A snowy Christmas day

We certainly had a white Christmas. We were supposed to get up to 18 inches of snow in the cities but a warm sector moved over the area and dropped the total amount of snow. Last night it rained and snowed and the snow compacted as it melted. It stayed in the low 30's all night. We got about 13 to 14 inches at our house, if you measured the new snowfall every hour. We had an additional five inches of compacted, wet heavy snow on the driveway, but take a look at the end of the driveway. There is about three feet of wet compacted snowplow snow at the end of the driveway.

The snow blower, which still leaks gas - thought I fixed that problem earlier - did a fast job of clearing the snow. Since it leaks, I put enough gas in it to get the job done. When it runs out of gas, I am done.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve at Smenteks

Our Rugby trip was called off due to adverse weather conditions - a potential of 20 inches of snow and high winds and blizzards in North Dakota. Judy got off work at 1:00PM for the day. I picked her up and we killed some time at Costco and BestBooks. Apparently I was the high sale of the day at the book store. I had no intention to buy anything so I don't know why I bought several books, CDs, and DVDs. When we got to Smenteks, the boys were still napping. They were sleeping hard and did not want to wake up. There were dark shades on the windows and therefore very dark in the room. They love their soft, fluffy blankets. We tried to wake them up by throwing off the covers. That did not help. But after about 20 minutes, little smiles started appearing on their faces.

We looked at the Disney World vacation photos and played some games and then it was DINNER.

After dinner, it was time to have the boys set up the Fisher Price Nativity set.

Logan needed something changed so he got the supplies.

Judy and I wanted to leave by about 6:30PM because it was forecast to start snowing hard about that time. It was snowing all the way home but since the temperature was 32 degrees and the roads were just wet, we had no problem.

The boys were excited to open one gift on Christmas Eve. They each got pajamas and they were so excited and put them on immediately. I am glad some kids like to get clothes for Christmas.

Big Lake Band Concert

Brandon had a Holiday band concert last week, with lots of holiday tunes. He plays the slide trombone (what other kind is there?)

Here he is getting his grove on.

It was a great 22 minute concert. It took us more than double that time just to get there but was worth it. Good job Brandon.

Joseph had a birthday

Just before Thanksgiving, Joseph had his 8th birthday and it was celebrated at the Maple Grove Community Center in the play area. Several neighbors, friends and family were there to be there for Joe. It was kind of cold and the kids were bundled up with coats and hats, except for Gigi - she did not want to mess up her pony tails. Cute bunch. We waited until 9:00 and then hit the play area with a vengeance.

The birthday boy was decked out in his favorite sports team outfit.

Joseph was ready to extinguish the candle.

One

Two

Did not need three. Mom had made delicious chocolate cupcakes with a Star Wars theme. You can just see how good they were.

Joe finally washed it all down with some Orange Crush Soda.

He had fun reading the cards he got and opening his gifts from his friends.

Yippee!

Oh my goodness. Look at this one! Liam, one of the Smentek Star Wars fans, is looking on with envy.

We all had a great time. Joseph, we are glad you are eight. Happy Birthday.

Baby Jesus?

At the Primary Nativity picture taking, MJ said that ths was the baby Jesus and wanted a picture of her holding the baby Jesus but Judy needed to be in the picture also. You know the amazing thing about telephoto zoom leses is that you can include just what you want without the subject knowing. Well here is your group photo MJ. Oh and here is the other group photo, including Judy.

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow

Okay, all you people that live south of Minnesota. We had a warmer than normal October and November. We made up for it today and for the next week. It was five degrees below zero this morning with a high of five above. We had a few inches of snow with about 30mph winds that put the windchill way below zero. Burrrrrrrr. It will continue for the next week with ten or more below in the morning. 39 degrees in Plano sounds nice. It's now time to put the coat and gloves on.

The get-away

We decided to take a few days away from the cities in celebration of our 39th wedding anniversary. Since it was Stake Conference and the fact it did not start until 2:00PM, we decided to leave Sunday morning. A second purpose was to check out the true gas mileage of the RAV4. We stopped at the Pine City branch for 10:00AM church and then continued on to Duluth. A co-worker of Judy's offered her house to us and we took her up on it. The house was on the point on the other side of the lift bridge. We took a thousand pictures and will post them later. Wait! It was foggy (visibility was 100 yards at times), drizzly or rainy the whole time so not one picture was taken.

The next morning, we took off for Bayfield, WI. It is a small tourist town of 600 regular residents. There are some big houses overlooking the lake and lots of tall masted sailboats. Since it was after tourist season, not much was open. But if we waited around for the next season, we could have taken a large sailboat ride. We did stop at a Scandinavian shop that had lot of very expensive nice looking stuff. I was looking at a Norwegian sweater and all the sweaters were made in CHINA. Even Norway is outsourcing to China. Did not get one. I will wait for a trip overseas. I looked at Dansko clogs - too expensive for plastic souls with stapled on patten leather, leather or vinyl tops (I can do a lot with $125). We managed to find "Maggies Lunch and Dinner" open for a quick lunch. That was the community gathering place because it seemed like half the town was there. It was decorated with pink flamingos. We walked out on the pier and then headed back to Duluth.

Mileage results on the RAV: 23.5 MPH the first half of the way up to Duluth. Then I saw that the console gear shift was knocked out of overdrive (easy to do). After putting it back into overdrive, mileage went up to 25.4 MPH. That was at 75 MPH. Then on the trip to Bayfield, at only 60MPH and on a new, very smooth road we got an average of 28.6MPG. That was great on a car advertised to get 26MPG with a V6 with 4WD. That included slowing down for towns. On the way home the first 1/2 at 75MPH we only got 23.4MPG so I dropped it down to the speed limit of 70 MPH and the mileage jumped to 26.5 MPG. But that was after all the bad roads north of the 35W/35E split and the hills south of Duluth. So I guess the best mileage was at 60 but still above the rated mileage at 70 on smooth roads. Still not as good as the car I gave up - the Talon. Brett says he is getting between 33 and 34 MPG. Okay, now for the truth. The above numbers were from the fuel computer in the car. The actual miles driven divided by the gallons used tell a different story: to Duluth only 23.5; to Bayfield and back 26.6 and back home 23.5. So what good is the on-board fuel computer? It is good for trends only.