A Joyful Christmas 2011

This was a wonderful Christmas just because of the fact that it was the first time my dad and mom were at our house for Christmas. It was definitely a joyful season!




Dad had the honor of grilling the steaks and lobster. Probably a little warmer down in the South rather than up grilling them in Minnesota!


Everything turned out delicious! We had steak, lobster, asparagus, twice baked potatoes and Mom's homemade rolls (that I successfully made:-)). The dogs were wishing they had a seat at the table!



Then came the opening of the gifts. Major and Molly were both excited about their new toys. They go crazy when they get new toys actually which always makes us laugh.




After opening gifts we watched "White Christmas," with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Not a lot to do on a Christmas evening when you don't have any little children running around so you have to find other ways to entertain yourself. Of course, TV is always the fallback!


Then came Christmas morning and the opening of stockings. Once again, the puppies were anxiously awaiting their gifts. This time it was some yummy treats!




Dad and Mom had special stockings waiting for them that were filled with goodies - but of the human variety since we didn't think they would appreciate any dog treats!




Merry Christmas 2011! Hope yours was special too!

Billy Graham Library

My mom came to visit me the early part of December. We took a trip out shopping and to the Billy Graham Library but I forgot my camera! Thankfully Mom had an iPhone so we could still get some good quality shots of our trip to the Library (except those that are somewhat blurry from my lack of hand stability). It was a pretty neat place.

The bookstore was great and we found quite a few items to purchase but had to leave most of them on the shelves! :-) (The desk and chair were in the gift shop and I can't remember if it was Billy or Ruth's.) The bathroom was probably my favorite part. I loved the barn doors for the stalls and wish I could have one of those big sinks in my house somewhere! :-) Reminds me of Wisconsin.

There was also a tour that went through the legacy of Billy Graham. The pictures of the animated cow were at the beginning of the tour. Lastly there was a restaurant called the Dairy Bar where we ate a late lunch. It was a great day!

Oh - the front porch that you see on the picture below is at the entrance to the homeplace and is exactly the same as the floor that is on my porch - the broken orange tiles. I haven't seen it before other than at my house so I thought it was pretty cool!

Thanksgiving 2011

Hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had our 4th annual Thanksgiving with the Yorks. It's pretty nice having your friends live two doors down from you. Although we could just walk we had to take the car to transport the food. It was sunny and near 70 here on Thanksgiving - a beautiful day! Below are numerous pictures of Jerry & Angela's cats - especially Priscilla since I so seldom can catch her out of her little cave that she likes to hide in.

Cali enjoying some turkey!

Jerry waiting for the football game.

Angela & Melinda enjoying some rounds of Banagrams - Angela's new favorite game! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving from Mark & Melinda!

Preparing for a Winter Crop

This past week the field across from our house was being tilled up and presumably prepared for a winter crop. I'm just hoping that the field won't be completely green with a crop at Christmas-time, which happened one previous year. Just kind of seemed wrong somehow. I can handle no snow but not lush, green, growing vegetation!