The Year of the Apron

I decided this year to sew my bestest girlies some sexy little red and white polka dot aprons - each a little different. I was nearly done with all of them when Daner cut tiny little holes into nearly all of them. He later told me he was "just pwacticing!" Instead of starting over I patched them all up and gifted them despite the "love bites". I am blessed with wonderful girlfriends and I love our little progressive restaurant nights... in fact I loved this one a wee bit too much!

Jess showing off her white elephant gift. Nice.

Love this picture!

Hummmmm.....

The only serious moment of the evening.

2010

My New Year's resolution for 2010 is to learn the very simple lesson Owl learned in one of my favorite children's books "Owl At Home". If Owl can figure it out I can too, right?


Owl's house had an upstairs and a downstairs.
There were twenty steps on the stairway.
Some of the time Owl was upstairs in his bedroom.
At other times Owl was downstairs in his living room.
When Owl was downstairs he said, "I wonder how my downstairs is getting along? I am always missing one place or the other. There must be a way," said Owl, "to be upstairs and to be downstairs at the same time."
"Perhaps if I run very very fast, I can be in both places at once." Owl ran up the stairs. I am up," he said.
Owl ran down the stairs. "I am down," he said.
Owl ran up and down the stairs faster and faster. "Owl!" he cried. "Are you downstairs?" There was no answer.
"No," said Owl. "I am not downstairs because I am upstairs. I am not running fast enough."
"Owl!" he shouted. "Are you upstairs?" There was no answer. "No," said Owl.
"I am not upstairs because I am downstairs. I must run even faster."
"Faster, faster, faster!" cried Owl. Owl ran upstairs and downstairs all evening.
But he could not be in both places at once.
"When I am up," said Owl, "I am not down. When I am down I am not up. All I am is very tired!" Owl sat down to rest.
He sat on the tenth step because it was a place that was right in the middle.

Taken from Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel 1975

Hot Cocoa Stand

When we first started talking about buying our current house (we lived across the street at the time) I fantasized about opening the anti-lemonade stand, a hot cocoa stand. See, the city park across the street has a wicked sledding hill that attracts dozens of families most weekends in the winter. What a great way to keep our kids outdoors in the winter. Last winter we opened the stand two times and the kids helped, but were not that enthusiastic about it. This year Ava was a great little shop owner. She donned her typical dress with tights and threw on a housecoat under her coat. She helped design the sign for the stand and asked customers if they would like home of her Daddy's homemade marshmallows in their hot cocoa. Dane's contribution? He drank up the profits. This year we added a fire for sledders to warm up by. It was a huge hit. Each kid banked $8.00 for their college funds in about two hours :)

My best friend.

A Christmas of Firsts

We didn't start this Christmas season trying to go the tradition busting route. We did make a decision early on in the holiday season to spend Thanksgiving at our own home instead of on the road as we expected Christmas to be the typical rush around between car trips holiday. Little did we know that a major storm would cause us to spend Christmas at our Fergus Falls home as well.

Perhaps it was our decision to throw out our 15 year old plastic Christmas tree purchased from a bankruptcy sale when Best went out of business that tripped all of the change this season. Last Christmas our cat decided to climb the wobbly tree to the very top causing the tree to crash to the ground and years of collected ornaments to smash to smithereens. This year we traveled to Parkers Prairie and purchased our first *real* tree. The experience was amazing and turned into a nearly all day event. We roasted hot dogs by a campfire, took a horse sleigh ride and enjoyed being outdoors on a fabulously sunny winter day. We found the perfect tree. Perfect.

The kids hid under the dining table and studied their father as he drug in the tree, tried to set it up only to find that it was one foot to tall, then drag the tree back outside to cut it down. I love nothing more than opening each little box of ornaments and discussing who gave it to us, or where we were when we purchased it. What a joyous thing to share with a child. I don't see us ever going back to a plastic tree. I could care less about the needles on the ground. The smell made it all worthwhile.

As you know, a nasty storm hit the Midwest over Christmas. Nearly ever major road in North Dakota and Minnesota was closed. We spent the holiday at our house hunkered down. We did our best to make the holiday special for our newest niece and cooked up a big Christmas Eve meal. It was not a traditional Christmas, but a great one.

Skating as the sun goes down

"The Christmas Dream"

We signed Ava up for dance classes at The Edge Performing Arts Studio in the fall. She wanted to take ballet and tap. Special ordered tap and ballet shoes later she went to her first class. After the first couple of classes they started practicing for the BIG "Christmas Show". I started to hear other parents talking about last year's Christmas show being 2 hours in length with practices every day for a week before the show. I started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. As the months went by we received a practice schedule for THE SHOW. Sure enough, 3 hour practices five days in a row plus two "shows" on Saturday. Yikes. For a 4 year old? How would she handle that schedule? Would she be a tired little wreck by the time the actual show came around?

Another month passed and we got our bill for THE SHOW costume. $50.00. A Wizard of Oz "Dorothy" costume still clearly marked $20.00 from Target. Gulp.

Finally, we entered the week of practice. Low and behold, Ava was fine with the schedule. Her mother was not. Screaming kids everywhere. Practices that started a solid hour after they were to begin. Older dancers throwing out f bombs around the little kid classes. Noise, noise and more noise. I am positive I sent out multiple text messages to friends to "bring alcohol", "bring sharp objects", or both, during the hours spent on the 1980's sectional next to the pile of sweaty dance gear.

The day of the show Ava was very excited. She put on her beautiful dress and we carefully applied black eyeliner, mascara and bright pink blush. What a cutie pie. We arrived an hour and a half before the first show, as required, and waited an hour for something to happen. A half an hour before show time the kids were rounded up and stuffed backstage. I spent the next hour worrying that Ava was scared or lonely or crying backstage. The show started a solid twenty minutes late because someone was parked in the fire lane and we couldn't start until the offender moved her car (with North Dakota plates no less). After multiple pleas an elderly lady in front of us stormed off grumbling under her breath. FINALLY the show was about to start.

The show itself was pretty amazing. Dane was speechless.

Ava's portion was about 65 seconds long. I refuse to calculate how much time and money was spent per second, but the thought did cross my mind. The experience was priceless for Ava though. She took the stage (albeit for a SHORT TIME) in front of 150 people. That takes some serious guts. But, I think we'll try a different activity after the new year!