The Start.
As you can imagine December got rolling with a lot of work in our offices both at Ducks Unlimited, and Collins & Corbin. You know us though, we need to get out and have a little fun; so we took a short trip to Shreveport to do a little dancing and get the holidays kicked off right.
We met Lesley's father for a fun night of Christmas dancing. It was a lot of fun. Lesley and I don't get the chance to dance as much as we had been so it's always fun to cut-the-rug up a little. 
Dancing aside, it is always a great and relaxing treat to visit the farm.The Middle.
Once we returned to "Our Fare City" Ridgeland, Mississippi, we needed to get into the Christmas spirit. This proved to be a little more difficult than anticipated, mainly due to the fact that it was almost mid December and the mercury was still topping out around 75 to 80 degrees on some days. That being said we really miss the cold, dry days of Colorado. We pushed through the spring like days by decorating our little apartment with fresh greenery on our balcony,
a wreath on the front door, as well as cuttings all around the interior, it smelled wonderful. This also happens to be the time of the year when offices have a Christmas get together or two. Santa came to DU! I was working diligently at my desk, trying to save the disappearing wetlands of the south of course, when what do I hear but the intercom heralding the arrival of one jolly saint Nick. I was instructed, along with all new and current employees to meet in suite E to meet the fabled man. 
We all had a chance to sit on his lap and remember days past when all we wanted was a "An official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock" or maybe a Christmas ornament with life savers inside. It was a lot of fun. The office was let free early and we all had a nice lunch together, "Thanks Santa". We had a chance to go to the Collins & Corbin Christmas party as well. I had a fun time meeting everyone that Lesley works with and playing a rollicking game of "Scene It". If that wasn't enough, we had a DU open house at my directors home for all of the families to meet each other and enjoy some nice Duck (what did you think we would eat, beef). This was the night before our long anticipated trip to Colorado.Colorado.
The next morning we loaded up and left for our flight to Colorado. We were greeted by my Dad and Grandma at Denver International Airport. It was a lot of fun to see them both. Did I mention that It was snowing when we landed. We were so excited to finally get to see snow, and not have to drive a moving van through it. We had a tight schedule to keep and the first stop we had was to visit Lydia and Fuzz. Every year Lydia makes around 200 tamales to honor her mother, who taught her how to make them. We were lucky enough to share in this holiday tradition. They were so good. We had a terrific time visiting and catching up with them. The next morning was what I had been looking forward to for about two years,
A ski trip. Justin, Chris, Lesley, and I were going to meet with our good friend John to hit the slopes at Loveland Ski area. It was an even bigger surprise when we ran into Gary,and Matt, our old friends from the mountain. It was 2 degrees when we arrived and it was the cold that I had been looking forward too. I forgot how much I loved snowboarding and being in the mountains it was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. I also realized that I am not as good as I once was at zooming down a frictionless surface (Snow) with another frictionless surface (Snowboard) strapped to me. After we were completely exhausted we headed back to Silver Plume to have dinner at John and Kelley's. My parents also made the trip to Silver Plume. It was loads of fun Thanks Guys!
The next day we also had another treat. We met up with one of my best friends from College, Nate. Nate met us in Denver, downtown, at the best Margarita bar this side of Mexico, The RIO. We enjoyed catching up and sipping liquid gold.
Next time we come to town were going to the CSU game buddy. This brings us to Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve was great because we mainly relaxed and hung out with the Grandmas. We enjoyed, of course, Fat tire, something that doesn't exist in Mississippi, as well as my brothers favorite hobo lemonade. 
We all went to church together and came home to all kinds of gourmet food. We opened gifts and visited. Chris gave us the gift of giving as he donated money to buy necessities for an Afghanistan village. and Lesley and I received a new blogging tool, an 8 mega pixel camera. Everyone in our family was so generous and we thank you. (Notice from this point forward all photos are of a superior quality) Lesley also received some knitting patterns and pieces. She has been creating all kinds of fun projects. 
We went to bed only to wake up to a whole lot of snow falling out of the sky. Yeah.. We got a white Christmas! 
We had fun playing in the snow as well as playing cards and games with the family. Did I mention that we watched "Hot Rod"... ummm about 5 times. Ok, it was funny and if you haven't seen it watch it.... that's my plug. We had a lot of fun with Chris, Justin, Mom, Dad, Grandma LC, and Grandma Miller. We had to fly back to Mississippi the next day and that was just about the worst flight I have ever had, for multiple reasons... but I won't get into that.The END.
Upon returning home we both had to head back to the office for a couple of days to tie up some year end stuff, but we could see the light at the end of the tunnel because we got 4 more days off. Ross, Lesley's brother, flew into Jackson to spend a few days with us and we celebrated Christmas with Jane, Tucker, and of course Baker.
We started a puzzle, I think I finished the middle... Don't worry, we'll finish it. 
After celebrating in Jackson we packed up to go celebrate with Lesley's grandmother Chapple in Ruston, Louisiana.
All of the little cousins were there and it was fun to share some time with them, playing in the poo... 
We loaded up and continued onto Gilliam to visit Lesley's Dad, and Grandparents there. We went out to a great dinner at Lil' Italiano, which is always wonderful. The next day we spent time walking around the farm with Ross, Bruce, and the puppies. 
Like I mentioned earlier it's always fun to go to the farm because the farm is just a little bit magical we think.
Even Comanche was excited to see us. The chickens ran around like they do and the puppies, well the puppies do puppy things.
That about catches us up to now. Next Stop California!P.S. This is a video shot on Christmas day of Les and I making snow angels. Note, Les doesn't realize that even though there is about 6 inches of new snow today the ground is still hard underneath the snow.
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