First To Third, Worst To First

I have two Fantasy Football teams...Armchair Quarterback and Jill's Jocks.

Last year AQ eked out first place in the ten team league on the last play of the last game of the fantasy season. This year he struggled to hang onto third. Jill's Jocks, on the other hand, was on the bottom of the heap last year and wound up winning this time around! And what does that mean? Absolutely nothing! There's no money involved and I don't know the other team owners in the league. It's just another way to be involved in all the NFL games. 

Late Arrival

I don't know how this happened but we must have made the "nice" list. Last night I came in from the sunroom and there was a big package in front of my chair with our names on it from Mrs. Claus and Julia Child.

I've been talking about what it might be like to have a mixer since I'm not real fond of stirring up cookie dough but I didn't think we'd have a place to keep this. Today Jill's been reorganizing the back cupboard to make space for it in there. Just trying to decide now what will be the first thing we make!



Miss Cate's Big Day

Five years ago today Missy Cate decided to make her early morning appearance into this big world.

We celebrated a little bit already on Saturday but want to wish her a happy birthday on this very day!



A Day With The Littlest Man

Last week we spent Tuesday with Charlie. He was in fine spirits from the minute he got here! It didn't matter what we were doing he was in the mood for it.

He didn't even mind when we set him up in our losing team's colors.

It was inevitable that sooner or later we'd have to expose him to some of his Viking heritage!

Sometimes I wonder what babies think about all these tall creatures they have to deal with.

But they just nestle in and make themselves at home when somebody snares them for a picture.

We had some shopping flyers to look at and Charlie was eager to help Jill browse.

But enough of that. How about some cuddling?

We had some free time in the middle of the day so we packed up and went to visit Great Gram and Gramp. They sure do love the little kids!

While we were there we discovered turnabout is fair play. Usually the kids sit in Santa's lap. But Charlie got Santa to sit in his!

I wonder what Santa would ask for for Christmas?!



Step Awaaaaaaaaay From The Elf!

 

For you unsuspecting folks that don't know about the Elf on The Shelf...like me!....here is the story...

 

The Elf on the Shelf® is a special scout elf sent from the North Pole to help Santa Claus manage his naughty and nice lists. When a family adopts an elf and gives it a name, the elf receives its Christmas magic and can fly to the North Pole each night to tell Santa Claus about all of the day's adventures. Each morning, the elf returns to its family and perches in a different place to watch the fun. Children love to wake up and race around the house looking for their elf each morning.

There are two simple rules that every child knows when it comes to having an elf. First, an elf cannot be touched; Christmas magic is very fragile and if an elf is touched it may lose that magic and be unable to fly back to the North Pole. Second, an elf cannot speak or move while anyone in the house is awake! An elf's job is to watch and listen.

Elves typically appear in their families’ homes at the beginning of the holiday season (around Thanksgiving in the U.S.). On Christmas Eve, the elves return to the North Pole with Santa Claus--until next year!

 

Yesterday when we were with Harvey he showed us Peppermint, their elf, who had fallen off his perch where he'd been reading a storybook. Not knowing any better I sat him back up. It wasn't long before poor, sweet Harvey was trying so hard to hold back his tears because "now Peppermint will have to go back to Santa because he's lost his magic!" Thank Goodness for Moms and Google because as soon as Mindy came home she was able to find out that if you sprinkle the elf with cinnamon after he was touched it works as a vitamin that protects the elf's magic! It must have worked because I heard overnight last night he was a naughty elf that took down their stockings and replaced them with underwear! 



So Close And Yet So Far

It must have been a cold day in Hell today yet it didn't quite freeze over. The Vikings almost won their third game of the season! It ended in a tie. I should be happy since we didn't lose but I'm not because we were ahead most of the way and we didn't win either.

The only good thing is that it wasn't a blowout and Green Bay didn't win either. 



Annual Trek

Favorite vacation of the year! It started out with awful roads from home to our first stop...which, fortunately, was only 12 miles away! So the weather's been grand. We swung into Jay Cooke State Park on the way to our destination.

You might remember, about a year ago the northern Minnesota rains took out the famous swinging bridge.

But it's back and even sturdier than ever! It was c-o-o-o-ld out there in that wind.

There was a ship just coming under the bridge as we came down the hill into Duluth so we saw one from a very different perspective. I tell you, when we were here in late August it was 95 degrees and full of people. Now it's in the 30's and nearly deserted! But it's lovely any time of year.

They're even making it easy for us to come park as we chase the ships.

After we unpacked all the stuff that we could just barely cram into the truck we went back down to Duluth for supper at Fitger's. We took the scenic drive and pulled over to watch one of the boats who'd just left their dock.

The boats on Lake Superior are all shapes and sizes.

One came by closer to shore than most so we were pretty sure it was going into Two Harbors just up the road. So Cher and I went to watch it dock...and got there just in time to wave as it went past!

But we hiked down to the end of the breakwater and have this picture to prove it!

I love the early mornings and late afternoons. The lighting in the cabin is so cozy and warm.

Well, the candles, coffee and wine help too!

The mountain ash berries are usually in such fine form by now. This year hasn't disappointed.

Here is our afternoon shoreline.

We spied on the horizon one of the more unique ships we see and decided to go down to the Canal and on the way, take our group photo. It was getting later in the afternoon. What is your first clue?!

These are our better sides!

Our matching shirts are from Cher. She'd gotten them when the Tall Ship event came through Duluth this past summer.

The Alpena is the ship that's caught my eye in the past.

He also has a pretty cool whistle that I'd like to post but the internet here is pretty slow for uploading so I hope I remember to do it when we get home. The bonus of it all was, as the ship went by us in the Canal and I got faced in the other direction there was a beautiful sunset going on!



What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas!

Warmer climes and fun times for Mindy and a bunch of friends!

And she's almost there! Have fun!



Trickers And Treaters

We don't get many kids at our door on Halloween (four on the actual day) so I can post pictures of almost all of them. Halloween for us actually started earlier in the month when we made a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells. (You may have missed that post. Lately, my blogging has been hit or miss and that one was a miss!) One night there the kids dressed up and went around to different stations to get their treats.

Harvey was Batman, Charlie was a Ninja Turtle and Natalie was a ghost.

Then, the Sunday before Halloween Natalie and Harvey stopped by since they wouldn't be able to on the actual day.

This time Harvey was a Power Ranger and Natalie was a witch.

So last night our neighbor boys came over and they were both Skylander characters. (Something I know nothing about so I took them at their word!) Our last little goblins were Claire and Cate.

Cate was the character from Brave but she didn't like the red wig...too much hair. And Claire was the prettiest goldfish I've ever seen!

We headed up to K2's with a little plate of treats and found the kids handing out treats to any and all.

Harvey was still a Power Ranger and Natalie had her witch's hat on but when it came time to go around the neighborhood she wasn't warm enough and ended up in her Super Natalie cape. Before we left she tried on one of the masks we'd come in.

It was part of the costumes we wore back in 1985.

And while we're strolling down memory lane here's those old people still back then with the dads of all of today's cute kids!

(Tony on the left, Jon in the middle, Brian on the right!)



Vandalism On Our Street

In the past we've expressed to our neighbor (who's a football non-fan) our seemingly misplaced devotion to the Minnesota Vikings and therefore, our distaste for that team from Wisconsin. Well, that neighbor was picking up our mail the last couple days and when we got home last night we found this pinned to our mailbox.

I hope not many of the other neighbors saw that. They'll call us turncoats!



Who Are These Guys?

I'll give you a hint. If you worked for them for 25 years or more they throw a magnificent party to show their appreciation. It's the Mayo boys! We went to the last Argent Society dinner that we'll be eligible for Tuesday night and it was well worth it. The meal was a salad of fancy greens, filet mignon done to perfection, a chicken breast with parmesan mashed potatoes and asparagus spears followed by two little shooter desserts. Plus!...there was wine in abundance before the meal. I had my little finger in the air most of the time. It was really quite elegant. After the meal an illusionist provided the entertainment and he did some pretty amazing things. It sure would be interesting to learn the tricks of that trade! 



What Year Is It?

On the Chinese calendar it must be The Year of The Mouse. The sneaky little devils found a way into the basement requiring a rodent intervention and by the time it was all over we'd caught nine of them. That includes the daring little monster in the middle of the floor that had the audacity to continue sitting there after I declared "Excuse me?!" He ended up getting whacked with a shovel. In retrospect, it was kind of funny because all the while I was trying to smack him Jill's yelling "Get out of there! Get out of there!" like the stupid thing was going to shoot me or something.

Well, that's not the end of it. When we were leaving for town on Monday there was a rattle somewhere down below the dashboard. Jill was going to have her oil checked anyway but they said you'd better see the dealer since it might be under warranty. So we left it for Clements to have a look-see and what do you suppose they found? A mouse nest in the blower of the fan on her truck! They saved all the nesting material in a sizable box to show us and the guy took a picture too.

Jill had been parking her truck outside in the basketball court since we had stuff in her stall in the garage. Needless to say, we've cleared the space to park inside now!



Trash Or Treasure?

Though Fall is the prettiest season in my opinion, it can also be kind of messy. But what looks like work to me proves to be someone else's fun. Natalie and Harvey came over last Sunday to play in a big pile of leaves that our oaks were so generous to provide.

Natalie settled right in.

Harvey had some help.

Sometimes it was even raining leaves!

The kids had a lot of fun just tunneling around in a big pile of crunchy leaves.

We were never sure where they might pop up.

It even got to be a family affair. The kids thought it was pretty funny when Mom and Dad got in the pile.

We just thought it was cute!



A Great Day!

My oldest nephew's birthday is today.

Happy birthday, Brian!



All Pumpkined Out!

Jill got back from California last week in time to spend some time with Charlie who came to visit again.

We decided to set him up with some pumpkins for a little photo shoot. He may have been surprised at first...

...but soon he embraced the whole idea...

...and got downright friendly!

I think he was getting tired by the time we went outside. He was a little off his schedule that day but he still had a smile for us!

And since Charlie's starting to get some teeth we thought he should have a pumpkin with some too!