Denver Christkindl Market

As part of exposing us to his German culture, Steffen has been talking our ears off about this "German Christmas Market" in Denver. We figured he wanted us to go see it.

So, on Saturday, we made plans to go visit this so called Denver Christkindl Market. Veronica and Mateo who were spending the day with us, went with us as well. It was a bitterly cold day and since we weren't too prepared, we had to bundle Tyler up in whatever we had. The end result : The homeless kid look!


Tyler all bundled up to face the harsh cold!

Anyways, after braving the harsh wintery weather, we had to laugh at Steffen's market which consisted of a few tents put together!! It did have some interesting food stalls. Unfortunately, we had already made plans to go to Los Cabos II for some Peruvian food, so i didn't get to try any "authentic" German food. We did have some Gluhwein which means Wine with Spices while we warmed up in the tent.


Warming up in the tent..

OK, so it wasn't the best Weihnachtsmarkt but we're not exactly in Germany either. At least there was a carousel for Tyler. Carousel makes up for anything! (i love carousels if you can't already guess).

Running along with Tyler on carousel

Tyler and his first carousel ride

Just to make sure we didn't have the wrong impression, Steffen had sent me a picture of what a real Weihnachtsmarkt would look like.. so here it is..

A real one..

Thanksgiving 2008

I had initially planned on hosting Thanksgiving this year. But with Alan gone for the week and crazy crazy work schedule and also a court appearance(expired registration, but I got off! hehehe), I was in no shape or condition to slot that into my brain capacity.

Fortunately, the Chandrasekara's came to the rescue and took on the hosting and saved us all from eating Ramen noodles for Thanksgiving!! Yay!!!

So, to help out with the work load, we each prepared something to contribute to the feast. Tyler and I made Apple Pie and ice-cream, Alan(i made it, of course) brought stuffing, Addy with green bean casserole and mushrooms and soon our table was full of goodies. Our hosts made some yummy turkey, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, and some bread.


Our hosts in their new home!

Damith who had his first turkey carving did a fantastic job slicing them all nice and thin.


Quite the skillful carver.

After a nice meal, we vegetated for a bit while some of us watched some "Chinese" movie that turned out to be "Japanese"!! I still can't believe it was not a happy ending too!!!


Tyler found a bear in Hish's room that he liked

Mommy and Tyler..

It was a nice relaxing Thanksgiving(because i didn't have to do the work, ha!).

And my answer to the Thanksgiving question: I am thankful for good friends who will pick up hosting a party when i can't quite do it!!!

My son sent me flowers!

Flowers for Mommy from Tyler

Last week at work, i was treated to a surprise when i walked into my cube and there was a nice flower arrangements on my desk.

A quick look revealed that my son(my real son, not Steffen) sent them to me. What a little sweetie, must have learned that trick from his Daddy!

Madonna's Concert

One of the few concerts that Alan and I wanted to go to see is Madonna's. So, when we heard that she was coming to Denver, we waited at the computer for her tickets to come on sale! We managed to grab a few tickets for the event. We were all set and excited! This was about 6 months ago.

The concert was finally here! Unfortunately, Alan was still stuck in China and I gave his ticket to Armen! :) Anyways, Steffen, Addy, Armen and I were all psyched to be able to attend her concert.

The concert started about 1.5 hrs late which really ticked us off a little but it was all made up by the show itself. This old woman can really put up a show and the dancing and staging was phenomenal. Things got 10 times better after Addy complained about somebody smoking pot and got us Club Level seats!!! Woo hoo! Go Addy!!!


Waiting for her concert

The Concert

Life of a single mom

The lack of blogs usually is indicative of the lack of my leisure time. As I haven't even blogged on my son's first birthday, that means, busy-to-the-point-of-exhaustion busy.

The reason is because Alan has been away for over 3 weeks and counting. Bloody hell, indeed!! So, I'm home alone with Tyler, who although cute, is proving to be quite a lot of work!! Now, I definitely have a much deeper appreciation for women(or men, I guess) who do this single-working-parent-but-still-have-a-life thing full time.

As for me, I am grateful that I am surrounded by good friends who takes turns coming over to my house to help me out or simply having a meal with me so i don't go completely insane!

Thanks, you guys!

Damith's Birthday Mini "surprise" celebration

Damith's birthday came and went Chandrasekara's style. Quiet, low key and no fuss. But we like to fuss!! So, Addy went out and bought some cupcakes and tried to pull off a "surprise" for him after one of the badminton nights.

The girls came over for Pho first and Damith came along later for his "surprise". I think all of us were surprise at the strength of the candles that got lit on the cup cakes!!!


The tower of inferno!


Oh, and it can't be blown off either!!


Damith chuckling at his "Star Wars" card!

My Baby is One!

Time certainly flew by quick this year and Tyler is one years old!

Here is a picture from his birthday party and more blog is promised. As for now, i need to go catch some zzzz..

Tyler's Birthday Party

As Tyler is a Halloween Baby, costumes are almost a must. I left Sabrina and Damith to dress Tyler up. After some kicking and screaming(from Tyler), they presented the "Lounging James Bond"!!

My little Lounging 007

Tyler in character already - oooh... she is cute..

Everybody arrived promptly after 1 pm and soon the party was a go! Tyler's pile of gifts started piling up and Tyler had 4 friends to play with. It was a beautiful day and people actually went out on the deck for some fresh air.

Tyler playing with the pretty ladies...

People out on the deck

SOME of us who got the memo about costumes!


Ana Cristina and Eiko looking thru Tyler's pics..

After everybody had their fill of the yummy food from Kho's, it was time for the birthday cake. We put Tyler on his high chair. As it is not really his favorite position in life, this was our first try..

Ooopss..

After some coaxing and we managed to get Tyler slightly more cooperative.

If nothing else, fire always works!

Sneaking of the hat..

Blowing of the candle

Cutting of the cake

Group photo of the cake cutting witnesses

After the lovely cake was consumed, it was time to open the presents! Tyler was seated in his present opening chair and started the paper tearing madness. I think it was a little overwhelming for him and soon he was off and I was soon left with the rest of the pile..

Tyler opening his presents

Tyler and his presents!!!

At last, all the presents have been opened(took me a whole morning to take them out of their boxes!!!)

And 1 yr old party is not complete without a cake faced 1 yr old!

Tyler finally eating his own cake.. :)

Tyler's 1st Birthday Party - the preparations

Tyler had his birthday party on Nov 1st. As I was going to be doing the party by myself(Alan was in China), I decided to keep it simple and got everything catered, even though it killed me that i couldn't bake my son's cake!!

As the party was going to be at 1 pm, i did most of the decorating the night before. It was well after 3 am that i was finally done with tying ribbons on utensils, sticking pictures of my "Wall of Pictures", tidying up the house and arranging those darn streamers!!

My utensils - what do you think? OTT?


My "Wall of Pictures" - pictures of Tyler from each month

In the morning, Steffen came by bright and early with balloons in hand and helped with the rest of decorating and cleaning like raking the leaves and sweeping my deck! (Single girls.. this is the guy you are looking for!!! Call me if you want his info!!)

Steffen and Tyler helping out with balloons


He cleans, he decorates and he's even bendy!!!

And the end result, Ta-da!!!

Desert and cake table..

My catered food..

And we're ready to party!!

Anyways, OK, i'll start a new blog on the actual party!

Tyler's 1st Halloween

OK, by now, you've seen Tyler in his bear costume quite a few times. But this is about Tyler's Halloween experience and his REAL birthday. So bear with me(ha! no pun intended)

Oct 31st this year was one hectic day. Not only was it Halloween, it was also his Birthday AND also his last day of his day care. There was a lot to squeeze into one day.

So, in the morning, Tyler went to the daycare as usual and presented a Thank You card to the 2 teachers, who have been taking care of him since he was 3 months old. Then at about 3 o'clock i brought some cup cakes to the daycare hoping to celebrate his birthday with the teachers but they had left early.. :( and since it was an infant class, only 1 other kid could have the cup cake. Pfftthh.. Tyler wasn't exactly impressed with his cake and instead cried his eyes out hoping to get out of his high chair. So, all in all, not the most rewarding of experience. But, at least the cup cakes were good!


OK, can I get out now?


The 2 big boys in the infant room


Tyler, this is some goood cake.. yummm... says Hoku

Then we left to go to Boulder to attend the Munchkin Parade. As my friend Veronica puts it, it was a ZOO! There were gazillions kids in all kinds of cute outfits crawling all over Pearl Street Mall. Tyler also walked the few blocks and managed to try out trick-or-treat. Not sure he was all that impressed either(kinda hard to impress this kid). Addy, Damith and Sabrina was there with us and joining in the experience.


Tyler trying his hand at trick-or-treating


Tyler and Uncle Damith


OK, I am SOOOO done with this stupid hat.

Here are some samples of what i thought were good costumes that day, i just hope i don't get kicked out of blogspot because of it!!


I thought this was soo cool..


You think the front is bad, wait till you see the back!!! (not posted, you perv!)

After about an hour or so, we left and Tyler and I went to Mateo's house to join him for yet another trick-or-treat outing. This time it was more of the traditional, ring-door-bell-shouting-trick-or-treat kind. It was a beautiful, warm night. Even I, enjoyed it. Probably because i've never done it and I'm a sucker for such things. By the time we went round the block, Tyler finally understood the concept of picking up a candy and putting it in the bag.


Tyler and Mateo..


Mateo all excited to see Tyler

We took some pictures and then after a quick dinner, we went home and Tyler was out for the night while i plowed out to prepare for his party the next day.

I have to say, it was a little too hectic even for me. Better planning next year!