A Good Year.

Happy 11th Anniversary to the Husband of my Youth.

2011: my favorite vintage to date. Here's to 12!

 And from way back in the day:

 I met Joe when he was just a goofy third-grader, fell in love with him when he was a tall, dark, handsome college student, and love him even more now that he is growing older and wiser along side of me.

One bless-ed chick-a-dee!

Off the grid. . .again!

Merry Christmas to all! 

Joe and I had the good fortune to crash our modem and we were thrown off the world wide web for nearly a whole week!  I was kind of loving the vacation from all the shiny objects out there, even if it forced us to do crazy things like drive to the theater to find out what time the movie was playing, or stepping outside to see if it was raining.  But we had a Christmas absent of facebook and blogs and emails, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

Anyway, we've spent the last hour on our separate laptops trying to catch up a bit with all the world happenings, and happy to say the world kept turning without us.

So there it is.  My excuse for falling behind.  And I can't say I'm even worried about it.  That's what freedom feels like.

An experiment.

I'm a little wary of any project that starts out with the question, "Does plastic melt if you get it too hot?"
Will had apparently got a hold of some duct tape and his imagination went wild. He built me this little cooking arm to start. He wanted something that could hold, say, chocolate for melting. I told him this little get-up would melt before the chocolate did.

So then he made this one. But the glue on the duct tape melted before it could boil.

So finally, he made this. But the plastic still got hot, and the sticks started to smoke and all that hot plastic and smoky sticks made the house reek, and I had to open all the windows and doors in the 20 degree weather to air the place out.

But the point is, despite the stench, the little cookstove worked and my little bud is a budding inventor, and I'm willing to handle a bit of a draft for an afternoon to get to the nugget of whatever he might be working on. Plus, it kept him intensely occupied for nearly two days. And isn't that the goal of a successful Christmas vacation??? :)

Free Ice Skating!

Patricia Isenberg is always inviting the kids along for some free skating at the local skating rink. Susan has taken my Sara a couple of times, but the older kids are always in school. This year, she did a free skate on the first day of Christmas vacation, and Kayte could not have been more excited! We bundled up and headed down. It was absolutely insanely busy, and the kids definitely spent more time on their bums then on their skates, but lots of fun was had, nonetheless.

Ben was lucky and scored one of the guides. . .and then Will helped him push it around a bit. . .

They actually looked like they were catching on towards the end. . .I'm hopeful! I can say Will is not much of a fan, but he still wouldn't stop getting out there and giving it a good go.

The celebration begins. . .

We did Ltown lights and Red Lobster and began celebrating Joe's birthday. . .with all 34 candles! I left my camera behind for Ltown, but managed to score some pics of the birthday. All the cousins were there!

These 4 little three-year olds, only 3 months apart total. Looking at the treasures under Grandma's tree. . .

Ice-fishing:

Joe took the kids ice-fishing twice last weekend, and they ended up with quite a haul. One of my favorite places that they go. They always bring home dinner.

Love Ben's face. He won't touch the fish, so funny.

Sara went the second day. Love her skirt peeking out under her coat. That girl is it.

Christmas at the Grange.

We've been blessed with good roads for travelling this December! So last Saturday we headed up for dinner at the Grange Hall with all my mom's family and aunts and uncles and cousins. We managed to scoot in just in time for the Greedy Game and lasagna by the panful!
Always so good to see the family! It's like a mini-reunion every year!

Grandkids.

Great grandkids.

The original generation, minus 2.

The greedy game.

Me and a really blurry photo of my grandpa. With his map. The map. The map that inspired me to make the 50 states my 28 year goal. . .originally I was gonna see them all by the time I was 28. . .it looks like it might be more like 56. Still. I love that story. My mom managed to walk away with this little gift, which is great. I'm glad it's in my family.

The timeline. Before facebook.

Not planned.

The littles. Sneaking cookies before dinner.

Grandpa blesses the meal. He's the blessing.

The Best Christmas Program. . .Ever!

Ok, so maybe I'm a little biased. But besides that, this program was the perfect blend of concert and cute. The wassail song at the beginning was my favorite. You were completely surrounded by little kids' voices as if you were sitting in the center of a cathedral boys' choir. Loved it!

These are all mine :)

The evening leading up to the program is always plain crazy. Eat, primp, and go. But by the time everyone was settled in with their class, we were ready to relax and enjoy it!

O come all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant! We've already won!