Santa brought new Pets - Ginger and Cali (aka Wooly)

 Ginger is the little one, but we think he is actually in charge.

 Cali is short for calico - it's no surprise that Klara has chosen this one!

 His fur is really course, so we have been calling him Wooly more than Cali.

 Happy pet owners!

Sleepover in the Stable

Christmas eve was entertaining with this children's production. Nora was the kindly cow and Klara, chicken #3. I think practice without the chickens might have helped the older kids a bit, but they did well and were very cute. Here are a few excerpts.

 

Star, Star, Star

Glory, Glory

This is no Time to Sleep

Christmas Eve

Check out the tree! We went to the Little's tree farm again this year - one year we bought a cut tree, but otherwise we've gone here every year since we moved to Mankato. Every tree that Nora and I pointed out was "too spindly" according to Rick! When he found the appropriate one, he cut it off at about the 6.5 foot mark. When we got it to our front walk, it was as high as the power lines. As you can see by Good King Wenceslas, a good amount was additionally cut off the top. I must say it fills the space, and displays the ornaments beautifully. Nora and I told him that next year, we get to get a spindly tree!

It's come to this!

As I post, Rick is still clearing the roof. We've had about 48 inches so far this year! 4 feet (122 cm) doesn't seem so bad, but Christmas Eve day, I had to get up on the 7 or so foot pile at the corner of our driveway and the street (the one you see here, though after the fact) to shovel it further into the yard, so we could get the new snow up and out of the driveway!

Digging Out

Once again they made a huge deal out of the weather and we didn't quite get what was predicted, maybe about 10 inches. Just up the road in Shakopee, they got over twice that. We seemed to be just on the line where the rain met the snow, so Friday it just rained. The wind and snow started early Saturday morning and continued until evening, so we stayed put after the Reindeer run. The temperature went from 30 to 0 over the course of the storm, but the bright sun on the south side of our house and the protection from the wind we have here made shoveling out a fun time.


Klara is definitely carrying here weight (literally and figuratively) around here!


It reminds me of when I was little, playing arctic explorer walking home from Riverside Elementary in Moorhead on top of the boulevard drifts left by the snow plow.

Girls on the Run - Reindeer Dash 5K and Santa Sprint

The culmination of Nora's GOTR program was scheduled to run on the Red Jacket trail from the Y yesterday, but due to blizzard conditions it ended up being rescheduled for the indoor track and shortened to 1 mile - 17 times around that little track! The younger sibling race, the Santa Sprint, was two laps and included kids 2-8. Both girls were gazelle-like. Nora pretended to be a prancing reindeer the whole way with a big smile on her face, while Klara was all business. Of course we forgot the camera in our rush to leave the house, but you can see them here after we got home. Luckily the Y is just a block away from their school so we didn't have to leave the neighborhood to get there in the blizzard.





Notice the Playmobile play sets on the bay window.
This is the third year Mona's family has supplied the girls with these German advent calendars. The kids LOVE them! Every morning they race out of bed to see what little item is waiting to join the set. This year Nora has a paleontological site and Klara has Santa's office, complete with naughty and nice list! (Also note the GOTR became GTOR when Nora decorated her cape!)

Happy Halloween!

The girls had a great Halloween. Perfect weather, no illnesses, and fun ideas for homemade costumes. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!