Because Riley turned 13 this year (13!), we now officially have two teens in the house. (Unofficially, all of us pigs have been working a teen ‘tude for a bit now.) And Riley’s birthday at the end of October marks the start of our Holiday Season. This year, we were ready for it. Riley likes to keep it low-key, so for his birthday we ate at one of his favorite restaurants, got cake from his favorite cake shop, and hit up Glow at the Gardens. We love the Botanic Gardens on non-holidays, but on Halloween and in December, they get all dressed up with lights and serve hot chocolate. It’s lovely. Also, Riley got a phone, so now’s he a part of that population. (Still no social media for any pigs, though, so there’s that.) Anyway, it was a great day had by all.
The week after Riley’s birthday, we returned to the Botanic Gardens for Ghost at the Gardens, which is an event where staff share personal stories of their haunting experiences at the gardens. Because it is built on the old Denver cemetery, and because the city never excavated and reinterred all of the old residents, not only do the gardens still regularly dig up bodies, but there are tons of stories of ghosts haunting the place. We heard lot of cool stories this year, but this wasn’t the first year we attended this event. The first year we went to Ghosts at the Gardens was the year before the pandemic, and when we were there, we actually had our own ghost experience!
That year, the garden took small groups around from spot to spot on the grounds, stopping along the way to share stories about paranormal encounters. The lights were mostly off on the grounds, and the guide continually asked that the group stay together and that stragglers keep up. When Dad mentioned this to Emmett, who was falling a bit behind, he turned around and said, “What about that guy back there?” But when Dad looked where Emmett was pointing, he saw nothing. He did, however, see that Asher was also staring at the same place. Turns out, both Emmett and Asher saw a dark figure following our group, but no one else did. Creepy, huh!
Back to this year…
We trick or treated with friends again this year, and it was amazing! Emmett was Vecna, Tessa was a Demogorgan, and Riley was Eddie from Stranger Things, and Asher was a soldier. Emmett trick or treated the entire night in bare feet because his costume included foot coverings and he wanted to look authentic. It was cold and by the end of the night both Mom and Dad expected him to at least say something about being bare foot, but Emmett didn’t complain once. What commitment to character!
Speaking of character, Emmett did another handful of classes this fall at the DCPA. We all attended a performance for his Improv Class, and it was so funny that it made the rest of want to enroll in Improve Classes too. He’s scheduled to be in a performance of Glee in the new year, so stay tuned for information about that.
Tessa continued creating fantastic art projects in art class this fall, and she even made her own dragon costume for Options’ Book Character Day. She went as a character from the Wings of Fire books, and she looked fantastic!
Asher’s progressed to not only being water safe in swim classes, but now he’s working on the butterfly stroke. He’s planning to pivot from swimming to breakdancing in January, but we’re all so proud of the progress he’s made with his swimming. Yay, Asher!
Riley joined a JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) archery team and his coach thinks that he’s a natural. Coach wants Riley to start to train for the Olympics in 6 years because he thinks Riley has a great chance at medaling, but Riley wants to just have fun with the sport. He’s going to start slow, entering into some tournaments in the spring, and go from there. We’ll see what happens with it, but really it all comes down to what Riley decides. For now, he’s chosen to have fun, and he’s achieving that goal, which is great!
If you’ve been looking at our pics you’ve seen that we just got back from Washington DC! We toured the Capitol and Arlington, we walked the mall many times over and took in all of the memorials, we went undercover at the Spy Museum (twice), and we skated at the wharf. Also, we got to see the Smithsonian’s Air and Space and Natural History Museums. We were on our feet for an average of 8 hours a day, and we walked most places (except when it was so cold we just couldn’t manage it). But loved it all.
We celebrated Emmett’s birthday when we were there too! He’s 14 now. Crazy. We had dinner at a place with an arcade and we went ice skating to celebrate. Also, he loved his hippo onesie, his squish action figures, and the Lego sets he got for his presents. Overall, it was a win!
Coming up, we have Hanukkah, Mom’s Birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s. We have tickets to A Christmas Carol, Blossoms of Light at the Botanic Gardens, (we already attended Zoo Lights), and we booked a Drag Queen to be our guide at another local holiday event. Everything’s going to be great. We can’t wait!
Hopefully everyone out there in Pig Land is enjoying this holiday season…
Stay warm!
The Pigs
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