A Christmas to Remember

I'll have work on this entry way

There are a lot of things to make this year a pretty memorable Christmas.  The least of which is the 2 feet of snow that has showed up on my front door in the last couple days.  Luckily I didn't have too many places to go, so I'm not sweatin' it too bad.

Oh No! Ski hill too steep!

We donned the skis and snowshoes and made it as far as the front yard. We built a pretty sweet snowman complete with carrot nose, dug two snow forts at the end of the driveway, AND had a snow bank high enough in the yard to have a snowpant sliding hill. Even The Queen Mother of Howktown slid down on her butt.

Snowball fight with himself

Let's not forget the snow balls, either. The snow is so deep neither the kids nor the dog could walk in the yard unless the adults packed down a path for them.   Good times were had by all...

Of course I'm leaving out the highlight of my Christmas with my family. Yes it involves presents. It shouldn't be mistaken for material values over family togetherness. It was really the reaction to the greatest gift ever. The look on her face is one that I will never forget.

Walleye cribbage board with bobber pegs and antique fishing lure playing cards

It was worth all the torment. Because she just about threw up when she saw it, AND simultaneously her husband was giggling with glee at the awesomeness.  She did come around when it came out the package and she realized it wasn't as awful as I made it seem.

In return, my mom and she acquired a very cool and unexpected gift for me. They happened to run into Christopher Straub (of last season's Project Runway fame, who is from MN) at an art fair and picked out a very cool wallet that he signed!

Oh, and she cut up a children's sweater to make me matching wrist cozies and leg warmers. Tre` Chic!

Conference: No AUNTS!: Not Funny/Funny: Saarisburg

So, I have say that I had a tremendous weekend. Tremendous in a big, overwhelming, busy, and slightly bizarre way.

It started with a threat of a BLIZZARD... by last exaggerated report it was supposed to be 10-15 inches! I think it was only 6 inches predicted. So, my inital 'in and out' travel plans were changed by "too out of it to make definite plans so fly by the seat of your pants and hope that everything works out as long as you don't get stuck in the BLIZZARD plans"

Howktown doesn't recommending planning a weekend like that... but you know, you just gotta roll with it.

Howktown Weekend Itinerary:

Saturday
Food Allergy Conference with the Czarina of Saarisburg - my fabulous sister Kylie (Kylie would like to point out that she believes all bacon to be a fad).

This is what I learned at the Conference -
• No Aunts - they are only interested in talking to grandparents, parents, and nurses. No Aunts.
• Always carry two epi-pens
• When it comes to reactions to allergenic foods "Past results do not determine future performance"
• Writing notes to fellow royalty (ahem. Czarina and Queen of course) during boring lecture on crusty rashes is considered NOT FUNNY.
• They talk more about kids and how to parent them, then how to deal with your own allergies
• Making up a list of what is approved in Howktown during boring lecture on wet cream wraps so no one notices is FUNNY.

So while at the conference we got a ton of free stuff, luckily I could eat most of it. We were both really good at lunch (when we skipped a couple of speakers to stuff our faces at Chipotle) and we adhered to our Allergen Free diets. It's one of the few places we can both eat with out a problem. I had a yummy carnitas bowl and we decided that in addition to Howktown, Kylie will be in charge of Saarisburg, and then later we determined that Sara is Mayor of Ingvaldia (we didn't decide on the Mayor part, I just made that part up. She's going to have to get back to me on her official title.) These are the Latest Kingdoms in the Mental State of Hilarity.

Sunday Morning I learned how to play cribbage with Doug's mom. Went to see Sunshine Cleaning by myself and ended up being that girl by her self in the movie that keeps texting (I was telling them to stop calling cause I was in a movie! The phone was on silent!) and is bawling over the part when the girl remembers finding her mom dead. Then I sat around in the mall trying to get a hold of the people who kept trying to call me and find out where I was sleeping that night so I could avoid THE BLIZZARD! Had peanut buster parfait, for good luck.

Monday I drove down to Rochester to have some more interactions with doctors... wand then Kylie and stopped at Perkins. We had a great server and tipped her well. The coffee was good, and we were bad. I had a sandwich and pie (WHEAT!) and Kylie had pie (DAIRY and PEANUTS) and tried to pretend we didn't just spend the weekend at a food allergy conference. I did make her put her ONE epi-pen (for her daughter!) near the top of her purse... just in case. Then finally I was allowed to come back home. I had successfully avoided THE BLIZZARD.

When i got home, i was informed we had half and inch of snow. I just wheezed my self to sleep and was happy to be home.