We’ve come to the end of our long weekend.  I’ve had a nice “mini-vacation.”  I went to another movie today with my sister, Terry.  We saw Four Christmases.  We both liked it alot and we’re big fans of Vince Vaughn.  He makes me laugh just looking at him. 

For dinner tonight, we have finally finished all of the leftover tukey from Thanksgiving.  I made a yummy turkey soup.  Perfect for a cold Sunday evening.  We did get a dusting of snow, but not enough to cover all of the grass.  That’s okay, we have plenty of time for that.  I can’t believe tomorrow is December!

Today I took the girls to see the movie, Bolt.   It was cute and enjoyable but I don’t think I’d run out and buy it when it comes to DVD (Purple Girl feels the same way).  Megan & Kelly liked it alot but I had a hard time with John Travolta being a little dog.  The other characters were very funny and it was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.    I think it’s time to see a grown-up movie.

Time sure does fly around the Solberg home.  Yesterday we were hosting a Thanksgiving dinner and today we’re putting up a Christmas tree.  Our house colors go from orange, yellow and brown, to red & green.  Down come the scarecrows and up goes a wreath.  It always amazes me how quickly we change holidays.  After putting up the tree, we had to eat dinner down by the tv so we could watch the movie, The Santa Clause.  I guess all that’s left is for it to snow.  oops, did I just say that out loud?

We have started the preparation for our Thanksgiving feast.  Actually, last night the girls cut up vegetables for us and Nate started in on the stuffing prep.  It’s was fun to have Megan & Kelly helping with this dinner.  They both love to cook and were excited to help.  Megan cut up fresh green beans and Kelly peeled carrots.  You’re wondering what I was doing?  My job was to clean the house.  Today I will help out with the cooking and more importantly, be in charge of making Pomegranite Martini’s.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day filled with laughter, smiles and fun memories.  I know your tummies will be filled with turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today I went out Christmas shopping and to my surprise, I finished all the shopping for the girls, including Megan’s birthday.  I consider this a success!  I got such good deals and being done early, just makes me feel that much better.  I still have more to get, but I’m off to a great start.

As I drove up the driveway when I got home, I saw that my husband was also into the holiday spirit.  There were Christmas lights all lit up, laying all over the garage floor.  I told him that the garage looks very festive!  He then told me that he was just testing the lights before getting up on the roof.  Good plan.  By dinner time, the Solberg house was decorated for Christmas ( the outside anyway).  With blue & white lights on the house and reindeer & trees in the yard.  Beautiful. 

As the song goes….”It’s beginning to look alot like Christmas…”

What a day I had today.  It started out so wonderful and peaceful.  I went over to a Creative Memories Open House in Prior Lake with my friend Dawn and we had such a nice time just shopping around the house, seeing new products, tasting yummy food, chatting with old friends and even doing a little Christmas shopping.  After that, I hit the grocery store and found that to be very busy and crowded.  Everyone must have been thinking…Thanksgiving!  After unloading the groceries at home, I headed over to the junior high to take Kelly and her friend Lauren swimming.  This is where my adventure began….

After swimming, the girls & I headed out to the truck, in the parking lot.  I started it up and then went to put it into “drive” and I realized that I was competely blocked in on all sides.  I wasn’t sure what to do and then decided we needed to go back into the junior high and see who we could find to help us out (I wrote down three license plates).  There were two events going on.  One was a play and the other was a basketball game.  We ran into the lady who was running the play and I told her my situation.  She asked me if I could wait an hour when the play got over.  My response to that, “No, I can’t.” (I was being nice)  So they had to interrupt the play (during a set change) and read off the license plates.  Some woman came running out immediately and we followed her outside where she kindly moved her car.  Okay, on to the next adventure…

It was time to take Megan to her girlfriends birthday party.  They were going swimming and staying overnight at a hotel.  I was driving her and her friend Andra, to the Hampton Inn in Burnsville.  We were just about to turn into the parking lot when I looked into my rear-view mirror and saw flashing lights.  I immediately panicked and pulled over and stopped and the unmarked car flew past me.  To my right, there was another parking lot with a van sitting there.  I didn’t think anything of it until it too, started flashing lights and came pulling out in front of me!  By the time we looked up at where they were going, there were at least six undercover cars whipping into the Hampton Inn parking lot, getting out of their cars, and pulling out guns!  Just like on tv.  Cool, but scary.  I told the girls that we won’t be going into the hotel just yet.  We waited outside for a couple of minutes and when no other guests were being evacuated, we thought it was okay to approach and go in.  We never did find out what was going on, but from what we could see out the window, it looked as if it was a drug bust.  Just a guess.   All of the parents stayed for about 20 minutes but we left with nervous stomachs.   We haven’t gotten a call yet, so I guess no news is good news. 

Next, it’s time to take Kelly’s friend Lauren home.  We’re just about to walk out the door when Kelly says, “Mom, Lauren doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.”  “Oh”, I say.  “Well in our house we believe in Santa.”  Lauren says, “Well in our house, we think Santa is a silly myth.  We still have fun with him, but he’s just a silly myth.”  Since I didn’t want to get into it with an 8 year old, all I could say to that was, “Okay, it’s time to go, let’s get into the truck.”

That’s the end of my adventurous Saturday.  I hope to have a quiet Sunday.  Maybe I better just stay home.

I had to start my day out earlier than usual because of an 8:00 staff meeting.  Usually they are quite boring, but this one surprised me and was interesting.  Just when it was getting good, it was time to head out and get the kids off the bus.  I wish these teachers could start their meetings from the end of their agenda’s and work forward.  Then we wouldn’t ever get to the useless stuff.  Does that make any sense?

P.S. — Happy Birthday Stewie!!

Today we drove over to Barron, WI to attend a funeral.  Nate’s grandfather passed away on Friday afternoon.  He was 93 years young.  It was a cold November day with a few flurries, but inside was warm and cozy.  He had many friends and family there to remember him.  It was fun to see his wedding photo and many of the other photos on display.  As always, it’s hard to say goodbye to “great grandpa” but we have wonderful memories of him and we are thankful he had a chance to get to know his two great-granddaughters.  He will be missed.

This morning, Kelly & did a fun project together.  Her Girl Scout troop is making fleece blankets to donate to the Humane Society.  Their troop wanted to make blankets for kittens and cats so they could be warm this winter.  I drove Kelly to the fabric store (a very foreign place to me) and she picked out a cheetah print, because she said that is in the “cat family”.   She then had to cut it apart, make stips around it and then tie the ends together to complete her blanket.  They’re very easy to make and are the “in-thing” these days.  It turned out very cute and I think her cat or kitten is one lucky animal.

This morning, Kelly & I went to school early to watch Megan play floor hockey.  Her team is called, The Minnesota Alley-Cats.  They are tied for second place.  When we got there, the game was just beginning.   I was looking for Megan and couldn’t find her.  Then we looked closer and there she was, in front of the nets,  all dressed up in the goalie equipment!  She did a great job for her team.  They ended up tying 2-2, but should move up in the standings and be tied with the first place team (I checked with the ref on this).