Merry Christmas,

From our family to yours!

Enjoy the pictures from Maddie's Christmas program!!

Thank you Kim, Collin, and Shawn for coming to be our "family"!!

Only in Minnesota....

.....do you see a toy car almost covered by snow....

.....or a snow blower on a frozen pond. Yes, this is the pond in our back yard. No, that isn't our snow blower. I guess when you start to run out of garage space, you use any space available.... I would be afraid it would get covered by snow.

Christmas Display.....

....at Macy's.

The kids and I drove into downtown Minneapolis to Macy's. This Macy's is huge. 12 floors huge to be exact. At Christmas, one whole floor is devoted to their Christmas display. When they do a Christmas display....they do a Christmas display. It was complete with moving and singing elves. The kids loved it!

We parked in a nearby parking garage. I know, I could have saved some money taking the light rail....but come on. Who wants to walk 4 blocks with 2 kids in negative degree weather...not me! The parking garage was connected via sky way, so we walked all over Nicolette Mall and stayed nice and warm. Too bad when we left it had started to snow....again. I am seriously tired of snow.

Remembering Nanny....

Today is a special day. Today marks the anniversary when a wonderful sweet woman earned her angel wings. That woman, was my Nanny. For those who may be confused by the wording, she wasn't a nanny....she was my Nanny (grandmother).

Nanny lived through over the river and through the woods from me. Minus the river, that is. She was a short walk through 2 pastures and some woods from my house. I wish I had a quarter for every time I packed my backpack full of baby dolls and "hiked" to Nanny's house.

Nanny was very special to me. She made me yarn dolls, spent countless hours playing Old Maid and Chutes and Ladders, cut paper dolls from the Sears catalog and just being with me and my brother. Her house always smelled of fresh baking and clean laundry. If I close my eyes tight enough, I can still smell her house.....the smell of love and comfort.

My Nanny didn't get to see my babies or my cousin, Sarah's, babies. But I know she is proudly looking down from heaven at them. Maddie was named after her. Maddie's "big name" is Madeline Beatrice (pronounced Bee-at-trice). My Nanny's name was Willie Beatrice (pronounced the same) Adams and then later Eldridge after she was married.

When I think of all the changes Nanny experienced during her life, I am amazed. As a child, she rode the mules down to the spring for water and rode in wagons pulled by them. As an adult, she rode in an airplane to Disney World. Neither one of us were big fans for the airplane (truth be told, many many plane rides later....I'm still not a big fan).

My friend, Becky, remembered that the anniversary of Nanny's angel wings was coming up. She sent me a sweet book about a grandmother and her love for her granddaughter called What Color is Love. In this book the grandmother makes her granddaughter a coat out of the colors of love (the colors that represent salvation). Everything my Nanny made, was made with love.

Even though I miss Nanny terribly, I know she is in a better pain free place. I was so blessed that to have her in my life. Makes me sad that my kids live so far from their grandparents.

Christmas Season Pictures

On Saturday night, we went downtown to watch the Holidazzle Parade. It is a huge parade that, despite frigid temperatures, has a huge crowd. This parade happens at dark so all the floats are lit up with thousands of lights.

We watched from one of the sky ways that connects all the buildings downtown. Though we couldn't hear the music, we were warm and toasty watching it.


Notice Sam's Elvis smile. He busted his lip at the indoor play area on Friday night. A quick call to Granddaddy told us we didn't need to go to the ER for stitches, since he didn't bust it all the way through. He was in a lot of pain this weekend, but it didn't keep him from enjoying the parade.

Despite the rather unflattering up the nose shot of me, this is a cute picture of Sam. He loves to watch the video, posted on here, of Ga-Ga and Granddaddy dancing. Here he is learning "new moves" to add to his juking.

We received packages from Ms. Becky and her boys on Friday. Our kids have always opened their Christmas packages together. We tried to time it so that they could open them over speaker phone, but it didn't work out. We miss having our annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange with you guys!!!
Sam LOVED the Cars movie book that he received.

And of course, Maddie loves her triplets. These are wooden dolls with magnetic clothes and accessories. Right up her alley.

Here is Sam "reading" his new book to Lightning McQueen and Pooh.

Also, on Friday, Maddie's class made gingerbread houses. I went in to help out. All I did was put the icing on.....Maddie did the rest. Her house has candy cane "bushes" out front and even a sidewalk with Teddy Grahams walking up. She is very proud of her house....can you tell?

They must be joking.....

....because this can't really be the weather for tonight here.

Windy. Snow this evening will give way to snow showers overnight. Cold. Dangerous wind chills approaching -30F. Low -7F. Winds WNW at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.

Hum, guess that means Maddie's class will NOT go outside at school tomorrow. You see, they go out as long as the wind chill is -15 or higher.

Sigh.

And to think, I have to get out in this. Why did I sign up to help wrap gifts at the CareTree tonight? Why did I put my kids in preschool and have to leave the house on Monday mornings by 8:50am?

I am longing for the "mild" 20 degree weather we had last week.

I am afraid that we will suffer from a heat stroke when we go to NC on Saturday and it is in the 40s. Maybe I should pack short sleeves after all.....

Up coming forecast...

Forecast Details from the Weather Team
Monday - Much colder. Mostly cloudy in the morning then becoming partly cloudy. Areas of blowing and drifting snow in the morning. Highs zero to 5 above zero. West winds 10 to 20 mph. Wind chill readings 17 below to 27 below zero.
Monday Night - Mostly clear. Lows around 10 below.

I think this just speaks for itself. I keep reminding myself....one week and we can thaw out in the south....just one more week. Question is, can we make it one more week?

All I want......

....is Christmas in Dixie.

Let me preface this post with this, I completely and fully believe that Jesus Christ's birth is the only reason for Christmas. I was raised to have a focus on Jesus on during this season and I am hopefully passing that on to my children as well. The gifts, tinsel, food, and Santa often overshadow the real reason of this season to the point that people have started writing it "X-mas".

This Christmas season has been difficult. Though we know that we are here for a reason that our sovereign God has in His hands, we (I) miss home. We are far from home, in a land where it is colder than any cold we have ever felt and snowier than we have ever experienced. The sun doesn't shine that much and everything is dark and gray, covered with salt and slush. This makes for bleak and dreary days upon bleak and dreary days.

Which brings me back to Christmas in Dixie. I have been without my Alabama Christmas music all season. No, I am not a country fan, but I grew up listening to Alabama Christmas. To me, part of Christmas is "Thistlehair the Christmas Bear", "Candle in the Window", and most importantly "Christmas in Dixie". I vividly remember listening to this tape on my hot pink "Walkman" knock off all the time at Christmas. I remember it playing on the stereo at my parents house while we ate Christmas Eve dinner. I remember it playing in the car while we went to look at Christmas lights. Memories are tightly tied to this album. Memories that are much needed this holiday season to draw on and to hold tight to.

Why haven't I been listening to my "mostest" (as Maddie says) favorite Christmas music this year? My beloved tape died last year. I had been limiting the playing of it to conserve it as much as possible, but it played it's last chours last year. Then, I found the songs on I-Tunes and had them placed on my I-pod. These were on our laptop that died. Therefore I can't get them off. Sigh.

I have been singing the songs, but it just wasn't the same. I am sure that the group, Alabama, would shutter at the thought of me singing their songs. But I was trying. Trying to carry my childhood Christmas memories all the way here so they could become a part of my children's memories.

Today is a particularly cold day here. My car said "0" this morning. The wind chill is below 0. It is gray and overcast. I was cold and overcast. Today was one of those days I needed the sun to peak through, just for a minute. No such luck.

I had a few extra minutes, after making gingerbread houses with Maddie at school and my doctor's appointment, to stick my head into Wal-Mart. I needed mitten clips for the kids. While in Wal-Mart I decided to try looking for the Alabama Christmas CD. I know, wasn't I just hoping against all odds that Alabama Christmas would be here in the "Artic Circle"? Maybe I was just that desperate to have a part of "home" here.

I spent a few minutes look through their Christmas music selection and found everything from the Care Bears to Larry the Cable Guy (seriously Larry the Cable Guy has a Christmas CD, what is the world coming to?!?). I tried not to get my hopes up, but with every row of CDs that didn't' contain the Alabama CD my heart fell just a little more. I finally found a worker (a miracle in itself to find a worker in Wal-Mart) and was told that they didn't anyway of finding out what Christmas CDs they had. Weird. But the nice guy told me he would help me look through the hundreds of CDs. I made some joke about looking for a southern CD in Minnesota.

While joking on the outside, I really started to feel panicky on the inside. What if they didn't have it? I had looked (literally) everywhere else. I just needed a taste of home. While I was quelling the panic that had started to rise, the nice guy handed me a CD wondering if that was what I was looking for. There in my hands was the "classic" Alabama Christmas. The covered had changed, but the songs were still listed in the same order.

I am not usually an emotional person, but I teared up at the stupid Alabama CD. The nice guy asked me if I was okay. I am sure he was wondering if the tears were of happiness, or pain thinking about the southern Dixie twang I was about to hear. I assured him I was fine and left Wal-Mart with a huge smile on my face. This find even warranted a call home. Yes mom, I'm going to be okay....I can have my Christmas in Dixie way up here in the land of cold and snow....where no one sounds like me.

Can you guess what the kids and I sang along to all the way home? Can you guess the emphasis we put on the all to familiar southern language...you know making the words "star" and "for" rhyme? Any idea what Sam is "juking" to right now? Can you guess what is blaring through my house and what will continue to blare until we board that plane home?

You see this Christmas more than any other Christmas, I need a little Christmas in Dixie...I need a little home.

Ga-Ga and Granddaddy Breaking it Down!

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When outside your window you see this......

....You know it is time to curl up with a good book. And if you see the above outside and your brother wants to curl up with your good book too....that's okay.

This is what I found when the house became really quiet today. Luckily everyone was clothed and no one was hiding in the shower.


Then, the kids spotted mom and the natural picture changed to them posing.....



Maddie looked so cute in her Christmas tree shirt and pants that I just HAD to take her picture.

And since Sam's shirt completely sums him up....I HAD to take his picture as well. In case you can't clearly read it, his shirt says "Believe me I'm Nice". The shadow under nice doesn't spell nice as it should, but spells naughty. Completely totally Sam. He is usually really a sweet kid, but when the mood hits him right.....you better watch out.

Do you notice Sam's new hair cut? It took going twice, to Fantastic Sam's, to get it this way. I took both kids yesterday for a hair cut and the lady that did Sam's obviously wasn't a kid person. If he even flinched (and he really sits still for a 2 year old), she would say "If you don't sit still Santa isn't going to bring you any presents." Or, "Only boys that sit still get presents from Santa."

Sam was apparently as fed up with as I was when he replied, "No, no. Santa no bring pe-sents. I help Mommy mailed pe-sents."

Sam and I had just spent a wonderful 1 1/2, the day before at the Fed-Ex, boxing and mailing all the presents to everyone. He helped box the few of their wrapped presents that we are taking to NC. The boy knows where the presents come from.

To Sam's comment the hair lady looked at me and said (not in a nice way), "What are you, Jewish?" I told her that no, I wasn't Jewish. We just celebrated Christmas for the only true reason to celebrate Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ.

I don't know if it was my comment, Sam's comment, or that she just wasn't good.....but we had to make a return trip to get his hair fixed. Totally out of my comfort zone to go back to a place and tell them to fix something they messed up. However, I couldn't take my boy home looking like a lopsided wooly booger.

We had a new lady today and she was wonderful. Fixed Sam's hair right up and was nice to boot.

More Northern Vernacular

A few weeks ago I posted about what "flurries" looks like in the northern mid-west. Last night we had "snow showers". Thought I would share what "snow showers" looks like.

Now that you know what a snow shower will do, thought I would how show you how to handle snow showers. Thank goodness Wade (after a few attempts and reading the whole manual) is a master at running a snow blower.

Keeping the neighbors talkin'

Since moving here, we have always looked for ways to narrow the distance between being from the south and being from......well, here. You know, trying to pronounce the towns correctly, learning to say "sliding" instead of "sledding", adding the word "pop" instead of "Coke" to our vocabulary. Trying to embrace the cold (side note: The weather man said that today was going to "mild". High of 20. Oh, yes he did....he called 20 "mild") and snow. All of this, so that we don't seem/feel like outsiders.

We had a golden opportunity last night to show that southern or not.......we are just like everyone else. Let me set the scene. Can you guess what it begins with.....snow, of course. It snowed all day yesterday. So, snow was covering everything. We had just finished dinner and I had Sam in my arms, heading upstairs for night-night, when the doorbell rang.

Insert prolonged pause and everyone looking at each other.

Our doorbell rang. Who in the world would be ringing OUR doorbell? Quick head count....Maddie upstairs, Sam in my arms, Wade beside me.....yep everyone accounted for.

I opened the door (fumbling with the lock since we don't open the front door very often) to sounds of Christmas music. Oh, it was wonderful. Christmas Carolers. I teared up listening to the sweet voices of the kids. Sam was "juking" (another side note: Sam calls when you dance "breaking it down", when you sing and dance with jerking movements it's called "juking".....don't ask, I don't know) in my arms, Wade was smiling beside me. Finally, a chance to prove to the neighborhood that we are just like any other family. I called over my shoulder for Maddie to come and listen (she had headed up the stairs just moments before the door bell rang).

As the caroling continued, I saw the eyes of a person in the back row get unnaturally large. Then, another person's eyes followed suit. With two strange people staring bug eyed into my house, I had to turn and look at what had caught their attention.

Sigh.

There was my daughter.

At the top of the stairs.

She was missing something.....anyone care to take a guess at what she was missing?

Yep, her clothes.

Sigh.

So, instead of having a moment seeming like any other family enjoying the sounds of the season, we were a family with one boy "juking", which could easily be misinterpreted as a seizure and with another child streaking. Oh yes, defiantly what we want the neighbors to think of us.

I am fairly sure that we will be referred to now not only as that "southern family," but also the family with the strange kids. Wouldn't surprise me one bit if we became the talk around the kitchen tables once more.

That's what I get when I think it is only my accent that makes me stand out. Now, it is my accent, my son with the jerking movements, and my exhibitionist daughter.

Sigh.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas....

Thanks to Ga-Ga and Granddaddy who helped get the tree, house, and outside decorated while they were here. We have never done lights outside before, but seeing ALL the other neighbors have lights....we didn't want to look like the Scrooges of the neighborhood.

By the way, all the bows are compliments of Ga-Ga. She is my go to girl for bows. She did all the bows going up my stairway, the bow on top of the tree, and the bow for my wreath.

I refuse to look at the Weather Channel

Why you ask? Because the temperatures scare me. Highs in the the single digits with the wind chill 0 or below, don't fare well with this southern bred girl.

Apparently we have entered the season of snow. We have snow here as much as we had rain back home. Guess it makes sense with the temperatures and everything. However, I am not used to having everything (including the roads) winter white.

Speaking of the roads, yesterday was my first "real" adventure driving on snow. It has snowed here before, but luckily Wade was around to do the driving. Yesterday, however, Maddie had to be at school early for a field trip and Wade just "had" to go to work. That left me. Me, two kids, and a mini van.

Now, I have always heard that the roads were kept "clear" here in the winter. So I started off the trip very optimistic. Until I noticed the road was still completely covered in snow. Still, Maddie had to get to school so I threw the kids in and made sure they were extra snug in their car seats. With a prayer we started off.

I tried my breaks on our road, where I knew I couldn't hit anything, and slid. The kids thought it was so fun and were screaming to "do it again". Um, kiddos....don't think so. Well, at least not on purpose.

It took us forever to get to school. And no, it wasn't all my slow driving (though that did add to the time). Everyone was driving slow since even the bigger roads had snow and ice. The whole time (with my white knuckles on the steering wheel) I was muttering under my breath "And everyone brags about how clear the roads are kept. I'd like to see a clear road."

Twenty minutes later (what should have taken 6-10mins) we arrived at school. Only to find the parking lot covered as well. We parked the van, in what seemed like a parking spot, and slipped and slid our way into school. Maddie wasn't late and I knew Sam and I could figure a way back out of the parking lot later.

I guess it was a successful first driving experience. My friend, Kim, keeps telling me I will get used to it. She has never commented on whether I will ever like it or not. So far, I am not a fan of the cramping hands and tight shoulders I end up with. It comes from all that hunching over the steering wheel (since that does so much good) and gripping to white knuckles (again that does so much better than just holding the steering wheel normally).

The kids and I are off on another adventure today. I am sure it will take us twice as long to get to MOPS this morning as it should. Since it "flurried" again last night. So glad they keep the roads "clear" here :)

Making of Minnesota Memories

This was our first Minnesota Thanksgiving. Our first Thanksgiving at our home. It was important to us that we start traditions of our own.....here. We need traditions that we can look forward to through the holiday season. Traditions that are ours and ours alone.

Tradition Number 1: Trip to space and playing in the basement.

Poor Granddaddy had to get up at 3am on Thanksgiving morning to catch a flight to MN. As soon as he walked in the door, he had to take another "flight" to the moon and Mars. Ga-Ga was able to come down on Tuesday and spend a few more days playing in the basement before Thanksgiving. What would I have done without her help getting all the food ready?


Tradition #2: Thanksgiving cookin' and eatin' at our house.

Ga-Ga and I spent most of the day on Wednesday cooking and getting ready for Thanksgiving. You have no idea how hard it is to find "greens" and "ham hock" in MN. However, I enjoyed hearing Ga-Ga ask the store clerks. It was so nice to not be the only one getting picked on about their accent. I think from now on I am going to take Granddaddy's approach and ask back, "What accent"?

This year, we had our table full. I was so afraid that it would have been empty with just the four of us. God provided (not only a dining room table) but a way for my parents and Wade's cousins to get here. They live in St. Paul while Alicia is in vet school. They are kind enough to come and spend time with my munchkins even though they are newlyweds and kid-less.

Tradition #3: Fire in the fireplace.

It may have taken 6 paper grocery bags and an untold number of catalogs, but my persistent husband was able to make the wet logs into a warm blazing fire. It made the house seem even more homey than usual.

Tradition #4: Nickelodeon Universe

We took the kids, on Thanksgiving evening, to ride the rides at the MOA. There wasn't anyone there. It was so nice to let them ride until their hearts content. Of course, Ga-Ga and Granddaddy were able to ride as well.

Tradition #5: Cutting down the Christmas Tree.

On Friday we all loaded up and headed out to find the perfect Christmas tree. We drove to "Z's Trees", a local tree farm. Here we rode a wagon pulled by a tractor out into the tree farm and then we were on our own to find the perfect tree. Luckily the weather was really nice (30s) and sunny.

However, they didn't provide someone to cut it down with a chainsaw as the website suggested. Nope, they dropped you off in no mans land with a hand saw.

But, we were successful with Granddaddy, Wade, and the kids' hard work.

Sam really got into the whole cutting a tree down thing. He wanted to cut "moe" trees down. Just so you know, the hand saw had a cover on the blade....I wasn't letting him run around with a sharp blade in his arms :)

Our perfect Christmas tree with the perfect people around it.

Tradition #6: Decorating the Christmas Tree

This is what happens when you cut down your own Christmas tree......

....you find a birds nest in it!!

The final product.....

Tradition #7: Conquering the Edinborough Park

On Saturday we took the kids, Ga-Ga, and Granddaddy to the Edinborough Park. As you can see, it has a rather large indoor play structure.

Here is proof that both Granddaddy and Ga-Ga conquered it with Maddie. I won't tell you that Ga-Ga didn't go down the fastest slide, but she did make it all the way to the top.

Tradition #8: Snow

Okay, so this tradition I can't really control. However, it worked out really well for this year.