a couple of friend gatherings this weekend and I am going to keep an open mind and truley see my friends for what they are not put them on a pedastol and try to justify anyone elses' behavior etc. I'm out there to have a great time and not think twice about it! So everyone have a greatweekend!!! Enjoy yourselves!

Big Brothers, Big Sisters??

Have any of you every volunteered your time towards this organization?? This year my office has decided to sponsor some underpriveledged children through Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Each individual that is involved picks one child off of the tree and they are responsible for purchasing holiday gifts for them for $25.00. I have participated in a similar gift sharing process through other organizations and when all is said and done you really do feel good and that you have helped someone in time of their need. The point of this story is that this year I have been chosen to be on the committee that helps plan the party where you meet your child and give them your gift(s). I was really excited when I was given this opportunity and suddenly my creative juices started flowing. Just imagine all of the fun holiday decorations and crafts you can create for little kids, SO EXCITED!!!! I get to make a couple different craft tables and other fun games for the kids to participate in at this party. Do any of you have any suggestions of fun (cheap) things for children can do that are holiday oriented??

I would really like to do something with these great martha stewart inspired tissue balls.

Wouldn't that be so fabulous in holiday inspired colors?? Let me know what your thoughts are! Happy Thursday everyone!

LmA

Holy TMI Batman!!

I feel like I was just bombarded by the most inappropriate conversation of my life. I'm going to rant for just a second. But seriously TMI lady, what makes you think that you can waltz around talking about your innards and how they work to random people? I'm all for a little office break here and there, catching up on what people's kids did over the weekend, etc. But man oh man this one CROSSED a line and then some. Clearly I am not going to go into detail regarding what this individual said to me but it left my mouth gaping open absolutely speachless, a hard task to accomplish. Rant over, I'm sorry but I needed to get that off my chest before it sunk into me for-ev-er!

On another note, I have the wants...BAD!! Every store window I pass by, wheather it be Nordstrom's or Starbucks, I want everything in it! I want the fall coffee cup at Starbucks and I want a new Kate Spade bag from Nordstrom. I want, I want, I want. Seeing as we are getting into the holiday season I need to stop myself and remember what time of year it is and that I do not, in fact, actually need another handbag (unfortunately). I am thankful I have a steady income at a well of company, I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and food on the table every night. Do I really need anything else?? As we get into this holiday season I recommed we all take a couple steps back and really think about where we are in our lives and try to focus on giving more instead of receiving more. Just something to think about. However, on that note I leave you with some pictures of my current wants: