USA 07: Colorado - Christmas

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Christmas Eve!

There wasn’t much planned for today, except for my sister and her family coming over for dinner. It was unfortunately a warm Christmas Eve, which meant that Thinh would once again be robbed of having a white Christmas. This morning we went out to Starbucks so we could get out of the house for a little bit, which was nice. It wasn’t very crowded and we spent a little while hanging out. We ordered one of the holiday treats as a snack and also asked the barista her opinion about the toffee cake. She said it sounded far better than it tasted, which was unfortunate. To our surprise, she then gave us one of the cakes for free so we could see for ourselves! It was a very kind surprise – and she was definitely correct in her opinion of the cake.

When we returned to the house, Caryn, Andy and the kids had arrived – let the chaos begin! The kids were understandably excited about Christmas and for Santa to come and visit. I asked them all what they wanted to get under the tree in the morning, and I also asked if they had all been good throughout the year. I joke with Jack that he’d probably just get a bunch of coal tomorrow and that if he did get any presents, I would just take them all.

We spent the afternoon all hanging out together. Jack and Luke played video games in the basement, while Jane wanted to do art with Thinh and me. Lucy joined us as well – she was finally starting to warm up to us! It was a nice afternoon together with the family and I was glad to have the time together since Thinh and I were leaving in a few days.

For dinner, mom made Mexican buildup, which has been our traditional family dinner on Christmas Eve for decades. As with other meals, there was the struggles with the kids about who would get to sit next to Thinh and/or me, but we eventually put the three older kids at the kitchen island while the adults and Lucy at the big table.

Caryn and the kids didn’t stick around too late after dinner was over. We planned to watch a holiday movie together as a family (she was insistent upon watching the movie Spirited, which we made it about halfway through). Once they had left, my parents, Thinh and I got out all of their presents that we would be taking to Caryn’s house in the morning. Then it was finally time for bed.

 
Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Christmas Day!

This was Thinh’s second Christmas spent with my family and this one would prove to be slightly less chaotic than last year. We got up at 07:00 and joined my parents upstairs so we could open our presents before going to Caryn’s house. It was a much quieter time opening presents without the kids around – I enjoyed the peace!

Most of the presents under the tree were for my parents because Thinh and I had had asked that we not receive anything big since we would have to carry any gifts with us as we traveled for the next month. My parents gave Thinh a T-shirt from the Paris Olympics, along with one from Apple Park (which I had bought when we visited there during our road trip). They also gave him money to be used towards his next round of piano lessons once he got back to Hanoi. I gave Thinh a new band for his Apple Watch, which had Snoppy engraved on it. Thinh loves Snoopy and I thought this would be the perfect, simple gift. Thinh gave me a Darth Vader action figure – a very high quality one too! – and a wallet that looks like the 500 VND bill. I had seen the wallet years before when my friend Susan had visited me in Hanoi; we had gone to Sapa and she found the wallet at one of the tiny shops there. I was quite taken with it as well, but I let her buy it as a gift for her son (it was the only one the store had). Thinh had found it somewhere – I assume online.

Thinh gave my parents a few gifts. For my dad, he gave him a puzzle where the pieces are all entirely clear (it’s called the Impossible Puzzle). I thought it was a funny gift since he loves to do puzzles and now he would have a true challenge! For my mom, he gave her a Hanoi coffee mug from Starbucks. I gave my parents a joint gift: a printed book of my travel blog from our trip to the Paris Olympics. I had given mom a similar book last year that covered our South America trip, which she had loved. I figured this would be a way for them to easily look back at the wonderful trip we’d had together, and also to remember everything that we did during those two weeks.

Gifts opened, we now prepared to head up to Caryn’s house. Mom was making breakfast for everyone this morning and she had to take quite a bit of food with her, along with all of the Christmas presents. There was so much to take with us that we needed to take two cars! Thinh and I stopped off at Starbucks to get coffee on the way to Caryn’s house and we arrived just shortly after my parents.

The kids were all giddy and overflowing with excitement after getting so many presents this morning. They were already playing with several of their new toys, including a video game that required them to wave and flail their arms about to play (a good way to exhaust them!).

Before breakfast, we opened the last batch of presents that my parents had brought up this morning. We also opened the gifts from Caryn and the kids for us. Caryn and Andy gave Thinh another Apple Park shirt, while he gave them the Casa Bonita beer cozies and some coffee from Vietnam. Andy prides himself on his coffee making abilities, so I insisted that he master the art of making Vietnamese-style coffee – a challenge he accepted, claiming that he would make the best cup of Vietnamese coffee ever. Thinh gave each of the three older kids gifts as well. For the boys, they each got some large monster action figure, and Jane received a squishy nightlight. Their gifts had all been on their individual Amazon wish lists, so we knew they would enjoy them. Jane very sweetly gave us some homemade presents – she is always so thoughtful and creative. Caryn gave me a small present as well: some buttons with Ren & Stimpy on them, a true flashback to our childhood!

Mom outdid herself again with breakfast. She made eggs, bacon, sausage, and two batches of cinnamon rolls. Mom’s cinnamon rolls were a staple of the holidays and I always look forward to having them each year (though she complains about what a pain in the ass they are to make, I think she enjoys seeing how much we all enjoy them). The kids hurriedly scarfed down their food so they could get back to playing with their toys, while the adults got to spend some time chatting around the table.

In the afternoon, Thinh and I went out to the cinema so we could get away from the noise and energy of the kids. Well, I needed the escape more than Thinh – he is perfectly content spending time with the kids, but I get overwhelmed by their energy at times. It was raining lightly when we left and it showed no sign of letting up today – a gray, rainy Christmas. The movie theater was about 15-minutes away from Caryn’s house, close to a nearby mall. It wasn’t terribly crowded when we arrived, thankfully.

We bought tickets to see Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which I was rather keen to see. I enjoyed the previous two films, which had been surprisingly good movies based on a video game. Thinh had not seen either of the first two movies, but he was a good sport and went with me to see the third installment. We got salted popcorn and drinks and spent an enjoyable couple of hours at the cinema. I enjoyed this third movie and much as the first two – none of them are great movies, but they are fun escapism.

It was raining much harder when we left the theater and the rain made visibility somewhat difficult during the drive back to Caryn’s house. When we got back, Thinh joined the kids in playing their new video game. It was funny to watch him flailing around as he tried to play along with the kids – they had already mastered the game, of course. Mom was dozing in the rocking chair, somehow able to tune out the noise of the kids in order to get some rest after her hard work this morning.

We went home later in the evening, everyone tired after a long, but fun Christmas holiday. When we got home, we all relaxed and then watched some TV together before bedtime.

 
Thursday, December 26, 2024 – Sunday, December 29, 2024

The rest of the work week was spent working from home so I could start getting everything packed and put away before leaving on Sunday. It was a quiet couple of days at work, so Thinh and I went to Dazbog and Starbucks to get out of the house for a bit each day. I was able to work remotely from both places and Thinh was happy to get out for a while.

On Saturday, we all went back up to Caryn’s house so we could see them one final time. My parents agreed to watch the kids while Caryn, Andy, Thinh and I all went out for lunch. We went to downtown Arvada and walked around for a little bit before settling on an arcade bar, where we had some drinks and food. The food options were limited, but it was enough to fill us up for lunch. While we didn’t end up playing any of the arcade games, it was really nice to just have the four of us hang out without any interruptions by the kids.

When we got back to their house a few hours later, Andy proceeded to make me a Vietnamese-style coffee, as he had promised. He used the Vietnamese coffee that Thinh had given them and he even had sweetened condensed milk for the coffee. I was very impressed with the coffee he made – it would definitely stand up to a local coffee shop back home in Hanoi!

Soon it was time for us to head home, so we had to say our goodbyes to everyone. The kids were sad that we were leaving, but I don’t think they fully understood that we may not be back to visit for up to two years. I was sadder to say bye to Caryn and Andy; I enjoy hanging out with them and we never have enough time together.

Sunday was our final day in Denver and we still had a lot to do before leaving. Thinh and I went to get haircuts in the afternoon and then went home to get everything packed up. He was bringing back quite a few things for his family, but we managed to squeeze everything into our bags – I just hoped they would be under weight for our flights! Mom made us a final homecooked meal for dinner (biscuits and gravy, per my request), which was nice – I would miss her cooking once we left!

My parents drove us out to the airport after dinner so we could catch our red-eye flight to New York. The goodbyes with my parents weren’t very sad because we would be seeing them in a few days when we all flew to Edinburgh. When we checked in our bag at the airport, Thinh’s bag was one pound overweight, and the douchey agent made us remove items so it would get down to weight. I fully understand doing that for a bag that is vastly over the weight limit, but for one pound it was a bit ridiculous. Thankfully we just had to remove the one-pound bag of coffee he had bought – quick and easy!

The airport was super busy, but we didn’t have too long to wait before it was time to board our flight. Sadly we didn’t have seats next to one another because we had bought the cheapest tickets on United and the airline doesn’t guarantee that guests will sit next to one another. It’s a cash-grab so people will pay to pick their seats; the airline could easily assign seats next to one another, but I refuse to play into their game. Besides, the flight was short and we both planned to sleep the entire time, so there was no need for us to sit next to one another. At 23:40 out flight took off from Denver and we were on our way back to New York City!