Merry Christmas!

---

It’s Christmas Day, 2005.

I am at my parents’ house in Colorado, sitting in front of my mom’s new computer. It’s been a busy week but the shopping somehow got done and the gifts have all been opened. Before I get too far along, however, let me back up. This entry should really begin with my arrival in Denver on Monday, December 19...

On Monday morning I left LAX on a Frontier flight to Denver, Colorado. My destination was Littleton, a suburb on the south side of Denver where I lived during my high school years. Although my parents moved into another house after I graduated from high school, they never left the area. I have other relatives and friends in the Denver area as well, including my sister & her family who live only 10 minutes from my parents. Thus, it’s a frequent destination for me, and a common one for Christmas.

There was only one significant change from my last visit during the summer, and that was the closing of my favorite Dairy Queen store. A tragedy, really. Well, not exactly, but hey, I had been to that location on University near Arapahoe Road too many times to count. I always had trouble passing up an oreo cookie blizzard. How could they close it???? Well, considering there are Dairy Queens all over, I’ll survive.

As for the early part of this week, it consisted of a great deal of shopping. In fact, I went to the Park Meadows mall 3 days in a row (Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday) searching for Christmas gifts, after having already spent part of Monday shopping for a new computer for my mom. Amazingly, I did fairly well with finding gifts. In the midst of the shopping though, I was able to spend a lot of time with family. The first couple of nights (December 19 & 20), I stayed at my parents. On Wednesday, the 21, I moved over to my sister & brother-in-law’s house to stay there for a few nights. Obviously, a totally different environment with my nephew & two nieces present. Uncle Dave! Uncle Dave! Those are words I heard often, sometimes by all 3 at the same time. Very cute kids. My youngest niece (4 ½) says “holy smokes!” at every opportunity and tries to take charge (with very little success I might add). My nephew (almost 8) is very active and doesn’t ever want to go to bed so he will talk & talk & talk when you tuck him in to delay the inevitable. My oldest niece (10) tries to act like a “grown-up” one moment, and the next moment is just a regular kid again. She’s very sweet and helpful with things around the house. It was fun staying with them for a few days. I’m now back at my parents for the remainder of my visit.

For my annual birthday dinner with the family (delayed celebration with my parents, sister & brother-in-law since I am never in town during my actual birthday on December 9), we went to Table 6. The restaurant has received favorable press since it opened almost 2 years ago. It’s a smaller restaurant (seats around 45) with a limited menu. Sometimes I prefer limited menus because it usually means all that they do, they do well. I ordered a red trout dish (excellent) that was actually curled up in a cylinder. We’ve had some great birthday meals over the years (Highland Garden Café, Vesta Dipping Grill, & Palomino). This was no exception.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the 3:00 service at Cherry Hills Community Church. It’s always great hearing my uncle preach. I love his use of history, story telling, structure, and being faithful to sharing the gospel.

Following the service, we (parents, sister & her family, and my grandma) went to my parents’ house for dinner and opened at least ½ of the gifts. The evening really went well. For dinner, we tried something new by having chicken dishes from Whole foods (chicken cordon bleu, chicken stuffed with spinach, & chicken with apple stuffing), along with mud pie for dessert (a family favorite).

The remainder of the gifts were saved for this morning where they were opened at my sister & brother-in-laws house. The weather out here in Denver is warm this Christmas (60’s) so we were able to throw the football around outside today. There’s a little white here and there (ice basically that hasn’t melted from the last snow) but definitely not a white Christmas.

Tonight my parents & I went to my uncle & aunt’s house for dessert. The big Dixon gathering with all the family is set for tomorrow night at my sister & brother-in-laws’ house. Notice the trend - lots of family gatherings. It seems that all the relatives on my Dad’s side are in town this year.

After that, I’m trying to connect with the friends I have in the area before heading back to Los Angeles on Thursday, December 29.

Anyway, enough of an update for now…there goes Dave!

---