Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Dan's mom, dad, brother Jim , brother Charles and his Fiance Sara. We ate supper, then opened gifts and then to the 10:00 church that night. I forgot that the church always does a ton of poinsettais in the front, and of course I am VERY allergic to them, so I spent a couple of days trying to recover from that little episode!! We went to Mom & dad's for Christmas day and ate like pigs again!! We opened gifts and after Dan fell asleep on the couch, we decided to go to a movie that evening. Mom & dad, dan & I, my cousin Lance and his wife Chellie and Ty went to Marley and Me. It was a very good, but emotional movie, just like the book.
We had a great time seeing family and friends. On Friday night, we got together with Justin and Sunne and had supper together. We miss not spending time with them like we used to. After supper we played a fierce game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. We had so much fun!! After all the fierce competition, we exchanged gifts and visited. Dan's brother Jim came out to the house and stayed with us on Friday night also. Saturday morning we went to Bloody Mary Breakfast before Dan and Jim took off for MN. They went down to see a Timberwolves basketball game, and then to the Vikings and Minnesota Wild Hockey game on Sunday. They had a blast spending time together and shared a few laughs along the way.
I stayed home and spent some quality time with mom & dad, grandpa & grandma and of course my furry little four legged friend. Sunday Mom, dad, & I tackled the fur ball that I like to call Mattie. She looks so different. She was getting so furry that I couldn't even see her eyes!! She is happy with her new haircut, she told me so!! She is such a snow dog. I have never seen a dog love to roll and plow through so much snow, as her. She will find the deepest snow and go through it. When she comes in the house, she looks at you like, "what is your problem, so I brought a little snow into the house"!! What a little shit!! Oh well, at least she goes out and does her job!!
We have made some really great friends in Dickinson, Steph and Brady, who also have a schnauzer. His name is Milo. He is too cute. Mattie and Milo love to play together. Last week, Steph invited us over to have supper with them. Her mom and dad were in town and also her 2 brothers. Little did I know that there would be two more Schnauzers at the house too!! There were a total of 4 little Schnauzers running around the house once we brought Mattie over. It was crazy for the first few minutes, but they all got along great and played so much!! We tried to get pics, but unfortunately, that did not work so well!!
Everything else is going well. We are feeling settled and are really liking the town of Dickinson. We have met several different couples and hang around with a lot of the guard guys and their wives. We hope everyone had a great Christmas and a blessed new year!!

Baking!

So I decided this year I would take a crack at baking for Christmas. I figured it would be would a good little wife should do!! I started with dipping pretzels, that really sucked and I think I will just buy them next year!!! But I moved on to making cookies. Mom has always made about 50 different kinds of cookies, but I decided that she is just nuts and I stuck to 4 different kinds!! I have actually enjoyed spending time making the cookies and I think that Dan is just as shocked as I am that they actually turned out!! I think he was a little hesitant to try the first one, but to his amazement it was good!! He was a really good support to me and he loved to come home and see me baking. I think this will be a new tradition for the holidays in our house!! Thanks to mom for always answering the phone, even if I called 17 times in one night to find out what to do!!!

Christmas is getting closer!!

Colder than...

I know that I always say that I love the cold and the snow in North Dakota, but this is a little extreme!! I ended up having to travel to Bismarck this weekend for work reasons. Dan stayed in Dickinson because he was afraid that he would get stuck in Bismarck and he had meetings in Dickinson on Sunday. I went with dad Saturday morning to the farm to help prepare for the storm. It was a hard day for me, as I have not been to the farm since grandpa and grandma moved off of it. It was sad to walk in and not see grandma sitting at the kitchen table. Dad and I put our coveralls on and geared up to go out in the cold to do some work. I looked super cute in my coveralls and Grandpa's boot, too bad dad did not have the camera!! All that mattered was I kept waarm!! I road with dad in the tractor and helped open and close gates for him while he fed. It gave me a new appreciation for my dad and all the work he has to do when he is alone down there. We made sure there was enough hay and feed for the cows and calves and also made a warm meal for Chubby, the dog. It was nice to spend some time with dad, we always find something to talk about!!! When we got back to the house, mom informed me that she was making knephla soup, so I decided to grab my stuff from the house in Lincoln and spend the night at mom & dad's house. It was fun to be there again, but my pants are fitting a little snugger since I was there!! We had tons of snow and the temps are still very cold. I came home Monday morning, just due to the road conditions. The actual temperature here in Dickinson is -20, but the wind chill is at -54. It is damn cold. I think I need some long johns under my dress pants!! Dan and I are excited for Christmas and are looking forward to a few days off and time with family. That is all that is going on here, hope all is well with you!!

Christmas parties!

Dan and I had our Christmas parties this weekend. I was on the committee for my Christmas party, so we decided to eat at mine and then go to Dan's for socializing. They ended up both being on Friday, so it was a busy day! I spent the afternoon decorating for our party, while Dan was at home letting Mattie run around, since she would be in her kennel all night. We spend time at my party and had a couple of drinks before we headed over to Dan's party. When we got to Dan's, everyone was still sitting and listening to the commander and had not eaten. We decided to sit at a little round table until she was done talking. At a Guard Christmas party, they always do a table for the soldiers that could not be with them. When the commander was done, another soldier got up to do the fallen soldier table, the little round table in the back!! Fortunately, it was not our table, but another table that we could not see, but what a scary thing!! We both looked at each other like, "oh Shit!!" Another thing that is a tradition at the Guard party is a drink called the grog. It is a mixture of 6 alcohols and a little bit of Hawaiian punch. well, that stuff is just like Kool Aid, and is very smooth. It is so smooth, that I drank a pitcher of it, along with other drinks!! At one point I got the hick ups for about 20 minutes and could not get rid of them , I tried everything, beer, Morgan diet, and grog, but no success!! They did finally go away, with water, imagine that!! We ended the evening with a ride home from friends of ours. I was hungry when we got home, so Dan made me noodles. I ended up pulling the cushion off of the chair in the living room and that is where Mattie and I slept for the remainder of the night!! Needless to say, Saturday was a day of rest, I couldn't lift my head off the pillow!!! Oh well, I told Dan on Saturday, that I will not be drinking any of that grog... until next year!!!

Thanksgiving

Dan and I had a very good Thanksgiving. We were able to go and see Grandpa and Grandma for a little while at the nursing home. Mom made thanksgiving dinner and took it over to the nursing home so they could enjoy a great meal!! After that we went to spend time with Dan's family. We had lunch with them and watched a little football. Dan's mom made a lap throw for me, which is very cute! After time with Dan's family, we went home and got Mattie so she could go and visit Papa and Nana and of course Max. We had desert with mom and dad and spent time going through the ads for the morning. I was almost not able to go this year due to an ankle injury, but mom doctored me up and I went!! I later found out that I had sprained it pretty bad last week when I fell down the stairs after the puppies tripped me!!! Oh well, I was still able to go with a lot of icing it and asprin!!! Mom and I got up at 2:30 and were in the Kohl's parking lot by 3:15am. We really had a good time this year. It seemed to be toned down a lot from previous years, but still a great time!!
There were a few memorable moments with my mom. I think she is really slipping!!! The first incident was in regards to driving. We were in separate cars going to K-Mart. She pulls up beside me in the left lane, raises her coffee to toast me, and goes right through the intersection where she was supposed to turn. I had to call and ask her if she was tired of shopping with me and just decided to go elsewhere!! Another incident was with her cell phone. Now I know that it can get confusing when you are up so early, but mom seemed to think that she was dialing dad, and when my phone started to ring (with mom's personalized ring) I looked at her with a puzzled look and her response to me was, "what is your problem" and to that I answered " I don't know, but do you need to talk to me about something? You are calling me!!! Wow, the look on her face was priceless!! I think next year I will be the only one getting up that early!!! All in all, it was a good trip!!
Friday evening, Dan got a large group of our good friends and family and we went to the Bobcat's hockey game. It was a lot of fun to see everyone!! We were happy to have Dan's brother Jim stay with us on Friday night!! It is tradition to go to Bloody Mary Breakfast in Lincoln at the local bar, so that is what we did on Saturday. Dan also got the chance to Ice Fishing with his dad on Saturday and had a good time.
While Dan was fishing, I met mom and dad at Grandma's and we decorated for Christmas. I put a few pics up of us. Grandma was so good that day, we really had a great time with her!! She is the cutest ever!!!

Sunday was the usual driving back to Dickinson and getting settled back into the house here. We are working on decoration for Christmas, so I will post pics when we do!!