Living the grown-up life

So, my mom is in town for a visit, which started off fabulously when I looked on the American Airlines website at 1 p.m. to see if her 3 p.m. flight was on time, only to discover that the 3 p.m. flight was actually a 1:15 p.m. flight, and we live half an hour from the airport. Awesomely, at the time Torsten was out running errands with the car, so I called him all in a panic being like, COME HOME RIGHT NOW THIS SECOND OMG.

Luckily, I made it to the airport only about ten minutes after my mom had found the baggage claim, and her bag had only just arrived when I got there, so it ended up not being an issue. And then we had a lovely weekend together, involving a walk with the dog in the park, bowling, sushi, grilling, a fire (in the fireplace), and ooooh SHOPPING LOTS OF SHOPPING. But all with gift cards. I only spent $10 in actual cash on myself. And I came home with a purple paring knife (even the BLADE is purple), two new king-size pillows, a king-size mattress pad, the CUTEST set of outdoor dinner plates, dryer balls, and purple clothes hangers. Plus a Christmas present for my mother and another for my father. Yes, I know it's April, but their birthday presents have already been dealt with for the year, and Christmas is the next real gift-giving holiday, and these things are perfect for them and will still be in December.

Ooo, and speaking of Christmas, we're trying to figure out a way to celebrate it here in Denver this year. I think we're going to be able to make it work. This is awesome because it means we only have to fly cross-country (and board the dog) once over the holidays, for Thanksgiving, and also because it means that we get to have a holiday in our house! Like it's a real house that real things happen in! And we get to host our first holiday like grown-ups! Hopefully by then we'll have our dining room set, but really, who knows, and the one we have now will do in a pinch.

I'm already thinking about hanging stockings over our fireplace, and where we'll set up the Christmas tree (in the bay window in the living room, I think)--and oo, it can be a big Christmas tree this year because it's a big house and we have room for it! And we can cook all the food in the kitchen, and Montana can experience her first family holiday, which I really think she'll like because it involves food and lots of people in the house and general hustle and bustle, which is interesting for a nosy dog like her to observe.

Of course, I shouldn't get too excited because the details haven't all been worked out yet, but oh, I think it's going to happen and I am quite excited. And it's great having my mom here and I can't wait to have more guests. Because we have ROOM for them! No air mattresses or giving up office space or living room space so that the guests can sleep. And she can have privacy! And her own bathroom. Oh, it's like we're GROWN-UPS or something. I can't even deal.