My long, four-day weekend has come to an end.  But it was a nice four days and it ended on a high note today.   Once again our Minnesota Vikings have won their game.  They beat the Chicago Bears today by a dominating score of 36-10!  They are now 10-1 and way out in first place in our division.  Wow, what a fun year to be watching football!    I have also found that during a football game, I can get caught up on my reading.    There are so many commercials in a football game, that I now always have a magazine or puzzle nearby.  My husband & I get very frustrated by the end of the game, so after the victory today, we treated ourselves to a butternut squash pasta dish.  Mmm…frustration gone!

We started with this.

The girls & I were busy today making a winter wreath to hang above our fireplace.   We usually buy a real one from our local nursery, but they went out of business a couple of years ago and we can’t seem to find any other place that sells the ones we like.  So we decided to create our own.  We headed over to Michael’s Craft store and found all of the materials that we would need.  Megan found the greenery that we all liked and Kelly found a pretty bow which adds sparkle!  We brought it all home and that’s when my job began.  I had to use a wire cutter and cut up the stems of greenery.  Megan helped place the pieces onto the wreath and then it was time to hot glue them all on.  We love the results and saved ourselves about $100! 

After we finished the wreath, we headed out to Sailer Greenhouses to make some outdoor floral displays.  I wanted to make natural-looking flower pots so we only used greens, eucalyptus and sticks.  Mark helped put in all the greens and then I added the other things.  They look fabulous out on the front doorstep and in front of the garage.  If and when we get snow, all that greenery will really show off nicely.

Our end result

My two cute elves

Yesterday I was blogging about how wonderful my Thanksgiving was and today my house is completely decorated with Christmas knickknacks and a colorful, bright, Christmas tree in my living room.  My morning started out by finishing the Thanksgiving dishes and then putting away all of the fall decorations.  After I completed this task, I wasn’t sure I could do much more.  I was feeling lazy.  But then I look over and Nate was getting started on the tree and I knew I was going to have to make the transition from one holiday to the next all in one day.   I find it so funny that we can have orange, brown & yellows in the house one day and then within a 24 hour period, we’re all red & green and there are Christmas carols playing on the radio.  And we just accept that. 

I love Christmas time and seeing all the beautiful lights up all around the city and neighborhoods.  I’m not much of a shopper on the weekends but I do enjoy going out  after work and getting into the holiday spirit.  Black Friday is now over, so it’s safe for me to drive around the parking lots once again.

Let the fun begin!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving again this year.  It was smaller than we usually have, but still a great day.  Our day started out with Kelly getting up early and doing some Thanksgiving decorating.  She hung a Happy Thanksgiving banner in the living room.  There was also a card and a wonderful poem waiting on the counter.  What a nice surprise to wake up to!  Thanks Kel.

Terry and the boys came over around 1:15 to start the day.  Terry & I enjoyed a Blueberry Martini while Nate chose a Bourbon on the rocks.  We hung out in the kitchen where all the wonderful aromas were.  Nate made the bulk of the dinner, as usual.  This years menu consisted of  a Rosemary-Orange Roasted Turkey, Italian-sausage w/golden raisin stuffing, buttery mashed potatoes and for dessert, my sister Terry, made a Buttery Pumpkin Gooey Cake.  It tasted like a pumpkin pie and it was fabulous!  Thanks Ter (and Paula Deen).

After dinner, we decided to relax and watch a movie.  We chose Elf.  It’s such a funny movie and kicked off our Christmas season.  I guess it was going to happen anyway, so why not start it on Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day and remember to be thankful every day, all year around.

What a pretty smile!

Today was an exciting day for Megan.  She got her braces off!  She has been waiting for this day for a couple of months now.  She told all of her friends, her teachers and I think she may have even told Jazz.  Her smile looks beautiful.  The orthodontist gave her the mold of her teeth before the braces and next week she’ll get the mold of the after.  What a change.  She’s very happy with her results.  Now we have to make sure she wears that retainer so those teeth stay in place.

I had such a silly/crazy day today.  Weird things kept happening.  It started out at Kelly’s basketball games.  Nate & I were watching the game and paying attention to all the funny stuff.  Things like, the referees getting paid in the middle of the game…a girl throwing up on the court and then Kelly running over to me and telling me she saw the girl throwing up and now she can’t continue to play and wants to go home… another referee waving to her friends in the doorway during the game.  And it goes on and on.  By the way….that girl who threw up, came back into the game.  She wasn’t actually sick, just started choking a bit and it ended up coming out.  The good news…Kelly’s team won the game.

The next funny thing I saw was when I went grocery shopping.  As I was walking up to the door to Rainbow Foods, there was a man sitting on a chair, slumped over.  A few of us slowly walked by, looking at him and making sure he was breathing, I saw that he was and thats when I saw that he had on a red apron.  A red apron that read, “Salvation Army”.  The guy was a bell-ringer but was asleep!  Not sure how much he made today.  Rainbow  may want to find another “Santa’s helper”.   Silly!

I also had some luck today.  I earned a $10 gift card for spending $100 at Target (not sure how that works), I earned a $10 gift card at Rainbow and got this silver & gold purse for purchasing my makeup at Macy’s.  That was nice and very holiday looking.  I may use it to carry my gifts on Christmas Day.  It’s big enough!   Crazy!!

So we’ll see what happens tomorrow.  I have a feeling it may be a boring day compared to today. 

I finally remembered to bring my camera to Kelly’s basketball game.  They played the first place team today and beat them by a score of 27-25.  It was such an exciting game and they really wanted to win this one.  Kelly took an interest in basketball last spring when her friend Lauren was showing her some moves & teaching her how to dribble.  In  late summer, she attended a basketball camp and enjoyed that a lot, so the next step was to sign up for a basketball league.  Her team is called the Hidden Valley Ghosts.  They have 11 girls on their team.  Five which are 4th graders and six which are third graders.  Kelly has become a very aggressive player, which is needed on the basketball court.   It’s fun to watch these girls and see how they improve each week.  Worth getting up early for on a Saturday morning.

Megan hard at work.

Megan had a project to work on at school for Social Studies .  She needed to do three activities on one subject and then present these to her classmates and teacher.  Her subject was Babylon.  She chose to do a painting of a cave drawing, a power point on the computer and a “walk through” of the city, which is similar to a diorama.  Her power point turned out so neat and very well done.  The cave painting was done with watercolors and the diorama was done with clay.  She did a lot of research for this and she did a wonderful job.  She’s still waiting to give her presentation but is hoping her name will be drawn tomorrow.  The waiting is the hardest part.  She just wants to get it over with!  Great job Megs!

The City of Babylon

Last night we had my brother Jim and his girlfriend Sandra, over for an autumn dinner.  Our theme was pumpkins & squash.  We started our day out with Pumpkin Eggnog and appetizers.  Later I made a pumpkin lasagna that I found in the Food Network magazine and it was delicious.  It was a basic recipe with a layer of pumpkin puree in it.  I didn’t taste the pumpkin but the others said they found a hint of it.  Nate made a loaf of bread and roasted some garlic, then grilled it for some homemade garlic bread.  Mmm….tasty.  For dessert, Nate made a steamed butternut squash pudding.  It tasted like a pumpkin pie!  Delicious and very filling.  We all loved it!  Afterward we played a fun game called, “Chat Pack.”  Made us laugh so hard that our stomachs hurt.  I have to find this game and get it for around the Christmas or Thanksgiving table.  Very simple and everyone can play.   No directions required…just answer questions.

Today is sunny and it looks like a beautiful fall day.  I think I’ll relax and enjoy it.

We had an exciting morning at school today.  The Junior High, which is right next door to our school had a visitor come to their school which we were able to enjoy as well….from our windows, anyway.  It was a Blackhawk Helicopter.  It landed in the soccer field, right next to our playground area.  We knew that this event was happening today, and it was a pretty spectacular sight to see.  It also was pretty obvious when it was coming.  We could hear it arriving from quite a distance and that made it even cooler!   Some of the teachers did not let their classes enjoy this moment, they closed their shades and said it was a distraction,  but others were able to see it.  Luckily, Megan & Kelly were in the classrooms that saw it.  Megan saw it land and Kelly got to see it take off.  I peeked out and saw it getting ready to leave the Junior High.   I would’ve loved to have been able to take a look inside.  I’m sure it’s loaded with high-tech gadgets and other neat stuff.  It was a sight to see!