Merry Christmas

We had sushi for Christmas, and in a complete reversal of the expected, everyone liked it except A. Thanks for the great idea Mom! I had a lot of fun decorating the house for Christmas, and the Swedish meatballs turned out all right, but needed more gravy (can you ever have enough gravy?). I love seeing the kids learning things and figuring out how stuff, including language, works. When I told the kids that the fish on the "sushi" was called Swedish fish, Lolly stated, that's probably why they're sweet (sweetish, Swedish).

And the stockings under the tree(s)

Thanksgiving 2008

Another Thanksgiving come and gone. I was lucky enough to have lots of family here. Mom came down with NB, Frankie, and Mugsie on Thanksgiving day and got to stay through today. Thanksgiving dinner was in Stewartville, but some time at my house on Saturday and Sunday too. Enjoy the pictures, it was sure fun to have everyone here, but we missed Dad.

Nerstrand

It was a beautiful fall weekend, so we decided to go to Nerstrand today after church. Enjoy some of the shots. Wish I could have got some video of JAC laughing as he crunched through the leaves.

Carlson family band

Back in August, Erm and I went out to Stewartville for a night with the Carlson's before Erm went back to school. In addition to dinner, we were able to enjoy a very exuberant praise band. Sorry for the weird eyes, red eye removal took out the red, but left them looking otherworldly.

kids

Went out to eat with TC and the kids on Tuesday and then they came back to my place for a little bit. Couple pictures of Lolly in her favorite hat. Nani is the most photogenic Carlson I know, but somehow I managed to get one that's not so great of her. Was trying to take a pic of all 4, but JAC was having nothing to do with that. You can see the results.

Oh, I want this. Isn't it beautiful. If it could actually run everything in my "Media" room, all the better. According to mental_floss where I saw it, it's not available yet, and I'm sure it will be way out of my price range if and when it does become available, but wouldn't this look great on my Ikea shelves? You can see the mental floss article here

More from Fargo

A few more pictures from Labor Day. I can not get over the mop of hair this girl has. Isn't she beautiful? The video clip has a bit of her talking. It was so much fun to see her and Nate and Fran interacting with her.

Mugsie

Having fun in Fargo. hard to believe she's already 3 months old. I have some more video, but might need to wait till I get home before I can upload it.

August Surprises

So, I know it's been awhile since I've posted. Busy busy at work, and haven't brought my camera there. This past weekend however I had two nice surpises. First of all Roxie Carlson (Duane and Dawn's youngest) got married in Rochester. That doesn't mean a whole lot since I haven't seen Roxie since she was 5 or so, but it did mean that John and Darlene, Kim and her boyfriend, and Lisa were all in town. I knew that Lisa was going to be staying at my place with Emily, but didn't know if I'd see anyone else. However, John and Darlene brought Bryan's grill over to my place on Saturday and we grilled burgers and had corn on the cob out on my patio. It was a gorgeous weekend. Highs in the upper 70s, light breeze, no humidity. It was fun to catch up with them as I haven't seen that side in quite some time.
I also did a little garden work in preparation for them coming over, and guess what I discovered in my side yard.
Remember that thing that kind of looked like it had Japanese maple leaves, but I sort of assumed was just a weed? Well look at what it really is!
With more flowers to come
Doesn't look too bad in the dining room, even if it does take up half the table.

garden

So my garden keeps on blooming. Here's a few shots. Anyone know what these are?

lillies, with some tiger lillies coming up beside them.

lillies in front, pretty purple flowers on the vine behind (growing in next to the honeysuckle)

clematis in back

not sure what this is

the stuff some thought was dill before it flowered, any guesses now?

the elephant ear hosta has huge blossoms too.

Daisies, daylillies, and?
the flowers look like cosmos, but the leaves don't

hollyhocks