Sledding

During the month of December we have had lots of snow and some pretty bad weather. We are at my mom and dad's right now, and they have about two feet of snow on the ground. The temps have also been pretty cold. But yesterday, it was in the +20s so we took advantage of it and went sledding!! Here in Thief River there is one hill where everyone goes sledding. We met our friends Lori, Chris and Ashley (and Lori's family) and had a great time!

Elise had SO much fun, she wanted to go again and again and again. It is a pretty long trek back up the hill, but she trudged back up every time and did not complain. And as soon as she got back to the top she wanted to go down again. She would have kept at it all day, but the rest of us petered out long before she did.

This was Anja's first time sledding. She was pretty laid back about it all, but seemed to enjoy it.

Christmas

What a great Christmas! We are at my mom and dad's this week, and were at their house for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve we had some special people for dinner, some friends of mom and dad's, and a cherished family member, my dad's cousin Irene. What a fun time talking, laughing and thoroughly enjoying each other's company. Elise was a great host, engaged everyone in conversation and was very entertaining. Anja got tired fast and went to bed halfway through dinner. After dinner Elise opened two gifts, a barn set from my mom and dad (she loved it!) and a game which some friends had given her (she really wanted to play but I still had not figured out the directions by her bed time...it could have been I was having too much fun visiting with everyone to really focus on reading the directions :). We set out cookies for Santa (the first year Elise has wanted to do that), then she was off to bed. I have to say, it is nice to be able to threaten that "you have to stay in bed tonight or Santa won't come!" After that it was more visiting and laughing, then wrapping presents. We got to bed after midnight. Around 4:00 am I sneaked upstairs to set out some Santa presents for Jason, my mom and dad, then went back to bed until about 6:00, when Anja decided she wanted to get up bright and early on Christmas morning.

Christmas was a great day! This was the first Christmas Elise understood the full meaning of Santa leaving gifts, and looked genuinely surprised when she saw that the previously empty stockings were now stuffed with things, and there were presents that hadn't been there before!

We opened presents, and loved watching Elise and Anja. Anja really caught on to the opening gift process. Before long she parked herself under the tree and started opening every package she could get her hands on. There were a couple where we had to track down the paper she ripped off to read the tag and see who it belonged to. She got furious when we took her away and would not let her rip something open.

Around noon my aunt, uncle and cousins came, and that was a new round of fun. With four little kids around, the gift opening got a little wild, but they had a great time and that is what it is all about!

My mom and dad gave Elise a mini trampoline, and it has provided endless fun. She has now started jumping from a stool onto the tramp, sometimes she lands on her feet and sometimes she chooses to land on her butt. She is burning off the energy! Elise had a great time showing her cousin Gavin how to jump.

We so enjoyed both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and are forever thankful that we have families to love and who love us and who we have great times with.

December

Playing a little catch-up with what we've been doing this month...
We continue to get settled into the house, and the girls enjoy playing in all the snow we've had this month (well, Elise likes playing in it. Anja can't move too much in her snow suit, so she just sits...not too much fun for her.)

Anja started walking!We walked through a blizzard to go see santa (that is our house in the background) Anja did not like Santa

Elise said she did not want to sit on his lap, but she would stand next to him and talk to him.

The weather this month has been wild, like I remember it being when I was a kid. We've already had two official blizzards, and have several inches of snow on the ground. Right now we are at my mom and dad's for the holidays, and they have even more snow on the ground. Poor Dutch, when he walks through the yard he bellies out in the snow. Our landlord doesn't allow dogs, so Dutch will be staying at my mom and dad's when we head back south.

Lismore

A little about Lismore, the town where we are living...
Population 297. There is a meat market (they also carry some "staples" like some basic soups and cereals, but nothing perishable. Except meat, of course :), a gas station (just gas, not a convenience store), the city building, the gas company, what looks like a lumber yard but I haven't seen any kind of signage, a post office, bar/grill, and a couple other business like construction company offices or something. We live two doors down from the Catholic church (it was built in 1906 and is really beautiful). The house we are renting used to be the priest's house. It is really well built (as the land lord said, "they weren't spending their own money so they didn't care how much they spent"), has gorgeous wood work. The main floor has been somewhat updated (the kitchen is particularly nice), but the upstairs looks like it hasn't been touched since 1970. I don't think it's been cleaned since 1970 either. We took up the carpet in Elise's room and THOROUGHLY cleaned. She is now moved in and sleeping in there. Jason and I are still sleeping on a futon in the living room, and Anja is sleeping in what will be our room. Next we are going to tackle Anja's room, hopefully pulling up the carpet in there and again thoroughly cleaning.

The people here are really nice. Adrian is the closest town of any size. It is 7 miles away, has a small grocery store, a hardware store, and school (that is the school district we are in). We are doing ECFE in Adrian and have met some nice people there. Worthington is about 20 miles, and we go to storytime there. We are still exploring other opportunities for fun activities for the kids. In general we are really happy and having a good time.