Christmas Eve

Here are some photos from Christmas eve. Fun was had by all.


The night began with a dinner of customized pizzas:






Caught in the Camera-crossfire:



I like this picture of my sister-in-law, Kellie and niece, Elizabeth. It looks like she is passing along some vital piece of wisdom:



Kellie's actually showing her how to record her voice into Kellie's new talking gnome:



My masterpiece, my grandmother's frangellica cake:



I got a gorilla-pod for Christmas. It's a handy-dandy, little tripod that can grab onto things. I hooked it onto a railing and shot a few portraits of Nikki:



and of Marian:



Business, as usual:



Pam:






The presents:



The children:



And the rest of the story will come soon.

Merry Day After Christmas!

Christmas was great. It did not snow, but there was snow on the ground at my sister-in-law's house (though it was rock-hard from freezing). As a result, I am maintain that it wasn't a "white" Christmas, but it was a "white-ish" Christmas.

Pictures of said Christmas, minus the white stuff, to come later this evening.

But, for now, I have to work.

There's still hope for a white-ish Christmas...

Although the weather-woman said that in order to qualify as a white Christmas there must be at least one inch of snow on the ground, I'm going to count any snow that falls on actually Christmas day.

With several chances of flurries that makes this girl's hopes high.

I'll keep you posted and maybe even figure out a better way to capture the white stuff with my camera.

Wii like thanksgiving

Because it's Christmas eve-eve, (and because I still haven't posted these pictures) I am going to blog about thanksgiving and the wii adventures that went on there. I can't seem to get tired of making Wii puns, thanks to my brother-in-law, James the Wii Enthusiast. This was my first thanksgiving in Minnesota and it didn't disappoint, though I missed my family in California. First, the food:



It was Alison's first turkey. It was so good, I even tasted a bite.



The Chef, the Carver and the Turkey:



Jell-o Stars:





Then Kellie learned that corn cob pipes are much more functional than corn cob glasses:



Then Wii played Baseball:









And boxing:


You've got to love a game system that makes it plausible for a five-year-old to beat his dad the first day he plays:



At dusk I captured the trees in their front yard:






The next day we went shopping. I don't think anyone bought anything (it's not the same now that Marshall Fields is gone), but we found this in the parking lot:




Merry Christmas eve-eve!

A White Christmas...Almost

Melting chunks of snow were plopping off of the roofs and hoods of cars as I returned from work. It made the freeway look like a giant snowball fight between the vehicles.

At work, I was arroused from copy edits to find huge snowflakes falling front the sky. Several co-workers and I were excited, hoping we might get a white Christmas, after all. But another was quick to note it was going to heat up and would probably melt before Monday.

Oh well, a girl can hope.

Holy Moses it's Nikki's Birthday!

This blog is titled in honor of the phrase Nikki says when she is shocked by something. A fitting title as we celebrated her birthday at the Cheesecake Factory tonight.

The birthday girl and her gifts:



Have I mentioned we like bread?



a lot:



With her new camera, Nikki is taking pictures as much as I am, which is nice because now I am not the only imposing camera lens...a minor inconviences for a lifetime of memories, who can argue with that? Here she is in action:






Dessert:



And, one of the coolest gifts I have ever seen. Nikki's parent's insurance company had this hand painted plate made for her shortly after she was born. It not only features her name (though it is misspelled), but the clock featured on the plate shows the time at which she was born. Her parents gave it to her tonight.



Yes, this is a realistic recreation of how she was born.



Happy birthday, Nikki!

New Car Smell

We got a new car today. I think I like the new smell as much as I like the new car. I don't want to be a car braggart, so if you want to know anything about it, just ask.

It's a Honda CR-V:

Self Portrait; a Big Day

Today was my first day of work as a professional journalist and it was busy. I got to the office at 9 and spent the rest of the morning filling out forms and learning the specifics of the job and various company policies. Then my boss took me out to lunch. After lunch we came back, had a staff meeting and then I learned some of the ins-and-outs of their computer system.

At 3, my second adventure began as I headed to pick up Joe so we could go to the Honda dealership to try to purchase a CRV before heading to a city council meeting at 7. My new job means that our one car will no longer work. Whew, I learned that it does take some time to purchase a car. After test driving it, running our credit and trying to track down the color we want, Joe and I left, carless. I took him home and headed to the city council meeting.

Several mistakes were made on the journey. Besides misreading how far my destination was from my point of origin by 5-10 minutes, my directions also told me to turn the wrong direction on 3rd St and, of course, I didn't know this right away.

The post-it read: Left on 3rd
look for the flags

So, when I saw the flags right where I had been directed, I parked quickly and rushed inside, clutching my laptop at my side. I was first confused that a sign on the door was advertising drinks. When I got inside the chain-smocking bingo players tipped me off that I was in the wrong place. But none of them new where city council was. Finally one of the people that worked there told me to head the other direction on 3rd.

I headed down the street, encountering two more flags--in front of the post office and the VFW, before finding the flags in front of city hall.

The meeting took two hours and included an interesting insight into a dispute with the city over a development. After that I took off for home but, as I was looking for somewhere to turn around after taking a wrong turn, I noticed a huge Christmas display and decided to take a picture of it. While I was there, I snapped these self-portraits, using a street lamp as my light source:

The Wrestler

We spent the morning watching our five-year-old nephew get his first wrestling win. Before wrestling, a quick pep-talk with mom:





Time to concentrate.







On to the wrestling:







He's certainly one tough five-year-old.

Adventures in Gingerbread

The blog hiatus is officially over! I'll be updating all the way back to thanksgiving in the next few days. For now, some holiday inspired adventure:


Last Saturday we went to the Mall of America to see the giant gingerbread house.




Joe took most of the pictures, while I enjoyed myself. I marked the pictures he shot with his name.










I was a little disappointed that elements of the house weren't made out of gingerbread, but then I realized that structurally, it was probably for the best.






*I do not know who ate those gingerbread men, right in the middle of the Mall of America, but it wasn't me.

The Return of the Popcorn...

I recieved this box from my Grandmother a few hours ago and was, of course, frieghtened by the peanuts (having previously experienced packing-peanut hell).




Of course, she told me she was sending me a bunch of small ornaments, so I was surprised to find gifts. When I realized I wasn't looking for a bunch of small object, digging through the peanuts became a novel holiday adventure.






(yes, that blurry thing is a peanut)

Thanks Grammie!