The Days Leading up to Christmas

A beautiful sight on a cold December morning...sun dogs :0)

Our annual Ugly Sweater Day...

 Alison and Me

 This year student council collected canned goods for the food shelf in exchange for wearing a hat.

 Bridget and Me 

(Now that is one ugly cowboy Christmas sweater!!!!)

Getting ready for hall duty...

Our Christmas celebration after hours...

Sandy, Alison, and Me

Holly, Sheri, and Ann

Becca gave Alisha and me a craft lesson for a fun Christmas gift. 

 

Catching Fire time!!!

Clearly, for some, all of this Christmas activity is too much!!

Pampering

Nothing like being pampered...

 Cathy treating Faith and mom/grandma to a pedi...

Nothing better than one of Greg's fires :0) 

(This photo looks like a painting or a postcard!!)

A new toy for JJ...

A rawhide for Dakota...

 Cozy buddies...

And

.

...an early Christmas present for Rache...Daisy, an adorable little Yorkie!!  :) 

Thanksgiving 2013

We always have so much to be thankful for!!!

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving:

Mmm, grandma, that is good pop!!

 Michael showing Uncle Gary and Uncle Mike his pictures from his Germany trip.

 So glad that Kati and Brayden joined us, but their hearts were heavy on their first holiday without Jim. ):

 Just relaxing...

 Hi, Ian!!

Erik had to photobomb us!!

 Hosting Thanksgiving really wears us out...

RIP, Mr. Grinch 1993-2013

This is hilarious.  Thanks for the obituary, Greg!! 

     Well, the joyous season always has its down moments. The ongoing saga of our beloved Mr. Grinch has come to a bittersweet end. Saturday, after his open heart surgery, he was placed back in his place of honor overlooking all the other decorations in the back yard but suffered a traumatic blow to his seams
that reduced his air pressure to a point that he couldn't stand up on his own again. He was rushed back into emergency surgery but to no avail. Although he tried to recover from the inoperable seam re-sealing procedure, he just couldn't hold any pressure. He was laid to rest in the dumpster Monday morning in a quiet and peaceful manner to join all his other decorations that have gone to the happy living room/lawn in the sky.

It Looked Grim for the Grinch...

Pictures and captions courtesy of my sister :0)

 The Grinch looked dead...

 Then he went in for open heart surgery...

Now he is all better!! :)

Lots of Laughs

     We had a ladies' night out recently to celebrate Simona's birthday.  We headed to the Mall of America to have dinner at Dick's Last Resort.  It was quite the hoot!!  The workers purposely were rude/sarcastic to us (hence the title of the restaurant), so that in itself was an experience!!  We all had specially made "hats" that were very inappropriate, so I am not including photos of those (didn't want to give my brother, Bob, or my nephew, Eric, any ammunition)!!

Claudia, Heather, Holly, Me. Simona, Jill, and Margo

 Our funny waiter took this self photo. :0)

 Our waiter even put a bib on each of us.  Here's Heather and Claud sporting theirs.

 Fun in the elevator...thanks to Claud!! :0)

Lake Maria

Enjoying more of Minnesota's fall beauty...

 It was a beautiful day for a hike and to enjoy the gorgeous leaves!!

After getting our exercise, we enjoyed some comfort food: 

grilled cheese and tomato soup.  YUM!!

Such a fun photo op!! :0)