I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!

Snow from the Past

Since we have no snow I figured I would share some pictures of years past and what it is supposed to look like here in MN in the Winter. Isn't it beautiful??

White Christmas

For the last four years we have flown from Georgia to Minnesota to spend time with our families for Christmas. Every year we had beautiful white snow for Christmas and New Years. It was perfectly wonderful!

THIS year, the first year we are living back in MN, we have NO snow!! (sense the tone, I am a little peeved :) We have had two small snow falls but that snow has all melted away. Every morning on NPR they tell me that there will most likely be no more significant snow before Christmas....we are going to have a brown Christmas. I am bummed! Not only is it brown and dead looking outside but it is cold and we can not participate in our winter snow & ice activities. Like snowshoeing, ice skating, sledding, and cross country skiing (wanted to try it this year). Yes, this is my pity party.

So, this weekend Eric and I plan on getting outside....despite the cold and muddy ground and do something! Most likely this will just be a long walk around a lake, but I have to get outside! And, I am praying for snow. It is going to be a long winter with out it! And, I feel a little cheated. :)

This time last year: December

This past Thursday Eric and I went to downtown Minneapolis for the annual Target Holidazzle parade with our friends DJ & Rachel. I love having all the different events going on around Christmas like parades. This time last year we went to the Christmas parade in Athens. We went every year while we lived there. I missed the Athens parade this year since it is a heck of a lot warmer in GA this time of year than it has been here in MN!

The holidazzle parade was OK. We mostly watched from one of the skyways in the city and were able to stay warm inside. (FYI...The skyways are a way for people to walk ALL OVER downtown without having to go outside. This is very important during our winters here since it can be biter cold and there can be a lot of snow, ice and slush on the roads/sidewalks.) The parade was very short. It only lasted 30 min. I don't blame them since it is so cold out, but still kind of a disappointment. I wanted LOTS of lights and there were probably only a half dozen floats. Even though the parade was a little bit if a disappointment it was fun to hang out with our friends!



Rachel & DJ



Me & Eric

This week is going to be great!

Monday: Lunch with my mom and Dinner with my friend Kristen! (Plus a little Christmas Shopping)

Tuesday: first night of Tutoring

Wednesday: Church Small Group and dinner

Thursday: Holidazzle Parade!!!

Friday: nothing planned....yet!

Saturday: Cooking baking with my mom

Sunday: Christmas Concert at Park Ave United Methodist Church

Tutoring

Since being back in MN Eric and I have been thinking of ways we can be involved in our church and community. We have decided that we wanted to tutor kids through a program at our church. Its called Park Avenue Youth and Family Services and we will be tutoring a child once a week helping them with reading. The kids are mostly from a school near by that has a very low population of students that pass the states reading exam (I think only 20% passed last year). Most of the kids in our neighborhood are very behind in their reading levels and need help catching up after school.

I am very excited to do this but I am also super nervous. Eric kind of had to talk me into it because I wasn't sure I was "smart enough" to tutor kids. I was never good at spelling, math, or science so I don't want to mess up the kid more! But I think I will be able to handle reading. I know Eric is going to be really good at it. He has tutored kids before at another school in South Minneapolis.

We will work with our kid for a whole hour on a reading assignment that is designed to catch them up to the reading level they should be at. After they have finished the reading assignment we will have 30 min of fun time. During this time we can play games, read more, or work on other homework.

I found out yesterday that I will be tutoring a 2nd grader and Eric is tutoring an 8th grader from the same family. I am excited to build a relationship with my student and to help him/her grow in their reading abilities. I am sure I will learn a lot in this process as well! Wish us luck!

Our Christmas Tree!

This past weekend we also picked out our Christmas Tree. This is the first year we have had a tree in 5 years. We never got one in GA since we would always be in MN for the holidays. So this year I was super excited to get one! I love having a tree and decorating it.

We picked our tree at a place in Zimmerman, MN. It was fun to walk the row of trees and pick out the one for us! Eric's mom and step dad came with us. It was such a mild and comfortable day to be outside and pick a tree.



Eric & his mom, Becky




Me & our tree

It didnt take us long to decorate our tree. I like having the tree in our living room, it adds a nice ambiance and makes everything more festive. After decorating the tree I spent some time decorating the rest our our apartment for Christmas. It didnt take long since we dont have such a large space but it was still fun.

Thanksgiving 3

Our 3rd Thanksgiving meal was with my parents on Saturday. My mom recently had surgery so I helped out a lot in the kitchen. The food here was very good as well! Luckily I didn't over do it this time. While at my parents, we also helped them with their Christmas tree. My family's tradition is to flock the Christmas tree with fake snow every year. We had a lot of fun flocking the tree and then decorating it. It is also our tradition to have Irish Coffee while flocking and decorating so it was a good time!

Thanksgiving 2

We had a great Thanksgiving weekends with our families! Since we had Thanksgiving with friends last month this weekend was technically our 2nd & 3rd  Thanksgiving feasts. On Thursday we spent the day at Eric's aunts house where we had 23 people and 5 dogs to hang out with. Some of the girls went for a walk before the big meal while others played some touch football.

Before eating Eric's cousins Drew and Trevor also sang us a unique song they created in honor of Thanksgivings past. Lucky for us, it was filmed and put on YouTube....

The food was AMAZING! We had everything we could have wanted and more. Dessert was also very yummy but I was SOOOO full at the end of the day. This was the first time in a LONG time that most of the family were together for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to be able to see everyone, play games, and make new memories for next year. Hopefully the cousins come up with a 2nd part to Thanksgiving day song for next year!

This time last year: November

This time last year I am sure we were enjoying 50-60 degree days in Athens. This past weekend we had our first significant snow fall here in MN. We got about 2 inches on Saturday and it blanketed the city nicely. I enjoyed watching the snow come down and even ventured outside to take a few pictures....

Last year we were fortunate to have my parents fly down from MN and have Thanksgiving with us in Athens. This year we get to see ALL our families at Thanksgiving! We feel so blessed and thankful to be here this year for the holidays. Our Thanksgiving day will be with my mother in law's side of the family. I think there will be about 20 people at this Thanksgiving day feast! I am contributing sweet potato casserole (thanks to Lynn for her fabulous recipe!) to bring a little southern cookin to the festivities. We will also be having a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner with my parents over the weekend. I am excited to spend significant time with everyone and.... start decorating for Christmas! We plan to get our tree this weekend so stay tuned for more updates!

Until then..... Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Words from my blog....

by: http://www.wordle.net/create

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!

Two weekends ago I got together at my MIL's house with some of Eric's cousins and his Aunt to start baking Christmas cookies. Believe it or not but we made almost 1400 cookies. Isn't that crazy! We had a blast making about a dozen different kinds. It was great to spend time with family and learn how to make some of my favorite cookies! For now, the ones I took home are in the freezer waiting for the appropriate time to serve Christmas cookies. I also plan to make some of my own favorites and get together with my mom to make some of hers. What are your favorite Christmas cookies?

June 2012

Well not much has been going on this week. So...we have been planning our family vacation for next summer to.... Kauai! We will be going there in June with my parents for 10 days. We are SUPER excited to be going. Eric and I have had the itch to travel since our last trip to Costa Rica Spring 2010.

For our trip we have our plane tickets booked and a place to stay! We will be renting a vacation home in the little town of Haena on the island of Kauai.


View Larger Map

Here is the link to the place if you want to check it out: http://www.vrbo.com/104754. While in Kauai we plan to swim, snorkel, hike, kayak, and explore all the wonders of the island. I cant wait!

Have you ever been to Kauai? I would love your recommendations!!

Pine Tree Apple Orchard

On Saturday Eric and I met up with my parents at Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake. It was a nice but chilly afternoon at the orchard. We walked around a little, took some family photos, ate some yummy apple desserts and I bought a bag of apples, gallon of cider, and a jar or honey. It was fun to spend time with my parents at the orchard before heading to their place for dinner. We had a great time!

Canadian Thanksgiving

On Monday we decided to have a thanksgiving worthy feast with some friends.....it also happened to be Canada's Thanksgiving Day! We had turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, bread, cranberry sauce, pumpkin & apple pie! It was all so yummy and super filling! I didn't even want to eat on Tuesday because I still felt full! We had a great time just talking and eating. I think this will have to be a tradition!

Last days at the Cabin

We spent this past weekend at the family cabin on Rainy Lake relaxing and enjoying the company of family. It was our last weekend before the cabin is closed up for the winter. We spent most of our time with Aunts,Uncles, Cousins and Eric's sister Rachel. We also spent some time reading and playing cards with some of Eric's high school friends. We loved being at the cabin and will be sad to not be there again for several long winter months.

Rachel with Cousin Minna

Me & Eric

Eric enjoying his bath in the cold Rainy Lake

The Helleloid Girls: Karin, Tara, Kate, Kris, Me, Minna & Rach

Cousin Blaine & Eric

The excitement of the weekend was finding a flying squirrel in the stove/fireplace. Apparently it was looking for its winter home and thought our cabin looked good. After being a little spooked from the noise and discovering two beady looking eyes in the stove we started trying to capture the little guy. He was scared and obviously didn't want to be captured by us. After several failed attempts and a whole night to relax, we got him trapped in some Tupperware. I am sure he was happy to be out of the fireplace and back into the wild....lets hope he doesn't try to use the cabin as his winter home again!