Merry Christmas!

What lucky grandparents are we? We were able to spend an entire weekend with Benjamin doing all sorts of fun holiday activities! It started on Saturday morning, after Benjamin ran a 1 mile reindeer run, we took custody and didn't stop until Sunday afternoon!

Stop #1 - the St Paul Ice Fishing show - it was a blast, tons of fishing equipment, games for kids and even Santa Claus - we think Benjamin added this snowmobile to his list!




Stop 2 - Holidazzle Parade - good thing Grandma bought the "warm seats" - it was pretty cold outside but we were toasty inside the tent sipping hot chocolate enjoying the lighted floats and costumes! Benjamin was soooo excited about the parade he could barely contain himself!



Stop 3 - Breakfast with Santa - this has become a family tradition, having breakfast with Santa at the local Macy's. They have a small intimate breakfast with fun activities for the kids and of course, Santa. This year, he pulled up a chair and joined us at the table. Benjamin was thrilled and had a nice conversation with him and was able pass along his list!



Last Stop - cutting down a live Christmas tree - since moving to MN we have started a new tradition of cutting down a live tree for the basement. We went to the local tree farm and found a beauty this year! We brought it home and enjoyed the Bears game while decorating it.



It was a wonderful time filled with old traditions and some new ones! Next, we are off to Chicago for Christmas and then back to MN for Christmas with the Schmitts on New Years!

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Thanksgiving 2009

It was a whirlwind Thanksgiving weekend with the Schmitts this year! They came up Wednesday night, while Jessica & Mike went to see a concert, we watched the adorable "Santa Buddies" movie with Benjamin. On Thursday morning, Mike was supposed to run a Turkey trot but after getting home in the wee hours of the morning, wasn't quite up to it so the 5 of us spent some quality time together before the big meal - which, if I must say for myself, was fantastic! After gorging ourselves, we all went for a nice long walk around the neighborhood, checking out the cold lake water and early Christmas decorations! On Friday, we ran some errands, ate leftovers and then went to Excelsior for a "Lantern Parade" it was charming - Excelsior is a cute little town on Lake Minnetonka with small shops and restaurants. The parade started at the end of the town, went down Main St with Father Christmas leading the children in song, arriving at the town tree and overseeing the tree lighting. There is also a Christkindlsmarkt in town with some kiosks of food and crafts. On Saturday the Schmitts headed home to do some Christmas decorating, while Ed and I put the outside lights on.

Next weekend, we get Benjamin again - this time we are taking him to the Ice Fishing Show, The Holidazzle parade and then on Sunday, Breakfast with Santa and out to chop down the live tree for the basement.....whew...

Halloween 2009

Despite the windy and cold weather, we still had a wonderful Halloween! The Schmitts came on Friday night and Benjamin showed off his adorable Robot costume - Mom's creativity really work on this one! Jessica and Mike had a 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning so we had custody of Benjamin - we took advantage of our new Zoo membership and went to the Minnesota Zoo HallZOOween event. His robot costume was a big hit, people loved it and commented that it was the best one there! The zoo really did a nice job with this, there were trick and treating sessions with candy and little trinkets, special musical shows, etc. We spend a terrific afternoon there! Then we took Benjamin over the Uncle Andy & Aunt Jennifer's to meet up with mom and dad, from there they went on to a Halloween party and we went home to set up for trick and treaters. We get so excited about having actual trick and treaters, in the townhouse, no one ever came by - we usually bought at least one bag of candy and ended up eating it ourselves, but here we get TONS of kids, this year we bought 8 bags of candy and ended up digging into Benjamin's Fruit Rollups!
Headed to Vegas next week! Woo-Hoo!

No pics, just a little update!

I lied, there are new pics from our fishing excursion, some fall colors and a spectacular sunset!
And a shot of the back of the house from the lake!





After being smacked in the face with snow last weekend, we've been kinda busy etting ready for winter - but with Andrews style as usual - we were pulling out vegetable plants, etc when Ed decided to light a fire in the new chiminea for the new patio, next thing we know, we are sitting there enjoying Irish coffee and making smores! It was 32 degrees and only 2pm and not much got done the rest of the day!

On Thursday after work, we drove down to Rochester and took Benjamin for dinner at Whistle Binkies and to see "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" - very cute movie and we all had a wonderful "date", times like that confirm that we made the right decision moving to Minnesota!

Twin Cities Marathon

Lucky for us there was a small break in the rain for Sunday's Twin Cities Marathon. The day started early as we met up with Jessica & Benjamin and staked our place near the starting line - it was perfect for running! With Jessica's planning, we were able to encourage Mike 3 other times during the course of the race, meeting up with various other Schmitts along the way. After the race, we all met up at a local pub for some well deserved refreshments. No worries, Ed and I managed to avoid any Bear score and went home and watched the whole terrific win - without commercials!

Twice as nice!

We took "On the road with Ed and Chris" literally the past few weekends! Ed and I drove to Chicago 2 weekends in a row and have vowed not to do that for quite a while!



Chicago Part 1

Our journey first took us to Chez Schmitt where we enjoyed some time with Benjamin and shared a take out Chinese dinner. Bright and early the next morning we drove into Chicago for the U2 concert but before that, we cruised over to Kelly's to help celebrate Aunt Arlenes 80th birthday! The concert was fantastic, everything was perfect, the seats, weather, Snow Patrol and of course, my boys,U2!

Chicago Part 2

Once again, we began our journey at Chez Schmitt - this time, we all went to Whistle Binkies to celebrate our anniversary and had a fantastic time! I had ordered an entree that usually comes covered with feta cheese and when I asked the waitress for "no cheese" Benjamin piped in "she's allergic" - cracked us up! Then grandpa showed him how to get the waitresses attention and he ordered another milk for himself! Once again, we started out bright and early for the drive to Chicago for our dear friends Theresa and Daves long awaited wedding! It was a beautiful warm fall day, perfect for a wedding. This time we were lucky enough to be staying with more dear friends, Carol and Jim. Their hospitality was above and beyond. The ceremony was held at St Peter and Paul in Naperville, an old fashioned beautiful church. Theresa was beautiful and glowing! Dave wore a tux similar to Bogie in Casablanca which was so appropriate since they are both movie buffs. The entire wedding had a movie theme! Even the centerpieces were glass bowls with a single candle and filled with raisinettes!Everyone had a terrific time and it was nice to see friends we haven't seen in a while. Saturday, we went to a car show in Berwyn with the Ewerts, Jim was gracious enough to drive us by the old homestead on Maple - how I loved that house!

We are planning on hanging around MN for most of the remainder of the year, Mike is running the Twin Cities Marathon in a few weeks and we are looking forward to taking advantage of the football package we pay for and watching the Bears!

Lot's of stuff going on...

The last few weeks have been very busy - first we started a big household project, having a concrete patio put in on the lower level (out from the basement) where Ed fell and broke his leg. We hired a local contractor who took on the entire project, landscaping and concrete both. It's compng out better than we ever expected..see some pics of the progress (start at the bottom and work up - I'm too lazy to move them)

We also had some guests from IL this weekend, Mary and Val came up for a wedding and hung around with us for the weekend, we had a blast, took them to some of our fav restaurants and spend lots of time on the boat, fishing and sightseeing. They are welcome here anytime!



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