Skip to main content

Christmas of America

Image
By
Earlier this week a certain naughty kitty decided he didn't like my puzzle and took apart half of it. I put tin foil across to stop him from doing it again. I heard cats don't like tin foil. Is that actually true or just a rumor? 

Brooke cleaned our upstairs closet and found two Chia Pets. Neither one of them are Chia Obama, though Homer does look awfully presidential in this pose.

They haven't been growing so she created some makeshift greenhouses.

My pops came back to pick up my mom and help me with my 1920's toilet. A week later and no leaks. Looks like we did a good job.

This gave me an excuse to try out my Christmas present from my in-laws.

 
 Then we headed to the Mall of America. I'm pretty sure we are the only ones we know that actually shop here. I worked here at a spin-off store of Forever 21 when I first moved to Minnesota. 

I feel no shame for shopping at this monstrosity. It often has the best sales rack of any Urban Outfitters I've been to. I assume the sad saps who shop at the mall have bad taste and leave all the good stuff for the clearance rack. 

We decided to go because I had a bunch of Christmas money to blow. Last year I paid off one of my student loans with my Xmas money so I figured this year I deserved to treat myself. I don't buy clothes very often anymore. I still wear things from 6 years ago. I wish I had luck at shopping at thrift stores. I'm pretty envious of people that can find things in their size or that aren't totally 90's looking. It's not that I don't like shopping we just don't have a lot of disposable income to buy things.

Afterwards we went to Fat Lorenzo's for dinner. 

  I love the painted tin ceiling.

I ordered a Schell's Snowstorm, which changes every year. This year's Snowstorm is "Wee Heavy." That's an apt description.

This was supposed to be me, but it quickly morphed into a surfing Jesus.
Mmmm, ham and pineapple. I have to say that there was something off about Lorenzo's typically perfect crust. Either that or we've become accustomed to NoMi's Papa's Pizza.
We went over to Tyler and Emma's to play some Catan and exchange Christmas gifts. I was excited to see my big ol' memory card. I had lent it to Emma for our wedding and forgot about it until we went up to the cottage for the New Year.
We hadn't seen these guys since before Christmas. That is very unusual for us. We usually hang out at least once a week. I couldn't believe how big Olive had gotten since we last saw her. And she just started walking!

Olive finally got to open her present.
Brooke knitted this darling scarf.

I think she likes it.


She's so happy and smiley now. She looks pretty excited to be standing on her own. 

Emma always seems to have a big batch cookies ready for us.

This time she made them out of almond flour that she made herself. I think she's starting to make more homemade things than we do. 

We opened our presents that have been waiting more than a month to be gifted.

I got cute fabric flower bobby pins.

Not from here, but similar to these. If you like them you can get them here.

I wonder what it could be?
A new pan. We made meatballs at their house awhile ago and they didn't have a big enough pan. Now they do.

The rest of the night was dedicated to learning Catan's Cities and Knights expansion pack.
We also got some homemade sugar scrub from Emma and jam from our friends in Seattle.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

By
Day 1  Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19  precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month.  I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho
Post a Comment
Read more

The Sunday Circular

By
 We stayed out late the night before for our friend Jose's birthday party. This time Scott had more to drink than me. So we slept in. Apparently Peanut also had to much too drink. I woke up to this mess. Of course he's licking the plastic bag in this picture. He loves licking bags -- reminds him of his alley cat days.    Scott's hangover comfort food is pancakes and syrup, that would be last thing for me. I tried to cheer him up with emoticon mini pancakes.    My stomach was just not having it. This might be the first time I've left pancakes on my plate. Ever.  Off to work I went, hungover. Damn you Best Buy! While he went to his job, I worked on getting the chile-braised pork shoulder ( from the latest Bon Appetit ) ready for our epic meal .  I got a strawberry plant from the back of someone's pickup truck while Scott was in California. Thanks to Emma for finding it on freecycle . He planted it for me earlier this
6 comments
Read more

The Biggest Maple Tree in Minnesota

By
On the night before St Patricks Day, Meadow made a leprechaun trap.  Maybe next year Meadow.   Meadow was having a rough morning and needed a hug.  She wanted to play Zelda all day long. The rest of us wanted to go on a hike. We spend so much time getting these kids to get outside and once they are outside they don't want to come back in. Scott chose this weeks hike based off his current love of old growth forests. Wolsfeld Woods SNA just west of the cities in Medina. It's home to the tallest sugar maple in the state.
Post a Comment
Read more