Saturday, December 27, 2008

Sliding pictures





More Christmas Pictures




Merry Christmas!






We finished up school at 1:15 on Tuesday, and we jumped right into the holiday celebrations!
Tuesday night we had out progressive outing with our card club. We have been doing this for many years and is always fun to sit and chat, eat, play some games, eat, and then move on to the next house!
On Wednesday, I got up early to finish up the Christmas shopping. I always think I am done, and then end up rushing around on Christmas Eve. I did finish getting the things I needed, then rushed home to get the food ready. We headed over to Grace in Grantsburg to attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service. I love this service and seeing many of the people that we attended church with back when Noah was a baby. After church we came back to our house with Jill, Tom, Taylor, Jordan, Grandma Judy, and Great Grandpa Henry. We ate so delicious food and opened some great gifts. The kids had so much fun playing together, and even grandma Judy took her turn on Guitar Hero!
On Christmas Day, Noah, Jake, and Lydia opened their gifts in their stockings and then we headed to Papa and Grandma Sue's house. Great grandma Margaret, Patty, Trent, Brody, Jim, and Aubrey were all there too. Again, we ate some wonderful food and had some good laughs playing games and watching basketball. It was a lot of fun just to hang out at Papa and Grandma's house like we use to after church when we attended Grace.
On Friday night we had our Christmas Party with the Amundsons. Deb and Patty babysat the Amundson kids while they were growing up, and the Swensons and Amundsons vacationed together near Hayward for many years. Lauren, who is now a sophomore in college was our flower girl at our wedding! We had a great time, once again with yummy food, and a wicked game of "spoons"! We also found out that Jordan and Maria are expecting a child this summer!
Then today (Saturday) we celebrated with the Lindquists at Deb's aunt and uncle's house. One more time...Great FOOD! We all headed out to do some sliding down the hills. What a good time, even with all the wipe outs!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Congratulations Taylor!



We headed down to Maple Grove today to watch Taylor play in the championship game of the Maple Grove third grade teams. Taylor played some tough defense and has some great skills which lead to her team winning the championship for this year. The players on her team all received trophies and metals. We did not tell the Tufanos that we were coming so it was a big surprise when we showed up.
After the game we helped the team celebrate with a pizza part back at Jill and Tom's house. The team had an awards ceremony and lots of pizza! Congratulations Taylor!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Hear the trumpets sound...


Noah started playing the trumpet in band this fall. The students put on a holiday concert and he had to get dressed up (not his favorite thing to do), and he and his buddies looked and sounded pretty darn good. I am amazed at how well the students played considering they have only started band a few months ago. I also purchased a used trumpet so that I can play with him. It took a few times, but it is coming back to me and my lips are not hurting so bad anymore.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Run like a Deer!

Tom and I ran in the Lifetime fitness Reindeer Run this morning around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. It was COLD!!!!! With windchill, it was well below zero. We had a good run, even though there was quite a bit of snow on the road, and a few thousand people! It was fun to get outside and run, even in the cold weather.
Lydia had a birthday part to go to this afternoon too. She was the only girl at the party but that did not matter. She had a great time.
Deb and I attended the Michael W. Smith Christmas Concert at the Xcel Energy Center with some members of our church tonight. We went out for dinner and then went to the concert. He always puts on a good show and gets you into the holiday spirit.