Family in Town

This weekend I had the good fortune to celebrate Mother’s Day with my Mom in town.  My daughters were a little disappointed that their Mother was out of town, but we still had fun with Skype.  Video conferencing is not something I have often embraced, but it is a huge improvement over phone calls.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, we took the family out to Olive Garden.  While this is not a particular treat, my daughters certainly enjoy the food.  I always find dishes I like and this time I had the spaghetti carbonara.  It was a little too saucy for my tastes, but tasty enough.  We had another dish and an appetizer and ended up taking a lot of food home.  The Olive Garden in Arvada is really well run and the 45 minute projected wait ended up being closer to a half hour.  They even brought out appetizers and drinks for people in the lobby.

The other highlight of the trip was attending the ANA National Money Show.  This is a great event that was last held in Denver back in 2005.  We satisfied a few items from my Father’s want list and my Mom was able to liquidate some of my less desirable coins.  I really enjoyed the displays which included $100,000 bills, an 1804 Silver Dollar and a 1913 Nickel.  Apparently there was a 1792 half dimse on display as well, but I missed that.  I also missed the individual displays which I really find fascinating.  I still plan to put together my own display once I find a theme, I am passionate about.  It will probably focus on an interesting year from a numismatic or political perspective.

Traveling and having family in town can be stressful, but it is important to enjoy the time that you can spend together and be honest about your needs as well.  I made a point of retreating to the basement to watch television and taking the time to get out and exercise.  Both of these activities are relaxing to me.