Five Degrees

I got up this morning and noticed the windows were frosty.  I checked the weather: five degrees!  That’s our first serious blast of frigid air here in Minnesota.  It was only two days ago that it was warmer here than Seattle.  Maybe some snow tomorrow.  Winter is starting to assert himself.

 

Nelson

 

Eric's In Town

Nelson's brother, Eric, is in town over Thanksgiving weekend. Here's a photo of Eric & Holden & Eric's girlfriend Anne, in the background (thinking that she's not in the picture).

Josh's Birthday

We went to our friend Josh's birthday party on Saturday morning. Here's the whole gang. (This photo also doubles as proof that we have some friends.)


And then here's the four of us. If you look closely as the smiley girl, you might notice that she's missing a front tooth. She's immensely proud of her first tooth falling out. She tells everyone - family, friends, cashiers, people who stop next to us on the sidewalk.

Nov 18 2007 Video

Here's a few quick video shots of the family relaxing in the living room.

Last Drawing

Grace has been going to drawing class after school on Wednesdays. This is her last drawing from her last class:

Friends in Proximity

One of Grace's favorite friends has just moved to the 3-bedroom apartment below us today.  As we slide into the cold months, this newfound proximity will hopefully give her lots of time to play.  Before, we had to walk down the stairs and allllllll the way to their apartment, about fifty yards away.  Thankfully, we're now spared that exertion.

Birthday Gift, Part II

Friday night was the 2nd night of my birthday gift from Aimee - a wine tasting class at the neighborhood wineshop.  The theme was Thanksgiving food paired with a variety of wines.  We sampled a Dry Riesling, Chardonnay, Beaujolais, Shiraz, Cherry Lambic (a beer made by spontaneous fermentation, which sounds sort of like spontaneous combustion), and Cream Sherry.  The foods we paired with the wines were a corn  pudding, butternut squash risotto, beer-brined turkey breast, cranberry sauce, cranberry & onion confit, and pumpkin gooey butter cakes.  All the wines tasted great with all the food, which surprised the teacher, who was hoping for at least one bad pairing.  The Cherry Lambic was eye-opening - it was unexpectedly delicious and perfect with cranberries.  And the Cream Sherry paired with the pumpkin cakes was a wonderful dessert combination.

Conceptualizing Art

While we were unpacking the other day, Grace gathered a bunch of the things we took out of boxes and made this arrangement on our couch. We're not quite sure what it was supposed to mean. Some sort of postmodern conceptual art confabulation - probably deconstructing her parent's tendencies to pile stuff on couches. I really admire her juxtaposition of negative space.

An Early Christmas

We're slowly unpacking our belongings, a few boxes at a time. I purposefullly unpack the toys slowly so that Grace & Holden have an extended early Christmas rediscovering old toys. They were both pleased to find the alligator music machine:

Those Amazing Animals - Public Vs. Private

I inadvertently set the viewing settings to "private" instead of "public" on the "Those Amazing Animals" video. So if you haven't been able to view it, and you most likely haven't, try it again now.

http://aimeeandnelson.blogspot.com/2007/11/those-amazing-animals.html

A Clamoring From the Masses

There has been a clamoring from the masses for some photos of where we live. (Alright, the clamoring consists of two request.)

The lawn between the two rows of apartments is where families congregate, children play, and men do manly things: grill meat.


The window at the top of the apartments is ours. A 3rd floor penthouse.


The view from that window is across the parking lot. That building is Sandgren, which is family apartments and also the WeeCare program, where Grace attends daycare.


Walk to the other side of Sandgren, and you find this nifty playground. The building on the right behind it is LSS, where Nelson works. The path on the left (behind the basketball court) leads up to Luther Seminary.



Walk up the path and you'll eventually find a building or two where Aimee attends some classes:


Keep Walking and you'll find the corner where we hang out on Saturday or Sunday mornings, and any other time we can make it. This is the Finnish Bistro and Dunn Brothers coffee shop.

Those Amazing Animals

Grace and Holden like pretending to be the same kind of animal. Well, mostly Grace likes it - Holden is just along for the ride...



Trouble viewing this? Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vj479NEZ2w&e to view it.

I Still Don't Care

After arriving home from a shopping trip, upon discovery that Grace
had spilled her chocolate milk on her new clothes:

Aimee: "Grace, chocolate milk doesn't come out of clothes. You
spilled it on two of your new clothes!"
Grace, after considering for a moment the implications of the spilled
milk: "I still don't care."

Remembering Halloween

In my discussions with parents today, I uncovered a problem with how
we remember Halloween. The parents all have fond memories of the
childhood romance of dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating
through the neighborhood. The problem is, none of the parents
remember what happened after they returned home. They drove their
own parents crazy while drunk on sugar.

Last night, after the trick-or-treating was complete, all the parents
returned to their cozy apartments with their children hopped on
sugar, and wondered, "What was it about this holiday that I was so
excited about again?"