For the first time in what seems like an eternity, all three of us enjoyed a three-day MLK weekend together. It was filled with friends and goodtimes, accompanied closely with sickness (all three of us having some stage of a cold and/or fever). We also went up to Denver to participate in the annual MLK Marade (march and parade). It’s one of the largest in the US and this year the numbers are looking even up from other years….I have seen estimates in the 30,000 range. The marade got started a little later than we expected, so we were only able to participate for about a mile before peeling off for some lunch. We were able to build a meal in at Watercourse before heading home for the afternoon series of naps.

Sunday night brought us two things: another disappointing finish to the Broncos season, and the last night of the lights at the Botanic Gardens. We haven’t been able to make it to see them yet due to travel and house stuff, so we made a point to head up there just hours before it was all over. This year, however, we ventured to the Botanic Gardens ‘satellite’ facility, located off of C-470 on the southwest side of town and right next to the foothills. Since this is mostly a farm, there was a much earthier feel to the place rather than the refined and artsy feel of the downtown gardens. It was a welcome change of pace and came with a perfectly timed amount of walking and a lot less people.

New Year’s Eve tends to be fairly quiet around this household, especially for the past two of them. As a matter of fact, we are fortunate that the East Coast is 2 hours ahead, so we can celebrate by barely keeping our eyes open until the ball drops at 10mst.

We were fortunate enough to celebrate the early part of the evening with good friends Mark, Kendra, and Sydney. We had a good meal and great conversation while we watched Ezra and Sydney play, play, play. It was a perfect ending to an amazing year.

Ezra was in a kissing mood…..and the camera was stored in a rightful spot during most of it. Sorry for the blurriness, that’s what I get for grabbing the camera at the last minute (I mean, seriously, who would have been able to see that coming? There is no need for a ready camera with two cute kids running around, right?).

This pst week, we had a tearful good-bye to our cat of 10 years, Shadow, as we put her up for adoption. Ahna has long known that she is allergic to cats, but has been somewhat able to deal with it as we all lived together for the past 5.5 years. We do suspect that Ezra also shares the allergy based on his constant stuffiness while living at the townhome (and every once in a while, he would rub his head on the cat and end up with an area of irritated skin).

So we made the tough decision to take her to a shelter once we moved into the new house to allow for things to start fresh and anew. After a week of living here (not including the travel for Christmas), the verdict is still up in the air as it pertains to Ezra…but we have had a friend who is also allergic to cats over for dinner, and she didn’t have to dope up on Sudafed just to hang out for a few hours. So the lack of dander and hair is a realized benefit.

Shadow has been a great cat and a wonderful part of our family for a really long time. I originally adotped her 10 years ago and she was really hesitant to even sit in your lap. Since then, she has grown into a great friend and someone who loves to be loved as much as she loved to give love. She was named Shadow not just because of the obvious color of her hair, but because everywhere you would go in the house, she would be sure to follow. She would great you at the door, follow you upstairs as you brought in the groceries, and find your lap as soon as you sat on the floor.

We took her to a no-kill shelter in Golden on Sunday, and while it was tough to drop her off, it was encouraging that while I was there, 6 different people came in to look at adopting cats. The person who checked her in said that she was a ‘very adoptable pet’ and that they would take good care of her during her stay. They gave us a reference number for her in order to check in on her status, and I said good-bye as I left.

There was little intent on my behalf to actually call and check on her (just wasn’t sure about the emotional ride of always wanting to know her exact status), but I did hang on to the paperwork just in case. Well, on Tuesday afternoon, we received a phone call from the shelter (and the same person who checked her in) and they told us that she was already adopted and on the way to a great new home. There was some sadness involved with the finality of that call, but there was also much happiness as we knew that she would in fact be loved  and cared for in the ways that she deserves.

Since we were gone for the better part of pre and Christmas day, we held off on our Family Christmas gifts until we got back. Ezra was able to open the gifts from Florida while down there, and also opened the gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. We were able to video chat with Nana and Papa from Wisconsin while we opened their gifts, then we opened the gifts from Sioux Falls and from each other. Ezra was given a bunch of the Little People…which he has really taken to having fun with. He also got some great new books – which he might just love even more.