The Best Christmas Ever!

I've heard the boys say a couple times now, "It was the best Christmas ever!"

LOB and DJB were eagerly awaiting Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve. They were just sure he would show up after dinner. They were even tracking his flight pattern on a website and were updating his status to us quite frequently; Mongolia, Malaysia, Norway, Spain, Ireland (probably not in that order!) So while we were eating dinner I came up with a plan. It went like this: Suddenly Grandpa got sick and the computer broke so the boys couldn't get their updates. So while Grandpa puked and Papa fixed the computer, the rest of us loaded up in the car and drove the neighborhood looking at lights. As we were driving around, we came upon a house just a couple blocks from ours. Santa was standing in the driveway! Total fluke! How perfect! He came up to the car and we told him we'd hope he'd be going to our house soon! Meanwhile, Grammy who was along with us, was texting Santa's helpers to make sure they were setting everything up correctly. We continued to drive around and then LOB said, "You know, how come I didn't see Santa's reindeer on the top of that roof?" I said, "Oh, they must have been on the other side where we couldn't see them." LOB then replied, "It's always something. There is always something that isn't quite right!" Grammy and I started busted up laughing! LOB has just about figured it out! So finally the text came in that we could come back home. The boys were sure that Santa was going to come while we were gone so they raced to the front door. Here's the climax of the story: So as we opened the front door, Santa was just leaving out the back door! Perfect! It went off without a hitch!

LOB also remembered that when Santa came last year, I had snapped a couple pictures of him. Well, I really used the capturethemagic.com website and uploaded my pictures of the loot and added Santa to the pics. This year, GOB snapped the pictures with the real Santa and it's funny how they look almost the same as last year's!


Looks like Toni had a little fun with Santa! Santa brought LOB and DJB electric scooters and DVB a new 3 wheeled scooter. And some other loot too!

So in the eyes of the boys, Christmas was perfect! It was so fun to see their excitement!

Next up: (in a day or 2 or 3!) Our New Family Member! Wait for it, wait for it!

A Plethora of Pictures To Catch Up!

I found my camera cable! So here's a plethora of pictures from over the last month to catch up!


Here's the first pic on my new little camera! Aunt J and DVB!


On Thanksgiving we went to a local zoo! It was the perfect day to go! We will never go to the zoo again on any other day than Thanksgiving! We owned it!


They have a really cool petting zoo!

Aunt J really liked the baby deer!

LOB was thinking about taking this turkey home and cook it up!

There were goats and deer all over the place!

One of the best things about this zoo is that you can get so close to the animals. Here, LOB was feeding the baby giraffe!

So cool!

DJB's highlight of the trip was petting the sting rays! In fact, at one point in the last month, he was planning on asking Santa for 2 sting rays! *gulp* Thank goodness Santa's helper talked him out of that one!

I thought this little monkey was so stinkin cute!

And now onto DVB's 2nd birthday! We had planned a Vikings vs. Cardinals birthday party for him but as it turned out, not many people were able to come because of the late game time on Sunday. So we cancelled the party and saved the decorations in the hopes of a Vikings Super Bowl Party!

Here's the Birthday Boy hiding in the new and improved toy box that my Grandpa B made for me many years ago. Bampa repainted it and it's now full of toys again!

Here's DVB playing in his new tunnel that attaches to a play tent!

DJB had fun playing with it too!

DVB wasn't too thrilled with the candles! Maybe I won't have to worry about him playing with fire when he gets older!

He did, however, like to play with his cake!

OH MY GOSH! Everyone is smiling AND looking at the camera! It's a miracle!

And finally here's the end of picture plethora! Last Sunday Mom and I baked about 60 dozen cookies! My neighbor has asked me several times to make cookies for her clients. It's always fun, but a big project! So in this picture is "Nissy" the Elf helping me bake a couple red velvet cakes for cakeballs! Remember last year? She/He watches the kids during the day and at night time, she flies back to Santa to report the kid's behavior. Remember that the elf is supposed to move every night? If only I could remember to do it! I can't tell you how many times I've woken up during the night to move the elf. I can't tell you how many times I've moved it just in the nick of time! I can't tell you how many times I have forgotten to move the elf! And my co-elf mover-supposed-to-remember-also-helper IS NOT HELPING! I only have to remember 8 more times and I only have to think of 8 more places for Nissy to hide! Wish me luck!

So I feel better now, I'm all caught up! Next up will be LOB and DJB's school program!

Happy Blogiversary To Me!

Happy Blogiversary (probably not even a word) to me!

It's been one year since the birth of my blog! Although I haven't been able to keep it up as much as I have wanted to, it's been fun! We'll keep it going as long as we have readers! I know you would all miss the weekly action at our house if we didn't keep on blogging!

Does anyone know of a blog-to-book archive? I'd like get a copy of all I've written but I haven't come across exactly what I am looking for! I'd like a printed book if I could find a company that does it!

So here's to another year! Cheers! Happy Blogiversary To Me!

The No-Parent-In-The-Picture Christmas Card!

So after multiple attempts to get a decent Christmas card photo, I've decided that it is just not going to happen! I give up! This is what I am sending out! It's real life, you know? It depicts EXACTLY how we roll! BTW, Santa and Mrs. Claus are the CEO (Mrs.) and VP of the hospital GOB and I work at.

I hope every one's Holiday planning is going well! Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to say, "Bring it on!" A trip to the post office and a few million envelopes to address are the only things left on my list besides wrapping Santa's gifts! I have a request for some lefse from my Dad so maybe, just maybe, I'll find some time this weekend to whip up a couple batches of it!

The 13 Course Meal!

I am so lucky to have my own personal IT guy! He got the pics from his phone to my desktop for me! The quality of the pics aren't great but they will do.

So this restaurant a vendor took us to in Chicago was called Moto. I was really looking forward to this experience after we got the invitation. I had checked out their website prior to going and was intrigued by the description of their food. So in no particular order, because I uploaded the pictures all crazy, here are the 13 courses we noshed on while drinking fine wine and beer!


This was a 3 piece dessert course. It consisted of a mini cheeseburger that actually tasted like a banana split, a cherry bomb complete with a flame, and a log that tasted like pumpkin pie! Yummo! The cherry bomb even kind of blew up in your mouth!


This dessert was called Ants on a Log. It was a celery sorbet. It doesn't sound appetizing but let me tell you it was! I can't remember what the white stuff was, but the ants on top were made of chocolate!

This may look like a dessert but it was far from it! It was some kind of duck puree with a mole sauce. The white stuff was really spicy hot! They called it a Mexican cannoli. I really didn't care for this course.

This one was called Reuben Lasagna. It was delish! It tasted just like a Reuben sandwich!

Cuban Cigar! I really liked this one too! It was a pulled pork wrapped in kale leaves. The ashes were ground up poppy seeds! GOB didn't care for this one. It even had an edible paper label on it!

A rarity, I know! A picture of me!

This one was kinda cool. The chef had the pineapple rings wrapped in aluminum foil and were in a soda keg pressurized with CO2. The pipette had a capon broth in it. So as you took a bite of the fizzy, jerk flavored pineapple, you were supposed to squirt in some of the broth. It was tasty, but weird!

This one was called Seared Buffalo Hot Wings. It was capon breast on top of shredded capon leg. The paper was edible and VERY spicy. Also the little red dot was another spicy sauce. I can't remember the white sauce...probably bleu cheese or ranch flavor.

This one was called Loaded Fries. It was a dollop of mashed potatoes with bacon, cheese, and onion on top. The funny part was when the waiters poured what we thought was candle wax on top of this dish! It turns out the candle that was burning at our table was actually made from beef fat! Again, weird but tasty!

This one was called Gruyere and Onions. The cheese was melted to the side of the bowl and then the waiters came around and poured the hot broth in the bowl. The curly thing on top of the onions was like a dehydrated onion puff. GOB said it tasted like a Funyun.

This was actually our 2nd course. It was called Scrambled Eggs and Muffin. The egg looking thing was actually a extremely light puff that tasted like garlic-it just melted in your mouth. The scrambled egg was a puree of carrots and something else I can't remember but it was good! And the other thing looked like a tator tot but it was a shrimp bite. Very creative!

The very first course, I forgot to take a picture of. It was an extremely thin piece of garlic bread with an edible paper on it that had the vendor's logo on it.

This was a very fun experience. It was something I wouldn't probably go for if we had to foot the bill ourselves. It also took 4.5 hours!

Also, the restaurant had just finished filming a reality tv show there. It will be on in 2010 on the Planet Green channel (a Discovery channel) and is called Future Food. I also heard that the chefs that own this restaurant were on the Food Network's Iron Chef show one time! It'll be cool to watch the show!

I Want to Show Pictures But I Can't!

So I sit down today with intentions of writing a post about our Chicago trip. The problem is, that I can't find the cord to my new camera to upload the pics. AND, the pics GOB sent me from his phone are horrible quality so I can't put those up either! Arrrgghhh!

And to boot, it looks like my laptop is teetering on dying! Every little wiggle I make, the power cord plug-in light thingy is flickering on and off! Guess I better ask Santa for a new laptop!

So wish me luck that my IT guy can help me out tonight with my issues! I'll be back later!

Happy 2nd Birthday, DVB!

We got home just in time for a birthday party! It'll be a mini party this time but DVB won't mind! We had planned a Vikings vs. Cardinals party on Sunday afternoon but since the game time changed, most of our friends couldn't come. So we are going to save all of our Vikings decorations in hopes to celebrate a Super Bowl!



GOB and I just spent 5 days in the Windy City! And let me tell you about that wind! Brrrrrr! We had a great time despite the chilly weather. And to be honest, I'd go to Alaska for vacation just to be kid-free for a couple days!

GOB and our boss were in Chicago to attend the annual RSNA convention. I just went along for the kid break and all the fancy vendor dinners! I did go to the convention one day just to experience it. They say 50,000 people attend. I'd say that 45,000 were from outside the US! It was ridiculous! Those foreigners have NO etiquette! Rude! Disrespectful! Anyway, it was pretty cool to see the state-of-the-art equipment and what companies have planned for the future.

When I have a little more time, I'll have to write a post on the most cool dinner experience I've ever had! So wait for it! Oh and the shopping on Michigan Ave and State St! Now all I have to do is find time for a little blogging! Hopefully I'll be back in a couple days!