Tania

This past weekend, we drove to Iowa to visit my roommate from my days at the University of South Dakota. She was in the US with her family, visiting her host family in Remsen, IA, which is just 25 miles from Cherokee. I last saw Tania 12 years ago, just a few weeks before our wedding.

 

 Tania and the kids playing in the snow outside of her parents' house in Remsen

 Tania and I each have a Nikon D40!

 Maya (in the red) and Luna (on the sled) had fun in the snow, and didn't complain about being cold as much as Tania did

 

 Tania and I hugged a lot!  The boys weren't quite sure what to think of how much Brazilians like to hug (and kiss cheeks, for that matter)

 Luna throwing a snow ball at Don.

 

 

Saturday morning, we drove to USD to visit campus.  We assumed most of it would be closed due to Christmas break, but we were able to visit some of our hangouts from when we were there.

This is 'sort of' the restaraunt that Tania worked at.  She actually worked at the one with the blue awning in the background, but the owner sold that one, and opened The Silk Road Cafe.  It was yummy yummy.  It is pretty small on the inside.  The grown ups sat at one table, and the kids sat at a different table.  It didn't seem to matter that they did not speak the same language.

 

 Don and Ramon, Tania's husband.  He's so cool he wears a pink scarf.  Ramon is from Spain, and speaks Spanish.  Tania said while he was in Columbia working just prior to this trip, he studied English 4 hours a day.  We were able to talk with him-he would occassionally aske Tania for translation.  Tania's girls speak both Spanish and Portuguese, and they speak Spanish at home.

 

 

 After eating lunch, we walked down the block to a coffee shop for dessert. 

 The ipad speaks is fun for all!

We hope to see Tania and her family again.  It was so fun to be together at our old stomping grounds with our spouses and kids.  We might just have to go to Brazil to see her next time.

The Stockings were hung

We don't have a chimney, so we just place our filled stockings under the tree.  Isabelf was watching over the loot.  (please note that the blue Nike duffle bag is a gift for Jonathan, not a mess left on the floor)

 

 

 Then the cats started to play under the tree....

 And wrestle

 And roll around on the floor

 And soon Isabelf and Apples to Apples looked like this...

 

At least the tree didn't get knocked over

Cookies for Santa

 Jonathan supervises Megan's cookie selection as his drinks some OJ

 Eric takes care of Santa's milk

Christmas Eve 2012

 Eric spontaneously reading Jan Brett's "The Mitten" to Megan before leaving for Church. 

We went to the service at First Lutheran in Mandan, since our Church's service wasn't until 5:30.  The kids saw some of their friends and teachers there, and our neighbors were ushering.  Once we were home, we had some appetizers (Nachos, smokies, meat and cheese tray from Butcher Block, Nutella dip, cookies, and hot cocoa from the crockpot).  The kids were of course excited to open their gifts.

 I got a calendar from Megan!  Each month has handprint art on it.

 Don got a Pizzaz

 Two peas in a pod

 Eric got a drawing kit to draw comics. 

 

Megan had fun with her Barbie Fashion Sketchbook.  She hopes Macy plays it with her when she is here in a few more weeks.



Megan's room

Megan cried several times today, as she misses her yellow room.  I pretty much told her tough luck: you asked for blue.  Deal with it.  I'm caring and sensitive that way.
I'll eventually get some new curtains and bedspread, and I'll take Megan to Hobby Lobby in the next week or so to pick out new wall hangings.  Kacy had fun in the laundry basket while I was putting things away.

The Grinch Dinner

Tonight for supper, we had our own little Whoville meal of rare who roast beast, who hash, who pudding, and Grinch punch.  When I told the kids what I was making for supper, Jonathan looked at me and said: "Pinterest ?" 
Yep, I got the idea from Pinterest.  Here is the link if you are interested

Our Rare Who Roast Beast (which was fully cooked) was a rotisserie chicken already cooked from the grocery store. Plan A was to make prime rib. I splurged on one this morning at Butcher Block, only to learn once I got home that Don does not like prime rib. Seriously???? How could I not know that after 12 years of marriage. (The prime rib will now be reserved for Jan 5th for our belated Miller Christmas celebration/Megan's b-day). The Who Hash was cheesy hashbrowns, and the Who Pudding was cookie salad. I made that instead of rice pudding because it's low maintenance, and Eric is not the biggest fan of rice pudding.

  The kids loved it all (well, Megan skipped the chicken part of the meal, as she only eats meat in the form of nuggets or on pizza.)  Below is Jonathan's plate.  This is after 4 helpings of Who Pudding and 2 of Who Hash.  The kids all said we need to make this a tradition and do it next year as well.  It was pretty easy to put together.

Because of the Grinch Meal, there is no Isabelf update tonight.  I only have so much creativity ambition per day, and the meal took all of that up.

Cats and the Tree

The tree has now been knocked down by Kacy more times that I can keep track of.  Trudy is also occassionally guilty .  I do not re-adjust the garland, so it is a very assymetrical looking tree.  This morning they were somewhat calm around the tree. 

Room redo

Megan and I decided that it was time to update and paint her room.  After careful discussion and consideration, she chose the color blue for her walls.  Of course, pink was her first choice, but so many of her wall hangings are pink, so we thought we should branch away from that color....just a little bit. 

We plan to get some new wall hangings at Hobby Lobby.  We have also discussed doing a  "Pete the Cat" them, because that would be groovy.

Dental update

Humans have 20 primary/baby teeth that they will lose by the age of 12.  Tonight, Eric came 2 teeth closer to this milestone. 

I asked him how much longer until his lose tooth would come out.  He reached in, and pulled it out.  Less than 5 minutes later, he pulled the same tooth on the other side out.

Since Eric 'knows' about the tooth fairy, he confirmed that he gets $2 from us for molars, then threw the teeth in the garbage.

Christmas Lights

Tonight, we took our annual Christmas Light tour.  We went to McDonalds for supper to celebrate the return of the McRib (this is a big, big deal in our family).  Next we headed to the Flemmer home to exchange our gifts with their girls.  After that, we hit the Christmas lights.  We broke from tradition and went on a new route this year.  There is a house in Bismarck that goes a little Griswald.  They even sell concessions in their driveway.  You are encouraged to get out and walk around.  Don even stopped to let us get out and walk around.  The kids thought it was pretty cool. It made all of our other favorites seem tame.