We gathered at Grandma Lois’ church to celebrate Christmas with almost all of the family this afternoon. We feasted in Swedish meatballs, sausage, vegetables, salad, jello & rolls. After opening gifts, we had desert. Delicious food and fun family made for a great day – but we definitely missed having Papa Dale with us!
Shecklet #2 decided he wanted to dress more festive, so we tracked down a llama sweater for him (at our second Target stop.). Not wanting to be left out, Shecklets 1, 3 & 4 also found festive Christmas tops to wear to the family party.
We spent the day celebrating 50 years at Nissedalen today. The weather was absolutely perfect and the lake water was warm enough for me to enjoy being in it. If you know me at all, that’s a pretty big deal! With summer (sort of) winding down, today was a great day to attempt the next major item on my recovery checklist – paddle boarding. Jake rented a couple of boards from a local shop and his cousins let us use their trucks to transport them to the lake. When the little kids weren’t using them, a few of the adults gave them a try. I was thrilled to not only get up without falling off the board, but keep my balance while paddling down the shoreline and back! Hooray for another recovery item checked off!
Group shot – 4 generations!
Grandma Lois & Papa Dale with many of their grandkids (and spouses) and great-grandkids!
One note about the coloring of the pictures. The smoke in the air from the fires out west was intense. These have been tweaked a bit just to tone down the yellow tones a bit – and they still look hazy!
Shecklet #2 also got up on skis today! Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of him, but he wants to go again, so I’ll try to capture one next time.
The rest of the day’s photos can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kT3NcQ9JhhWmu5878
I didn’t take many pictures – just enjoyed the evening.
The picture of Jake above was taken by his aunt 🙂 I love his zest for life!
ETA: We didn’t get a picture of just the two of us looking spiffy last night, so we took a “day after the wedding” photo instead. We did get a couple of family pictures that I’m hoping turned out well. Fingers crossed!
ETA 12/21/18 – Here’s a family photo from the day. Don’t we clean up well??
One of my cousins called me this morning as he was driving to pick up a piece of equipment for his business. The equipment was in MN and he lives in SD. He said his route was going to take him by our house, so he was going to try to stop to say hi and give me a hug before heading back home. It was a long day on the road for him – I’m so grateful he stopped to say hello.
Today we gathered to celebrate Jake’s youngest cousin graduating from high school. These three cuties all showed up with pigtails. (Shecklet #3 had hers in braids, so they’re a bit hidden in the photo.)
We had a fun group of visitors today – Jake’s aunt, uncle, one cousin and her boys came to see us. The kids had a blast playing with their (great) uncle, who even took them to the little park to help them burn off some energy.
After playing at the park, we had pizza, pretzel jello salad, and chocolate vinegar cake. Jake’s aunt knows my faves 😊
My aunt and uncle are in town to celebrate Thanksgiving with my cousin and his family. Part of their stay involves having the older two grandkids stay with them at a hotel so they can swim. My aunt invites us to bring the Shecklets down to meet their cousins and swim. The 6 kids had a great time spending close to 3 hours in the pool!
After having pizza for dinner, everyone sang HBD to me and we had cupcakes. Yum! Then my aunt gave me a small gift bag containing a Christmas pin of my Grandma Fran’s and the pearl ring she always wore. The pearls in the ring were given to my grandma by my Grandpa Bill – he got them in Japan during WWII. I am thrilled to have this piece of jewelry to remind me of my grandparents 💗
Jake’s cousin, Emily, and her fiancé, Blake, got hitched today! Jake rented a Volvo XC90 and we rode up to Brainerd and back in comfort. (There was actually enough headroom for Jake, which is a rare thing in vehicles.)
My parents watched the Shecklets and we came home to banana bread and 26 pounds of apples made into sauce!
We met one of the Shecklets’ cousins and aunt at the park this morning.
From the park, we grabbed lunch and went to the office for a bit so I could catch up on work. Then we stopped over at Nana and Papa’s house where he kids helped Papa wash the Kubota and then got to drive it, played in the backyard, and had a picnic dinner on the front yard. Perfect summer day!
