Day After Thanksgiving Shopping Tradition

Building family traditions is important to most families. We all have tradtions that have been passed on to us from our parents such as when we put up our Christmas tree, making Christmas cookies, exchanging gifts and get togethers. When I first moved back to Minnesota back in 1993 with my daughter Jennifer, we did that crazy thing that started our own family tradition. We went Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving. That first year though, we didn't get a real early start and found many of the good bargains gone. So the next year we were up before the chickens and heading off to the local Walmart, Kmart and Target to catch those deals. After that, my daughter coined the 'early shopping' as our new family tradition. Last year we introduced my step-daughter, Shantel to the family tradition as we got up at 4:00 am to be at Walmart before 5:00 am. We had a good time and found lots of good bargains. So you guessed it, we were once again up at 4:00 am this year on the day after Thanksgiving and at Walmart before 5:00 am and Target before 6:00 am to get the bargains. Then we headed off to St. Cloud and to Shopko and Kohls before stopping at Bonanza for lunch. (Actually we were ready for lunch at 10:00 but waited until around noon.) Then we headed back down 94 to the Outlet Mall for a few more good bargains. The picture is of the antlers I bought so we could spot each other easily in the stores, and although the girls didn't want to wear them, it helped me in locating them in Kohl's. You know I just had to get a picture of them. Aren't we cute!

Teeange Birthday Party

Well, Mark and I survived Shantel's birthday party and sleepover with eight teenage girls. Actually, I must say they were very good and we really enjoyed having them all here for the night. I made tacos, Spanish rice, refired beans and homemade salsa. We had decided to have a game night, so the girls played games out in our 'craft' room off the garage. Mark and I gave Shantel the game 'Mad Gab' and the girls had a great time playing it.
I must tell the story about the 'coffee cake'. Shantel, like her dad, is not a big cake eater. She had told me that she wanted a coffee cake this year for her birhtday. So I told her that was fine and we'd just have her coffee cake for breakfast. The day before the party Shantel and I made peanut butter cookies for snacking on Friday night. Later on Thursday night Shantel asked if she was having a cake and I told her we were having her 'coffee cake' for breakfast. She looked a little confused and after discussing it, I came to realize she wanted a cake with coffee flavor, you know 'a mocha coffee cake' as she put it. So we went to the internet and found a recipe for a homemade yellow cake with a coffee glaze and then I frosted it with a mocha frosting. I did also make the planned coffee cake for breakfast. So whenever I think of 'coffee cake' I smile a little smile as I remember our communication gap.

Winter Must Be Near

Yes,it's true, winter is drawing near. It was easy to tell at the Schraut house in Royalton last week as Mark started putting up some of the Christmas decorations around the yard. It is the first year for our lovely snowman. Isn't he cute! It's amazing how he comes to life every night when the sun goes down and then falls to the ground around eleven at night to go to sleep. We still have some decorating to do, but from the sounds of it, the weather will be cooperating as it is suppose to be around 55 degrees by mid-week. That's fine with me, I can wait for the snow to fly until close to Christmas. The pictures are of Mark & myself with our 8 foot tall snowman.

I remember when I was a little girl and going into town to look at the Christmas lights was a really big deal. My mom would get us bathed and into our pajamas. On his way in from the barn after milking the cows, my dad would start up the car so it could warm up. Then he would come in and get cleaned up. We'd get wrapped up in a blanket and my dad would carry us out to the warmed up car. Then we would head into town to 'ohh' and 'ahh' at the lights. It's those special memories that we carry with us throughout our lives that are important. Even though my parents are no longer living, there are many times I feel them so close when I refelct on my special memories. I hope that everyone reading this has some special memories they too can reflect on and that they are building more of those special memories every year. It doesn't matter how much 'stuff' we all have, what matters is our families and friends. Those are gifts that are worth more than amount of money we'll ever see in our lifetimes. So please spend time over the up coming holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas to build some special memories for those you love. Mark and I wish all our wonderful friends and family a very Happy Holiday Season. May you be blessed with good friends and great memories.

Our "Little Goblins"

Getting dressed up is so much fun. I remember when I was little, (No, it isn't that hard to recall back all those years ago). I remember one year in particular. My brother Tom, who is about five years older than me, and me decided to dress up using clothes from my mom's closet. We went to my aunt's house, and she had no idea who we were. Of course I had some ammunition to use against my brother in later years, after all, he was dressed up in 'ladies clothes'. Dressing up as their favorite charcters or trying to be the scariest is fun for all kids. It's funny how the boys want to be scary or action figure related, while the girls want to be 'pretty'. This year it was cold on Halloween in Minnesota. I had gone up to Jennifer's during the day so I could see the kids in their costumes. She got them dressed up before dinner and we took pictures. I came home to greet the trick or treaters in Royalton. Jennifer & Josh took the kids out in their neighborhood. Before they did however, they re-dressed the kids with sweatshirts and sweatpants under their costumes. Emma was really bummed and said, "I'm not pretty anymore." Jennifer & Josh told her she was now the 'Winter Princess' ready to head out into the cold. I guess that worked, more so once she started getting candy, especially her favorite, P cups. Here are pictures of our grandkids on Halloween.

Here are Braiden & Emma. Braiden was a Ninja and his favorite part of his costume was his sword. Such a boy! Emma was a princess. I think every little girl dreams of being a princess and in the eyes of their parents, they are. As it should be.

Here are pictures of our grandchildren from Michigan, Grace and Michael. Like I said earlier, girls want to be pretty and sweet. Grace does look as sweet as she truly is as an angel. Michael ofcourse wanted to be scary, he even had glowing red eyes. He is a handsome little dude, even if we can't see him.

Last we have a picture of our grandaughter, Kiara with her other siblings. They came into town from Holdingford to do some trick-or-treating. Kiara is on the left in the light green Tinkerbell costume. Isn't she sweet!

Scary Jack-O-Lanterns

Halloween is a time of carving pumpkins and getting ready for the little trick or treaters. I leave the decorating to Mark, as he really enjoys putting up his 'scary' friends around the front yard. This year Shantel and I carved pumpkins to add to the front steps. We had a great time. We saved our pumpkin seeds and Mark saoked them for a day in salt water and then he backed them for a tasty treat. To me it seems like a lot of work for such a tiny tasty morsel, but I guess that's it, 'a tasty morsel' that compares little to anything else except sunflower seeds. Well, Shantel and I had fun scraping the guts out of our pumpkins and then creating our 'scary' faces. Mark enjoyed watching us and learning how to use the digital camera as he became the 'photograher' of this event. Just another memory building moment that helps make our lives so wonderful.

Fall in Minnesota

It's been awhile since I've written, so I'm going to do it in chunks to catch up on all that's been happening here with us. Fall is one of my favorite times of year in Minnesota. Unfortunately, this fall has been a very chilly one for us. Ususally over MEA weekend, my daughter, Jennifer and I take the grandkids to a farm that has everything including pumpkins, farm animals to pet, tractor rides, corn mazes, bicycle races, mini golf and much more. It is always a blast. This year we decided it was just too cold. We did spend an afternoon at Deer Lake Orchard in Buffalo and there we took a chilly wagon ride through the haunted forest and got a few pictures of Emma and Braiden among the sights of fall. The picture above is of Braiden and Emma sitting on pumpkins. Fortunately it was a sunny day. The one below is Jennifer with Braiden and Emma sitting on the wagon before we took our ride through the forest and apple orchard.