For Ramona’s sentimental Christmas gift I wanted to put together a book showing Sean’s progression from birth to current. I collected all of the photos and information and got in touch with our friend Cindy who does a great job making photo-books. Well, after a lot of back and forth we finally got it done and the book just arrived yesterday. I think it turned out great and it seems that Ramona likes it. I put up the proofs from the preorder in our gallery here.
Archive for January, 2009
Sean Book, Thanks Cindy G. (by Nat)
Friday, January 30th, 2009Christmas Holiday Recap – The First Week(by Ramona)
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009Twas four nights before Christmas….. 
Sunday
We left bright and early on Sunday morning. Actually, it wasn’t bright, it was still dark outside. 
 Anyways, Stu took us to the airport, and as always, he’s chipper at 5:30AM. We managed to leave on the coldest day that week; -2 outside, -24 windchill. We made it to Dallas on time, and we made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Our flight to Denver went well. I had thought that we were going to put Sean down for a nap after we got to Dillon, but he was getting fussy on the plane, so he took a nap on our way to Denver.
Nat’s parents greeted us like paparazzi at Denver; flashing pictures and everything! While we were waiting for Ethan, we had lunch. Ethan finally made it in, but unfortunately his luggage didn’t. After filing a claim, we were on our way to Dillon.
When we arrived, Sean was a little apprehensive and clingy. At 5PM Mountain time, he was getting sleepy. Poor little guy was walking around in circles confused for an hour. At 6:30PM, we put him down and had a nice dinner with the family.
Monday
I don’t remember what happened on Monday, but according to Nat, we just hung out.  Oh, I remember. We headed to the store to get some groceries, and I think we rented my skiis in the morning.
Tuesday
Nat’s parents graciously offered to babysit as we headed to Copper to ski. It was beautiful at Copper, and we just got some nice powder, so skiing was nice. There were no lines at the lift, so it was great! The only downsides were hiking up to the lift at the base and the cold. After riding the lift a few times, I started loosing feelings to my hands, so I had to go to the cafeteria to warmup. All in all, I had a great time skiing; I even went down a “harder” green without crying.Â
Wednesday
Ethan, Nat, and I decided that we were way too tired to go skiing again.  We spent most of the day relaxing, and in the afternoon, the Thompson men (minus Grandpa T and Sean) and I went snowshoeing. Let me say, snowshoeing is a lot of work and my body wasn’t quite used to the altitude yet.  I think we hiked about 3-4 miles. It’s a good thing too, because we were eating quite a bit of food the previous nights (and of course, the nights to come!).
We made dumplings on Christmas Eve for dinner, so that was lots of fun.Â
Thursday
Christmas day. The traditional Thompson Christmas day began with (Nat’s) mom preparing a chili rellenos egg casserole dish while (Nat’s) dad prepared the bacon. When everyone was up, we opened our stocking stuffers. Everyone oohhed and ahhed at what they got. Sean had a good time just walking around.
For breakfast, we had the chili rellenos, bacon, fruit salad, coffee cake, and champagne. After everyone had their fill, we began opening our presents one by one. Of course, Sean had the most presents, and of course, he had more fun with the wrapping paper than the toys. Everyone got lots of nice gifts, and it was just nice to spend the morning with the family. Nat and Ethan got a few games each, so we spent the afternoon learning how to play them both. I tied and won both games, so I thought it was pretty fun.
In the evening, we had a lovely meal of steak, blue cheese potatoes, rolls, and Caesar salad. I forgot what we had for dessert–it must had been either the Christmas cookie spread (of which mom supposedly made 24 different kinds), grasshopper pie, or cheesecake. In any case, we definitely had our fill of food!
Friday
Nat’s parents were kind enough (yet again) to babysit (or what I call grandparent) Sean while we went out skiing again. I bundled up much more and made sure I brought handwarmers so that I wouldn’t get as cold. Unfortunately, I still got cold and needed to warm up in the cafeteria, but I had a good time.  Again, no crying this time around.Â
Saturday
I don’t remember what we did.Â
Sunday
Ethan left on Sunday morning, so Nat and I had some time to hang out with Sean. I had a craving for Thai food, so we headed to Breck. It was kinda disconcerting to me that we were eating at a Thai place where everyone that worked there was Caucasian.  The food was good nonetheless. When we got home, Sean went down for a nap, and I believe we just spent the rest of the day hanging out.
Team D (by Ramona)
Thursday, January 1st, 2009We had a fun day with Team D (Damon and Diana) yesterday. They came out from Louisville, CO to visit us. I was surprised how early they left (8:30AM ish), but I guess they were excited about seeing us.  When they arrived, we had a good time just catching up a little bit. Diana has recently passed her defense for her PhD and is hoping to finish her thesis at the beginning of this month. Go Diana!
After some time of chit-chat, we taught them how to play Pillars of the Earth, which is a game that Nat got for Christmas. After Pillars of the Earth, we went out to the Dillon Dam Brewery for lunch. I thought it was funny that Damon suggested that we have a light lunch in light of a heavier dinner, but everyone ordered a burger or brat except me.  We had a good time talking about where we might end up and where we would like to be if we had a choice. As soon as we find out where we’re going, we’ll let y’all (including Team D) know so that we might have friends as neighbors.  It would be nice to have some close friends that live nearby like Team D.  Anyways, after lunch, we played Canasta. Sean woke up and was pretty cranky for all of the afternoon. I don’t know if it’s because Nat and I weren’t playing with Sean, he was teething, or a combination of both. It was quite hard to play the game, but we managed. Then, we moved on to play Power Grid, another boardgame Nat got for Christmas. I think I soured the mood a little bit when I won all the games we had played so far.  We took a nice intermission from games to have a lovely dinner. I told Team D to save room for the 20+ cookies that Nat’s mom made for Christmas. I think each member of Team D had 5-6 cookies, and I made them pick their favorite. Damon liked the almond crescents, like (Nat’s) dad; Diana liked the orange cream cookies, like (Nat’s) mom. After dinner, we played a game of Spades (which Team D always kills us) and a couple rounds of Sevens. Then, they were off to Louisville.  I hope the shims were able to keep the window up on their trip home and it wasn’t too windy!