Blizzard

I must admit...I sort of liked being "stuck" inside for two days. It forced us to slow down, really slow down. We played "Rudolph," made sugar cookies, listened to Christmas music, watched the snow spray, decorated our tree and even made a trip to Como Zoo conservatory.
I'm so grateful we have a cozy home, healthy kids, food in the fridge and now we certainly will have a white Christmas.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we hosted a small gathering for Thanksgiving dinner in St. Paul. We ordered a delicious 20 pound organic turkey from Coon Creek Family Farm, right outside of Mondovi. www.cooncreekfamilyfarm.com

I brined the turkey on Wednesday, a tip from the turkey farmer, and something I will now do every year. Bright and early (and I mean, early) on Thursday morning I greeted my dad at the doorstep. He came over to help make the stuffing and get the turkey in the roaster. Six hours later... we had a feast! In the meantime, great-grandma read the kids books and they colored the turkey from the newspaper. Mom and Owen peeled potatoes, dad and Eric watched football, Jorg read the NYTimes, and Rachel and I started stressing about the next holiday - Christmas, what?! It was a mostly relaxing afternoon even with the bursts of high energy kids, shrieks and laughter coming from all levels of the house. Five cousins on a holiday equals lots of goofiness. Again, I was reminded how much joy the holidays bring to little kids. We ended the day with a visit from Omi, Opi and the May family. More cousins, more fun, more to be thankful for...

On Friday we headed to the farm with our cooler filled with turkey leftovers and all of the fixings. Throughout the weekend we burned firewood, took long walks, watched movies, drank egg nog and started our winter hibernation at Rumspringa. And now we wait for more snow....

Pumpkins Everywhere!

We had some incredibly cute pumpkins at the farm this weekend. Kids of all ages swarmed around during our annual Pumpkin Party. They climbed and jumped on hay bales, threw the frisbee for Nat, played football, went on a scavenger hunt, and of course, we all did some serious pumpkin carving. The adults enjoyed a campfire, lots of chili eating, cider drinking and keeping track of all of the pumpkins. Thanks to everyone for coming, bringing goodies to share and making it such a wonderful day!

One, Two, Three... JUMP!

Apple Pickers

We had a small apple harvest this year at the farm. Enough for a couple pies and maybe an apple crisp... yum! The kids had a blast! Not sure what they enjoyed more - picking the apples or eating them.