Santa is upstaging Thanksgiving (and my birthday) by sledding into the Park Meadows dining hall from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday at 8401 Park Meadows Center Drive, Lone Tree.

The free welcome celebration includes milk and cookies, gifts, balloon artists, crafts with Disney, Lego and Pottery Barn Kids and holiday music.

Special guest appearances will include L.L. Bear, Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Bearemy, the Gingerbread Man, the Holiday Polar Bear and more. Plus, the jolly man himself will arrive on a big red fire truck to greet guests before heading down to Santa’s Alpine Village for photos. Don’t forget to check out Santa’s Super Sleigh on loan from the North Pole until Dec. 24, which will be on display in the Vistas Court.

Eavesdropping on a man: “Sometimes I think I’m the only sane person in my family. And then I realize just how insane that sounds.”

The eighth annual Denver Arts Week – the largest and most diverse celebration of the arts in the Rocky Mountain region – returns to the Mile High City from Nov. 7-15 with more than 300 scheduled events – many free or at greatly reduced rates.

The nine-day festival is filled with activities devoted to visual arts, theater, music, film, museums, dance, opera, history and heritage.

“Denver Arts Week was created to celebrate Denver’s arts scene to the three million people in the metro area and throughout Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West,” said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver, the organization that stages the event.  “To promote Denver Arts Week and all of the amazing arts and culture opportunities in the city, we have a fully integrated marketing campaign with television, print and web advertising, street banners, a special brochure listing all the events, posters and a variety of social media promotions.”

All of the campaign efforts drive traffic to the www.DenverArtsWeek.com website, where people can find information on all the events taking place as well as dozens of Denver Arts Week deals.

Some of the Denver Arts Week 2014 highlights include:

Know Your Arts First Friday on Friday

Denver Arts Week kicks off with a citywide First Friday street party where more than 100 art galleries in seven neighborhoods will stay open late, offering live music, art demonstrations, food truck roundups and a chance to interact with artists.

• Neighborhoods include the Art District on Santa Fe, Belmar Block 7, Golden Triangle Museum District, Navajo Street Arts District, Tennyson Street Cultural District, RiNo (River North Art District) and  40 West Art District.
• Many galleries will offer artwork for the special mile high price of $52.80.

Night at The Museums on Saturday

Denver Arts Week’s most popular event is back with 24 museums, all of them staying open for free from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday

Denver First Lady Mary Louise Lee is the honorary chair of the event and said, “Night at the Museum is a concept that originated in France and has now spread across Europe, and I believe Denver is one of only a few cities in America that have taken this up.  Not only will the museums be free from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on a Saturday night, but many of them are offering special programs, including music, dance and tours.  In our time crunched world, this is a great opportunity for a family outing on a Saturday night.  Or it’s a great date night.  Or a time for neighbors to get out, have dinner together and go museum-hopping.”

Even better for families, there are free shuttle buses to carry people from one museum to another, making it possible for families to museum-hop to some of the city’s top cultural attractions.

• Many of the museums will offer special programs, family-friendly activities and live entertainment.
• All 24 museums will be open from 5 to 10 p.m. for free. Shuttle buses will stop at or near museums beginning at 5 p.m. from the Denver Art Museum (parking available in the Cultural Complex Garage) and also from a shuttle stop between the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Denver Zoo.
• Museums on the four shuttle routes include: Black American West Museum; Byers-Evans House Museum, The CELL, Children’s Museum of Denver, Clyfford Still Museum, Denver Art Museum, Denver Firefighters Museum, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Forney Museum of Transportation, History Colorado Center, Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Molly Brown House Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art-Denver. Visit www.DenverArtsWeek.com for the full list and shuttle route.
• Also participating, but not on the shuttle route, are: American Mountaineering Museum, Astor House Museum, Clear Creek History Park, Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum, Dinosaur Ridge, Four Mile Historic Park, Golden History Center, Mizel Museum, Museum of Outdoor Art, National Ballpark Museum and the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

 Starz Denver Film Festival, Nov. 12-23

Walk the red carpet during this cinephile’s paradise, featuring film premieres, seminars with nationally-acclaimed actors and directors, and hundreds of independent film screenings and red carpet events. Films will be shown at the Denver Pavilions, on the 16th Street Mall in the heart of downtown Denver, the SIE FilmCenter on East Colfax and at the Denver Performing Arts Complex in the city’s theatre district.

 Art Denver, Nov. 14-17

This year’s Denver Arts Week will culminate with an all-new indoor fine arts experience  inside the Colorado Convention Center, produced by the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. Renowned national visual artists and fashion designers will present one-of-a-kind and handcrafted works for sale, exhibition, inspiration and entertainment.

Denver’s On Stage, Friday through Nov. 15

Denver’s performing arts world struts its stuff all week long during Denver’s On Stage, featuring special deals and discounts for theater, dance, music and more. From discounts to a full day of free dance performances and lessons on Saturday, there are dozens of performing arts specials throughout the week. Some of the performances include:

* Chance to Dance on Saturday. The McNichols Building in Civic Center Park will become a place for all things dance during Denver Arts Week. Take the opportunity to participate in free dance workshops and classes. View free performances from Denver’s best dance companies all day long, and when you’re ready, take the stage for your very own Chance to Dance performance.

* Granny Dances to a Holiday Drum, Nov. 10-13

Enjoy a free full cast rehearsal of the 23rd Season of Granny Dances to a Holiday Drum, a Denver original celebrating and honoring holiday traditions gathered from cultures around the globe. The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble has been blending dance, live music, spoken word and holiday celebrations from around the world into a memorable holiday tradition.

A Symphonic Tribute to Comic Con v2.0 on Nov. 15

The mile high price of $52.80 gets you a pair of tickets to A Symphonic Tribute to Comic Con v2.0 with the Colorado Symphony. Experience an evening of Colorado Symphony’s Symphonic Tribute to Comic Con returning with an upgrade to v2.0. This performance will explore new works from your favorite movies, television shows and video games.

Denver Center for the Performing Arts President and Broadway Executive Director Randy Weeks would have loved the celebration of his life Monday at The Buell Theatre where friends and colleagues paid tribute to the indelible foot print he made on Denver’s theater community.

It was a Broadway-worthy production with musical numbers and loving memories shared by family members and close friends. Weeks, who died of unknown causes in a London hotel room on Oct. 9, was 59 years old.

Weeks was fondly remembered by his brother, Joel Weeks, and two sisters, Pam Weeks and Stephanie Gamble, who shared stories of growing up in Laconia, N.H. He was lauded for being a generous and loving brother and uncle to his nieces and nephews.

Weeks’ fraternity brothers from Kappa Sigma at CU Boulder paid tribute to their fallen brother; lifelong friends told tales; actors sang “I Love a Piano” and “Old Cape Cod”, the cast of “Kinky Boots” sang “Give My Regards to Broadway” and students from the Denver School of the Arts performed “One” from “A Chorus Line.”

At the end, Weeks went out with a bang when confetti canons shot their paper ammunition over the audience.

It was not a time for tears. It was time to remember a life well lived.

A Blue Man Group painting in tribute to the late Randy Weeks, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts President and Broadway Executive Director.

I told you Monday that The Ritz-Carlton Denver had retained its AAA Five Diamond Award for the fifth year running, and that The Ritz was the only hotel to be included on the coveted list.

However, because The Four Seasons Hotel Denver’s headquarters are in Toronto, the local folks couldn’t get a press release approved until the the next day.

So, meaning no slight, let the record show that Denver’s Four Seasons indeed earned the AAA Five Diamond Award for the first time.

“We are thrilled to announce our AAA Five Diamond Rating,” said Thierry Kennel, the hotel’s general manager and regional vice president. “It’s an honor to join the ranks of just 0.3 percent of 59,000 establishments that are rated Five Diamond. We are very fortunate to have such committed, talented individuals on our team, and we thank them for helping us achieve this honor.”

For 78 years, AAA has used professional inspectors to conduct in-person property inspections. AAA offers the only rating system using comprehensive, on-site professional hotel and restaurant evaluations guided by member priorities. With a far greater inventory than any other rating entity, AAA operates the only rating system covering the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Congratulations to The Four Seasons team for the well-deserved top honors.

Lucky Strike, the tricked-out bowling alley in the Denver Pavilions, is turning 10.  In celebration of a decade, Lucky Strike is hosting a 10th anniversary bash with a casino-themed party from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday.

The party will include blackjack, roulette and craps tables, and the chance to win a grand prize trip to Mexico.  DJ Walt White will be spinning the turntables throughout the event, while guests also enjoy a photo booth, food and drinks and of course, the thing that makes Lucky Strike famous – bowling,

Admission is free to folks ages 21 and older. For more information, go to www.bowlluckystrike.com.

The Fourth Annual Denver Public Safety Luncheon, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at The Curtis Hotel Ballroom (1450 Curtis St.) will be held in conjunction with seven Denver charities that focus on public safety with the net proceeds split evenly among them.

The goal is to inform the business community and other interested parties on public safety in Denver. The heads of the public safety
departments for the City of Denver each will give a brief talk on something new or unique that people may not know about public safety. Attendees may submit questions in advance to info@fdfd.org.

Former First Assistant Denver District Attorney Chuck Lepley will receive the Denver Public Safety Lifetime Achievement Award.

Speakers include:
• Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock;
• Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey;
• Executive Director of Safety Stephanie O’Malley;
• Denver Executive Director of Marijuana Policy Ashley Kilroy;
• Denver Police Chief Robert White;
• Denver Fire Division Chief Joe Gonzales;
• Denver Acting Sheriff Elias Diggins;
• Denver Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Scott Field;
• Chief Paramedic, Denver Health Scott Bookman;
• Denver Crime Lab Director Gregg LaBerge;
• Founder of the Medina Alert Larry Stevenson.

Click on this link to register: www.ezregister.com/events/11220

If you would like to pay by check, please make it out to Friends of the Denver Fire Department and send it to P.O. Box 12014, Denver, 80212.

Eavesdropping on a man: “Growing up in Breckenridge we always had a bonfire with all of the Christmas trees at the end of the season. Can we do the same thing with all the political signs?”

Oops, they did it again!

The solid staff of The Ritz-Carlton Denver has been crowned with the AAA Five-Diamond designation for 2014, the fifth time the property has earned that coveted rating. The Ritz is the only hotel in the history of Denver to earn this top designation.

Ritz general manager Steven Janicek said, “I am unbelievably proud we achieved AAA Five-Diamond status for a fifth year; it could not happen without the genuine, friendly service our ladies and gentlemen provide to our guests every day. By enlivening The Ritz-Carlton Gold Standards during every interaction, earning this sought-after ranking was possible.”

The AAA Diamond rating process is considered to be North America’s premier hotel rating program. Only .3 percent of all hotels AAA inspects meets its lofty industry standards to achieve Five Diamonds. The association annually evaluates more than 54 million lodging establishments and restaurants, and rates them on a scale of one to five diamonds.

The Ritz-Carlton, at 1881 Curtis St., is among fewer than one-half percent of the 30,000 properties approved by AAA’s professional inspectors to be of Five-Diamond caliber.