Since we were going to be gone for nearly two weeks we needed to get in some skating before we left. Theo and I have been skating almost every night that we can since we've put the rink up.  Theo got really into ice skating this year. On the Saturday before we left we had our family Christmas. Once everyone was awake the kids got to open their presents.  Meadow made Theo a blue scarf and a Looney Tunes pillowcase. 

  This year we decided to check out Daniel's avant garde Christmas light display: Boubville .  We've seen the set up but never in action. Get a crowd and it takes on a totally different vibe. Plus I don't think we've ever seen all the lights and displays on at the same time. There was even a ball pit with hidden prizes. A few of the other kids activities for the first night were canceled due to frigid temps. The winter beach was magical. A great use of the boob lights. 

Theo had his friend Ben come over and they skated for a couple hours. Snack break.  I was surprised to see the kids still outside when I got home from work. Theo has been loving the rink this year.

Before leaving for Thanksgiving, Scott had to clean the pool. Remind me to look like even more of an idiot and whack all the leaves out of the trees before filling the rink next year.     As we got near Eau Claire we drove into a freak snowstorm. There were tons of accidents and they even closed off part of the highway. I looked it up later and this apparently was  created by steam from a factory in nearby Menominee . Just as soon as the snowstorm came it was gone. I could finally let Brooke take a turn driving.   She hates driving in the snow, in the rain, at night...what am I her dangerous driving chauffeur?

I had a hotel shoot in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn Center (worked up at the nearby Best Buy for a couple of years).  Brooke had the car so I was stuck walking somewhere for lunch.  I saw this old school Chinese place on Google Maps and thought, well, I've never been to House of Hui . Let's do that. Don't read the one star reviews. I don't think they understand a good hole-in-the-wall. This was freaking amazing. Some of the best Chinese I've ever had in Minnesota. Not quite the level of Duluth's C antonese House , but damn good. I had to finish up the second level of the backyard rink this weekend. Temps were about to dip. Theo kept himself busy with a coloring app on my iMac. I'm adding some wood chips in the deep end this year to speed up the filling process. And then in the spring we already have mulch. November 24th isn't too late for pumpkin spice pancakes, is it? We needed to get more wood chips for the rink. Luckily you can still find them ...

The old Coronavirus got us this week. Despite being sick things still needed to get done.  Still botheringhis sick dad. As you can see, Theo likes to be a pill from time to time. Meadow is always finding ways to lure Pecan into her room.  The weather this week looked like winter so we needed to get our ice rink built.  This year we decided to expand it over the sidewalk.  It was a wee bit small for us adults last year. Theo helped at times.  First we just had to figure out what we could build with the lumber we had. We had enough for the base wall at least. Even Meadow joined us outside for a bit.  I'd like to move this raised bed back a couple of feet next year to simplify the geometry. Brooke lent a hand when I needed the help. We use a DIY Iron Sleek setup. 2 x 12s and these metal brackets are all you need if your slope isn't too extreme. I had to fill in some low spots with dirt on the part that went over the middle garden. I had to wait a day or so to...