A Breath of Fresh, Cold Air

Look what I saw on the way to work earlier this week! A guy riding a motorcycle! By the way, it's winter in Minnesota and the temperature in the morning was 1 degree below zero. I can't say I've ever seen this before. It's cold enough on a bike sometimes in the summer! CRAZY.

Strike! (or spare, split or gutter)

M and I went bowling the day after Christmas at Saxon Lanes by our house. We hadn't been bowling together for a long time. Bowling is usually our Sunday activity once football season is over but I don't think we went one time last year. We bowled three games and my highest score was 134! That's really good for me. I'm always happy if I break 100, which I did for two of the games. I won the last game and only missed another game by two points. M and I don't usually compete against each other though. Our only goal is to get a higher score than the game you just bowled.

Christmas

I didn't write about Thanksgiving nor take any pictures but it was great as always, however my window of time to write about Christmas is still open.

Our annual Christmas Eve tradition almost didn't happen. With a snowstorm on the way, there was a debate whether or not many of us would even make it to my aunt's house in Somerset, Wisconsin. While we already had a good 5-6 inches of snow already, the snow after that never amounted to much as they predicted. It just stayed too warm for the snow to really come down and instead we were hit with rain/snow mix. I rode with my parents to my aunt's house, while M went to his sister's house for to celebrate. Our families celebrate holidays often at the same time of day so for Thanksgiving and Christmas, M and I aren't usually with each other. We arrived at my aunt's around 4 pm. Christmas Eve is also my Gramma's birthday. We had many hors d'oeuvres

before dinner as we always do. I made a dip with shrimp, cream cheese and cocktail sauce. We said Happy Birthday to my Gramma and spent most of the time watching the kids open presents.

My nephews: Jack, Gunnar, Hunter, Keith

My Grandpa and Gramma

On Christmas Day, M and I opened our presents together in the morning. I got a few things from him but the one thing I was most excited about was the Kitchenaid mandoline that I've wanted!

I traveled the extreme 1.9 miles to my parents house for dinner, presents and games. We opened presents first. The show was mostly on my nephew Keith. It's fun to watch kids open their presents, one after another and then on with the next new toy. We ate lasagna, salad and bread. Later, we played some games and had snacks. Without getting into detail, I gave my mom a present, which made her cry. I NEVER see my mom cry! Of course that made me cry and then my dad started crying too. (Sorry, Dad.) Now you know which parent I get my emotional/crying side from. On the other hand, my sister gave my dad a present that made him laugh so hard. She's a joker of the family, along with my dad so those two together make all of us laugh.

Sorry Dad, I had to.






On Sunday, the 27th, I again traveled to my parent's for my dad's side of the family. My cousin is pregnant and they were finding out what they were having the next day. I still haven't heard officially from them, even though I saw it leaked on Facebook from someone else. :) And then my other cousin just got recently engaged and is hopeful to plan a 2010 wedding. That is in addition to his brother who also got engaged just months earlier who will also be getting married in 2010. Baby and two weddings in 2010...from one immediate family! We had a full turkey dinner, just like Thanksgiving, which is my favorite. I made a Swiss Vegetable Bake, which I learned of the recipe through M's sister, Cherrie. I always loved when she made it. Now I can carry on her tradition to my family. I also made a ton of cookies on the later weekends in December. I wish I took some pictures of them altogether but forgot to. Actually, I forgot to use my camera to take pictures of pretty much everything other than my nephew. I have to get better at doing so for family gatherings.

This was the only picture I took of any of the different cookies I made.

Christmas Concert

My nephews' sang in their Christmas concert at their church. All of the Sunday school and Confirmation kids sang multiple songs as part of the Christmas service. I didn't get the best pictures but Keith is the one with the gray sweater with stripes and Hunter is right behind him. They were both very cute up there.

Happy 50th

Our friend Danny turned 50 years old on December 19th and to celebrate, we went out on the 18th to First Avenue. We first met up with Sara and Debbie at Tony Jaro's in NE Mpls. for a quick drink and then on to First Avenue. One of Danny's favorite bands is E.L.O., or Electric Light Orchestra so it was fitting to see an ELO tribute band named E.L.nO. In addition to them was a Beatles and Van Morrison tribute band. Danny doesn't drink so we all did a non-alcoholic shot with him. Towards the end of the band's set, they said Happy Birthday to Danny and everyone in the crowd sang to him. Sara, his daughter, arranged it with the band weeks before but never heard back from them so she wasn't sure if they were going to do it or not. I know Danny had a fantastic birthday. He said he hasn't felt better in his life! Here's to another 50 years, Danny!

Work Holiday Party

On December 17th, my work had their holiday party, which was different than year's past due to budget constraints. Instead of the holiday party on a Friday night with dinner and dancing at a hotel, we had it on a Thursday, leaving work at 2:30 pm to go to Park Tavern in St. Louis Park for appetizers, pizza, drinks, bowling and cake. I bowled with two people who are on actual bowling leagues so my bowling skills looked their worst. After bowling, they had prize drawings and I won a $25 Ruby Tuesday gift card. Yay for me!

Acme Comedy Club

Our December's Quest for Comedy was at Acme again and we saw Dan Cummins on December 16th. This guy was hilarious and is one of my favorites for this year. We got to meet him after the show and we told him that we see a comedian every month and he thought that was great of course and was happy that he "won" as the comedian of choice for December. He has a couple of Comedy Central specials so if you ever get the chance, check him OUT!

Bye Bye, Jenni

Ok, so she's been gone for weeks already, but M and I went to send off our friend Jenni to the warmer climate of Florida on Saturday, December 12th. Jenni moved to Florida to start a new chapter of her life. She's lived there before and maybe she'll be back again but she joins many other family members that also live there. Jenni is my sister's best friend and has been since they were single digits. I've known Jenni just as long and we even worked together a few years ago and our parents still only live a couple of house away from each other.

She had a going away party at Major's in Apple Valley. When she originally planned the day, no one realized that the place would be packed and everyone would be trying to get the closest seat to all of the TV's surrounding the place showing the UFC fight. I don't like watching boxing or fighting but I think we all got sucked in a little bit that night. There is one thing that I hate when I watch UFC...the fighters are barefoot. I don't know why it bothers me but it does. I can't stand to watch the sight of their bare feet and kicking each other with them. I don't think feet are gross but I wish they would have shoes on. Anyways....Jenni was very loved that night. She had a great turnout of friends from high school and former coworkers. We're hoping to meet her for a lunch in Florida anytime that M and I are down there.

Don't forget to take note of the TV's in the background with the fights. There were TV's that far apart from each other all over the whole place.

Jamie, Jenni, Me

The girls and Jenni's "little" brother Jeff. I hadn't seen him for about 20 years!

That guy was so bloody. The ring was stained red afterwards.

The Best Of....

Each year The City Pages had a "Best of the Twin Cities" list, which rates various things from best pizza to best make out spot. There are usually two winners for each category...City Pages Choice and the Reader's Choice. We always make it a goal to tackle this list each year but with so many categories, we usually do a handful each year. We visited the best donut place in December....Granny Donut. While the website isn't impressive, the donuts are. I had an apple fritter. If you are over on Robert Street in West St. Paul, visit this little place. With all the retail on Robert, it's easy to miss so keep your eyes peeled.

When is the last time you saw your donuts being made? Krispy Kreme doesn't count!

Out with the Girls

As per usual, I met with the girls in December for our monthly happy hour. We met at Oak City in Bloomington. They have great happy hour specials for food but I wouldn't know about the drinks since none of us even ordered an alcoholic drink. You can still have happy hour without the alcohol, right? I love getting together with these girls and look forward to each outing with them. P.S. If you go to Oak City anytime during lunch hours until March, you can add soup to your meal for the same price as the temperature. Soup is free these days!

Joseph Arthur

M and I went on Thanksgiving weekend to see one of our favorite artists, Joseph Arthur. That is the first concert that M and I went to as a couple back in November 2004. Since then, we've seen him numerous times either solo or with a band. We prefer his solo music to his music with the band The Lonely Astronauts so we were excited when we got to see him in an intimate location, just him. The concert was at Bryant Lake Theater, which is attached to Bryant Lake Bowl, in Uptown. While I have been to BLB before, I had never seen a show there but knew the theater was small. Small?! Once arrived, it was a like a closet! It was much smaller than I thought it would be, which was just perfect for the musician we were about to see. I counted the number of seats while we were waiting for the show to start and I think it was around 75 seats or slightly less. He played for about 1 hour and 40 minutes and the show was very good. We got to talk to him and take a picture with him after the show. We had met him before years ago after another one of his shows. He audio records most of his shows and you can purchase the live show right after the concert is complete, which we did. His music can be very inspiring and depressing at the same time, but nonetheless emotional, regardless of what emotion. If you are looking for a good singer/songwriter who has battled and combated drugs and alcohol and has found God in his life, you should check out Joseph Arthur, his music and his art.







After the show, M and I headed west to Eden Prairie for a late dinner at Wildfire. We first visited Wildfire for my birthday in January and it has become a favorite place for us, despite this only being our second visit. We had filet mignon and it was fantastic. We also shared a dessert that came with my dinner that was chocolate, warm and rich. Yum!

Friday's Fun Facts

Merry Christmas!

• If all of the mercury from tainted fish were collected worldwide, it would amount to less than a drop of the highly toxic material.
• Contrary to the belief that the Harry Potter book series encourages literacy by its mere popularity, most fans of Harry Potter do not read books unrelated to the series.
• Every Republican president since Eisenhower has pronounced "nuclear" as "noo-kyoo-ler"
• The average male's hair starts to grey at the age of 32.

Snow Stats

Here in the MN, the snow is coming and will be here for Christmas. After reading an article in the paper, here are a couple stats about snow in the Twin Cities for Christmas time.

The Twin Cities has rarely seen a major snow storm on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The snowiest Christmas Eve in the Twin Cities was in 1932 when 3 inches fell. The snowiest Christmas Day was in 1945 with 9.6 inches. The 3.4 inches of snow that fell on Christmas Day in 2007 was the most snow since 1950. I can't even remember that day in 2007. Dad, can you remember that day in 1945? Ha ha!!

Enjoy the snow, my MN friends and of course, safe travels.

Techno Jeep

Check out this video!

Friday's Fun Facts

Are you done Christmas shopping yet? Have you even started?

• Gaming and probability experts predict that one of the multi-state lottery games will have a jackpot in excess of one billion US dollars some time in the next 6.24 years if the rules for the current lotteries remain as they are currently constituted
• The most-purchased item at Office Depot is a 1.69 oz. bag of plain M&M's.
• A random sample of people named Anna conducted in 2002 by the Institute for Nomenclature found that 32 percent of the Anna's were unaware or had never noticed that their name was spelled the same backwards and forwards.
• In liquid form, the entire population of the United States could fit into ten major league stadiums, filled to the brim.

My nephew

A few weeks ago, we went over to my parents house to play some games. My nephew was there and I just had to post some pictures of the little guy. He is just so cute and getting to the age where he is so much fun and interactive. He's in first grade and a cub scout and also plays hockey. I'm sure he'll be graduating from high school before I know it. I just love this little guy!

This year's school picture

His cub scout uniform

He thought it was so funny to give Grandpa bunny ears

Keith posing for me with a cracker in his mouth

Tailgating Adventures

I thought I would combine all of the tailgating experiences we've had over the past three weeks into one post. There's not much to say about any particular experience other than it was mostly cold and that the Vikings won that day. Haven't seen a Vikings loss at home all season! Enjoy.

November 22nd- Vikes beat the Seahawks 35-9. It's the first time tailgating after the Cherrie Jones Tailgate Party but we still had a nice group, including M's niece Kayla.

November 30th- Vikes beat the Bears 36-10. These dudes lost a bet and had to dress up like this for the game. Another cold day and very windy.

This past Sunday, December 13th against Cincinnati. Vikes win 30-10. This game is a milestone for M. The Bengals were the last of the 32 NFL teams that M has seen live. He's seen every NFL team in person! It was sooooo cold.