the wee's love the wii!

Santa was good to us this year...we left him cookies and our wishes for the Wii and low and behold there was one under the tree this year.


In less than 2 days, Gabe has taken Pro status at bowling. He reminds us regularly that he's the only one in the family that's a pro.


Ava can kick anyone's butt in boxing though. She runs in place as fast as she's punching. She had multiple knock outs on Christmas night. She played until her stomach hurt and her cheeks were bright red.

I am not a video gamer, and I am not coordinated at all. I've found I can barely break 100 at bowling, can't catch a fish in fishing, hit a ball in base ball...I was nowhere near as good as Ava in boxing, but it did get my heart rate up. Tennis seems to be my game so far, but I'm far from an expert. Here's me attempting to box (note the sweet headband since I never got around to showering...nice!).

Joe is coordinated. He can't beat Gabe at bowling, but is quite the shooter. He also kicks butt on cow racing, and he'll out fish any of us. I think it may be the hat...

Wii aside, we had a wonderful Christmas! We attended a lovely Holiday party on Tuesday night at my friend Carla's. I've been waiting for over 10 years to re-gift this sweet white elephant and finally got my chance. Who doesn't need pink satin pillow shams? Needless to say, it was a hit.

My parents arrived on Christmas Eve. We visited and ate...then headed to Silver Bay for dinner with Joe's family. The kids went sledding until they were absolutely frozen. Fun!

Christmas day was actually relaxing (ha! my mom cooked, lucky me!!!) The kids were really good and patient waiting for the Wii to be setup. I got out to cross-country ski with my friend Robin. A 45 min ski and Blue Moon later, life was good. Dinner was fabulous followed by a visit from Tara and Charlie and more Wii action.

Now we're getting ready for down hill lessons for the kids today. Mom and Dad are heading home. It's been a nice wrap up to 2008. Thanks for a wonderful Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

birthday wishes

It's Christmas Eve, almost 11:00 and I'm dog ass dead tired...we've had back to back holiday get- togethers, and you just know that my kids will be up at 5:30 AM tomorrow. Regardless, I couldn't possibly call it a night without wishing my very dear friend Amy a happy birthday. Amy, I'd like to say the card is in the mail, but you know you typically get screwed having your birthday on Christmas. I'll be picking out an extra special one, and you'll get it on a surprise date yet to be determined.

I met Amy at UWEC many moons ago. She lived one floor below us in the dorms when we met and it wasn't long before she became one of our roommates. Many fun times, some that I remember, others not so much, that I've had with the greatest story teller in the world. Love you dear, have a wonderful birthday! Cheers!!!

All my really "good" pictures of Amy are the old fashion kind...too bad I'm too tired to scan them in. I was thinking the one where she had road rash on her face after a nasty fall during Eelpout Fest in Walker...

tagged

A few days ago my friend Gina tagged me...the game is to take the sixth folder from the pictures file on your computer and pull up the sixth picture and post it. Of course the 6th folder only had 5 pictures in it...why do I even have that folder? So here's a picture from folder number 7. Appropriately one from Christmas, 2005. This was taken at Bentleyville which was a wonderful tour of lights setup by a local family on their property. Literally, there are over a million Christmas lights not to mention hot chocolate, s'mores and Santa. It was really fun and I kinda forgot about it. Thanks for tagging me, Gina.

If you look closely you'll see that Ava is wearing her sweet running shoes and neither have snow pants...nice job, mom. I hope it was a warm December in 2005.

I tag Amy and Katie if you want to play!

o'christmas tree

If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing one of our Christmas trees, you're in for a treat when I get around to taking a picture of this one. When we moved into this house 11 years ago, Joe & I started a tradition of cutting our own tree, typically on our property. I've been putting off the tree hunt this year because truthfully, I'm a little tired of the Charlie Brown look. I want the full, perfect, beautiful tree, but who am I to break a self-imposed tradition? So, Saturday afternoon the 4, yes 4, of us jumped on the (1) snowmobile and trekked into the woods. We stopped on the trail and hiked in. Joe commented on his love/hate of this process. Love being out in the woods in the winter, hate trying to find a decent tree. We walked for a good half an hour. Well walked, and waited for Ava to catch up. She can't resist eating snow and it really slows her down. Nothing. Back to the trail. I spied a little twig of a tree, maybe six feet high, but several branches (a plus). How about it? Joe says sure, Ava says it's cute, Gabe says no way. OK, we'll ride up the trail a little further and see what we see. Joe and Gabe went to get the sled. Ava and I started up the trail. I asked her again about the twig tree and got the same it's cute response. Let's cut it I said. Mind you the cutting of the tree is typically a big picture taking production with all gathered round while Joe crawls under the thing. Girl Power! Ava and I sawed the twig tree down and started dragging it back down the trail toward the boys. They laughed (well, Gabe cried because it was so ugly). Four+ tree on snowmobile and once again it's a Charlie Brown Christmas.

We decorated the thing tonight. As Joe predicted, it did fall down. The headless angel is sitting on the counter now waiting for some good glue or her replacement. I guess life's never dull in the backwoods.

fancy nancy

If you are not already familiar, there is a series of books by Jane O'Connor based on a character named Fancy Nancy. Ava has tendencies that are so much like Nancy, that I couldn't help but persuade her just a bit to be Fancy Nancy for Character Day at school today. She chose 'Bonjour, Butterfly' as her inspiration. She picked out most everything herself and came up with a stunning outfit...picture below is minus the wings - she did find blue ones - and extremely poor lighting, but you get the idea. It's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that my baby is no longer a baby or even a toddler anymore. Watching her grow is truly bittersweet. I know it won't be long and she'll too cool to be dressing fancy and silly. For now, I am really enjoying this time of mis-matched fanciness and her ability to pull it off.