Christmas 2008

Happy New Year!!!

Susan and David had a little reminder of what Wisconsin weather is like during their visit this Christmas. A couple of days ago we were hit with ice and then about eight inches of snow, as well as several sub-zero days during their stay.

That didn't stop them from getting outside and meeting Dot and Pumpkin (Emma's chickens)... but I'm getting ahead of myself!

The week before Christmas, Leila and I had lunch at Olive Garden with a group of Hurlburt women-- mostly my sisters-in-law, but also my mother-in-law Jane and nephew Steve's wife, Tina.

For several years now we've gathered there for a Secret Pal gift exchange. We meet and draw names for the upcoming year, but also reveal our identities to our secret pal from the previous year. There's a gift exchange and lots of animated talk over breadsticks and bowls of soup or pasta.

As you can see, it's a "ladies only" thing. It's been a lot of fun and something I think we all look forward to... a somewhat self-indulgent break amidst all the holiday duties that fall on our shoulders this time of year.

After lunch some of us stopped by Phil and Jill's new house for a peek. Since their children have left the nest already, they were ready to downsize and simplify their lives a little by getting a smaller home with a smaller yard. It's a very nice place with a spacious feeling and still plenty of room for when their kids come visit.

Well, Christmas 2008 was busy and eventful for my little branch of our family. Most exciting was the new stocking we had to hang on our mantle-- little Leila Jane's. But since I'm a big Christmas person and enjoy holiday decorating, I was also looking forward to seeing what all my holiday "stuff" would look like in our new home.

It turns out the new house in Colfax can look PRETTY "CHRISTMASSY", with a little bit of effort. I have enough holiday stuff I usually have to put away all of my regular wall art and decorative objects from around the house-- I even replace our regular dishes with Christmas dishes.

I have a snowman collection and a Santa collection. I have a big artificial tree that rotates (though our main tree is a "real" one). There are little trees with lights and ornaments adorning just about every room in the house. Even our bathroom gets a holiday makeover. I admit, it's a little bit over the top.

But it's FOR THE KIDS... right?

We had lots of family over. First to arrive was my brother Don and his wife Hope, along with their three energetic kids: Stephen, Beth, and Kenny. They arrived at our house early in the afternoon on Christmas Eve.

The kids had a chance to run around and play with their cousins before we all headed to Eau Claire for a children's mass at Sacred Heart church in Eau Claire.

Unfortunately, we arrived right when mass started, so the church was packed to overflowing when we got there. Our large group was unable to sit together, but we all were given a place to sit. Beth and Emma sat by each other (without a parent by them), but behaved very well during the service.

Leila was a little "vocal", so we spent a lot of time with her in the very back.

During the sermon the priest invited all of the children up to the altar, for a "talk". He asked them questions, such as "Who do you think came here tonight from furthest away?" Kenny was quick to volunteer that he was from Arkansas, and so won the "from furthest away" contest, hands down. Kind of a fun moment of triumph, for the Bragg kids.

Before bed, all the kids hung their stockings above our fireplace, so they'd be ready for Santa. There was some concern expressed about whether Santa would be deterred by the fire in our fireplace, but the children were eventually reassured that Santa had encountered that problem before and knew how to get around it.

Kenny slept in a cot in Michael's room, and Beth slept right alongside Emma in her bed. Stephen spent part of the night with his parents, on an air mattress, and the rest of the night in a playpen.

The next morning the kids were up bright and early... even adults were awake by 5:30 am. We let the kids have their stockings right away, but made everyone wait to open presents until Susan, David, and Jonathan arrived at about 10:30 am. The kids were very patient, considering the five hour wait!

Once the big kids arrived, we let the kids tear into their presents. We had just started cleaning up the wrapping paper and gift bag debris when the rest of our guests arrived: my brothers Bob, John, and Bill, John's partner Jim, and my parents. So there were more presents to open, and more cheerful chaos.

Luckily some of my brothers helped me in food prep. Here's Bill, peeling potatoes.

We had a big holiday meal: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, candied carrots, green bean casserole, broccoli and cauliflauer salad, and pie.

Mom, Dad, and Bill headed home to Rhinelander a few hours after the meal, as did Don and Hope's family. But Bob, John, and Jim stayed overnight. Since we also had Susan, David, and Jonathan, we still had a housefull.

Susan had brought along a karoake game to play on our Play Station. It's different than traditional karoake in that it keeps track of how closely each singer follows the notes, so that singers can objectively compete with one another. We all took turns at the microphone... even Jon and Jonathan, which made it interesting.

It turns out that Hurlburts are better singers than Braggs-- rats!

Our Bragg guests left the next day, so we had a couple of days for the kids to play with their new Christmas games and toys (and each other) before the next big event... Grandpa Bud's birthday party in Cornell.

The party was at Jon's sister Ann's family's hunting cabin (which I have mentioned before is a very comfortable, nice place). There was sledding for the kids, an outdoor fire pit, and plenty of good food and drink. Susan and David were able to visit with many of their Hurlburt cousins, aunts, and uncles.

Ann's youngest son, Eric, recently announced his engagement to school teacher Sarah, and his soon-to-be stepdaughter, Brooke (who turns 3 today, New Year's Day) was there. Brooke is an outgoing, delightful little girl who charmed all of us by giving goodbye hugs to every single person there when it was time for them to leave.

In the picture below Sarah is holding Brooke while Jon balances Leila on the countertop (pay no attention to the unflattering shot of me hovering in the background).

After the birthday party we headed over to Bud and Jane's for another gift opening and snacks. It was a busy, fun day.

Our week with Susan and David went fast. Leila enjoyed the extra attention and all the lap-time she received.

On New Year's Eve day, Susan and David's mother and stepfather came by to pick them up. They brought along their son Logan (Kenny's age), and so we were able to get a shot of Susan, David, and Jonathan with ALL of their brothers and sisters-- together at the same time. What a crew-!

Before they left, and on the day we were hit with eight more inches of snow, Jon and the kids walked up the hill by our house to Johnne's farm, to meet the chickens (Leila and I stayed behind, to keep warm).

We were able to persuade David to get out of his fashion comfort zone and wear snow pants and a ski jacket... however, he refused to wear a hat or gloves and was a little "put out", I think.

Susan and Emma reveled in their status as Jon's "outside girls", and had a blast riding the snowmobile, playing in the snow, and being generally silly. Jon was out there with them, loving every minute of it.

A Christmas to remember! Happy 2009, everyone!!

Michael's Birthday Party

Well, it was another busy week for us in the count-down before Christmas.

Michael's basketball team met twice during the week for practice, then competed in a tournament Saturday in Roberts. His team played St. Croix, Prescott, and New Richmond.

Jon was home early enough Friday to take him to one practice and accompany him the following day to his tournament.

Meanwhile, Leila and I spent the day escorting Emma around to parties. First she went to a Girl Scout Christmas party, where she got to make pretzels and ornaments and play sing-along games.

Then she went to a birthday party for one of her Eau Claire friends, and was able to visit with many old classmates from Longfellow (most of whom she hadn't seen since we moved).

This morning Emma put Leila on the wooden sled we got from Sally years ago (when Michael was a baby). I store this sled with our Christmas things and only pull it out once a year... therefore it's still in very good shape. Emma put pillows and blankets on it, so it would be comfy for Leila, and pushed her around on our living room carpet. Leila seemed to enjoy the changing scenery around the living room.

We decided to be cute and pose Leila by a big snowgirl doll that Grandma Jane made us one year. As you can see, the snowgirl is still quite a bit larger than Leila.

Today we had a birthday party for Michael, who turns 10 this coming Thursday. The party was for friends, and we had it on the weekend before his birthday so that Jon could be around (to help, but also to watch Michael interact with his friends).

The party went well. It's gratifying to see how far Michael's come in his ability to socialize with children his own age. Despite being relatively new to Colfax, he's built up a group of friends here and seems able to express himself pretty naturally around them.

We noticed that many of the friends are also Minnesota Viking fans. We wonder if this Viking fan thing has anything to do with the fact that the "viking" is Colfax's school mascot.

We played Bingo for prizes (that was a hit-- all the kids seemed to like Bingo). Then we drew numbers to determine "swinging order" for kids to take a turn at knocking down a pinata. Each child was blindfolded, spun around 5 times and pointed in the general direction of the pinata, then given 10 seconds to knock the pinata down. I think it got as far as child #6 before the pinata spilled open, and the great scramble for candy and toys began.

Michael had wanted a Mexican theme for his party, so we served tacos for lunch. We followed that up with cake and ice cream, then let the kids "free play" for the rest of the time. They spent most of the free time playing hide and seek in our house; they really seemed to get a kick out of our greenhouse area and all the closets and cubbies we have.

I enjoyed the chance to meet Michael's friends and get to know them a little better. One of Michael's female friends, a tall girl named Erin, came to the party and played a couple of games of chess with Michael. Michael had told me that some of his friends at school were girls; I think they enjoy that Michael likes playing quietly and isn't as rough as some of the boys.

Michael told me (and one of the other boy's moms said she understood this to be the case, as well) that this group of boys kind of formed when some of the boys decided that they no longer wanted to get beat up playing football at recess. Originally all of the Colfax boys in Michael's grade played football at recess (and when we first moved here, Michael was one of them). But a couple of the boys play very rough and it was becoming common for the games to become somewhat of a beating for the smaller, less aggressive boys. One by one they started dropping out of the games, and gradually started banding together to find other (less painful) games to play at recess.

There's still a hardcore group of boys that play football at recess, and no doubt they will be very good football players someday. But I'm glad that Michael has found a different niche for himself.

Now that this party's over, I feel like I can concentrate on Christmas! I'm excited to have my family over for the holiday, and often think (when I see Leila smile or "talk" or do something new) how great it will be for big sister Susan to see that, soon. I was so touched to see how Susan opened her heart to little Leila and loved her up during that week in the spring when she stayed with us. She really seemed to cherish and enjoy her.

And as Leila's wispy, light brown hair fills in and her blue eyes watch me, she reminds me more and more of a little Susan all the time. Although sometimes she juts her jaw out in a certain, stubborn way, and kind of reminds me of her cousin Beth Bragg (minus the tumble of pageant-worthy curls). But you can judge for yourself who Leila resembles when you come visit!

Dot Lays an Egg

This morning Emma and Jon went over to our neighbor Johnne's farm to haul wood and feed vegetable scraps to Pumpkin and Dot (Emma's "birthday" chickens).

They are young birds, not full-grown, but Dot delighted Emma by leaving her a tiny egg to find.

An older chicken had laid a very large egg, which Emma is holding in her hands next to Dot's egg (at right). The size difference was fun to see; the larger egg looked like it could have been from an ostritch when laid next to little Dot's.

Emma couldn't wait to have me boil them and make her deviled eggs. I obliged her later that morning, and the result was interesting. Dot's egg had no yolk, and the large egg was revealed to have twin yolks. For scale, the boiled egg in the middle (below) is a "normal" sized egg.

This morning was our coldest winter day yet (about 0 degrees). Jon had Michael bundle up and come outdoors to help him stack firewood. He had Michael learn a little bit about operating the Bobcat-- something I've never done myself. Michael was proud of himself.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Cornell and visited with Bud and Jane. Grandma Jane has just started her Christmas decorating, and had the lights hung on her Christmas tree-- but no ornaments, yet.

We had supper, with rosettes for dessert. Rosettes are traditional Norwegian cookies that resemble snowflakes. They're fried in oil and lightly dusted with powdered or granulated sugar. Very pretty.

We tried to get a good photograph of Leila interacting with one of Grandma Jane's big baby dolls-- this little guy's very smiley and realistic. But Leila was flopping her arms around quite a bit and the photos turned out pretty blurry. She was excited.

Laurie posted some nice pics from our Thanksgiving visit to Rhinelander, so I thought I'd borrow some of them to post here, too (for those of you who don't see her blog).

I particularly like this one of Leila and Dad:

Uncle Bill didn't fare as well with Leila (at least that's how it appears in the photo below, right):

I don't know why Leila wasn't protesting in the photo below, when Daddy decided to hold her on his lap upside down. Yikes.

Emma and Jon just walked through the door. Emma went to our neighbor girl Makayla's birthday party this afternoon-- a pool party at a nearby motel. So on the coldest day of the year (so far), Emma was swimming. Kind of strange, but fun for her.

This blog will be short... lots to do. Happy holidays!

Thanksgiving Weekend

"Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!"

Here's Michael wearing a mini-version of the hunting shirt his dad typically sports this time of year.

This year we enjoyed a festive meal in Rhinelander, at Mom and Dad's house.

My brothers Bob, John, and Bill were there, as well as sister Laurie and her husband Mark. Even Jonathan made it over to Rhinelander.

Jon had this whole past week off from work. He made it home about 9:00 Sunday night. So this time he was able to relax and hunt some before the trek to my parents'.

Our meal was well worth the drive. Mark and Laurie put their considerable cooking skills to work and made sure we had an abundance of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing.

Mark graciously prepared a tart cranberry chutney that was to die for (I say "graciously" because he can't stand cranberries so had no plans to eat any himself).

Mom made a wonderful scalloped corn dish, along with the traditional green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, buttered squash, and pumpkin pie.

I made candied carrots and brought along two pies I'd baked at home the day before-- blueberry and blackberry cream (still churning out pies from this summer's bumper blackberry crop, now frozen).

I also brought along home-made dinner rolls that HAD tasted great when I first took them out of the oven (on a previous day), but were definitely blah by the time the actual meal rolled around.

No one complained, though. Everyone chewed dutifully.

At right: Laurie and John take a break from teasing and poking one another (just long enough to pose for the camera).

Besides eating (though I don't mean to understate the amount of eating we accomplished this holiday), there was lots of football-watching, nap-taking (this is what fans did during the "football-watching", while others of us washed dishes), and blaze orange excursions into the woods.

The guys didn't spot any deer, but were able to set up a new, safer tree stand in Dad's woods.

Our pack of unruly dogs had a good time romping around with each other and turning the light dusting of snow in Mom and Dad's yard into a dustbowl of doggie prints.

Thanks for putting up with them (and us), Mom and Dad!

Mom wow-ed us with three beautiful quilts she made. She gave Jon and I the green and white Dresden Plate quilt (at left), which as you can see was put on our bed immediately and topped with Christmas pillows.

She gave Michael this snappy orange and blue pinwheel quilt for his room.

Emma was the lucky recipient of this turquoise blue and brown quilt (I think Mom called it a 9-patch).

We knew we'd be getting these quilts eventually, because we helped pick out the fabric and saw the work in progress, but it's amazing how fast it all came together.

What a wonderful early Christmas gift!

We were very pleased that Jonathan joined us in Rhinelander. He stayed overnight but left early the next morning so he could do laundry before work.

Here's Leila wearing Jonathan's hat (backwards-- the cool way).

The main comment Leila seemed to be receiving this weekend was: "Her face is so full, now!" and "Look at those cheeks!"

Leila, this is the only time in your life when such remarks can truly be interpreted as compliments. When you are older, people will no longer feel safe commenting about your face fullness and cheek size. And that's a good thing.

Saturday we made a family trip to Pleasant Valley Tree Farm by our house, to find this year's Christmas tree.

This is the same place that Emma and I escaped to in the fall for our Girl's Day Out. They cater to city folk looking to give their kids a memorable outdoor experience.

We joined other families in the back of a hay wagon and were pulled by tractor out to the Christmas tree fields. As usual, we picked out a nice balsam fir, which Jon cut down for us using a hand saw.

A team of workers helped shake the grass and leaves off of our tree and bundled it up in twine. Then it (along with us) were loaded onto the hay wagon and hauled back to the shop.

Many pictures were taken along the way...

The kids were able to visit a "living nativity", complete with llamas dressed as camels and shepards herding sheep and goats. Here's the youthful-looking Mary and Joseph, with baby doll in the manger.

There was also a little cabin where kids could visit Santa and Mrs. Claus. We paid the Claus's a visit and then Jon bought the kids hot chocolate. I made a quick stop at the gift shop.

Once home, I wasted no time unpacking boxes of Christmas decor. There's still lots left to do, but we were able to finish decorating the tree and hang our (all too numerous!) stockings on the fireplace mantle.
Anyone who's been over to our house for Christmas these past eight years may have noticed a collection of wooden snowmen which we display. All of our names are on them. I ordered this set from someone while I was pregnant with Emma, so crossed my fingers that our little unborn "snowbaby" would indeed turn out to be a girl named "Emma"... and, of course, she was.

Flash-forward a few years, and we found ourselves with a surprise new family member. Now the set was "short" a snowman!

Emma identified this problem last Christmas. She solved it by drawing a picture of a baby snowman on a snip of paper (complete with one curl on top its head), then taping it on the "Lisa" snowman's belly.

Luckily, in 1996 (I know the exact year because Grandma Jane always records it on the bottom of any Christmas item she gives us) we were given a tiny wooden snowman as a shelf
ornament.

All I had to do to make it fit with the other snowmen was add a scarf and paint Leila's name on (see right). Now our snowman set is complete.

Really. COMPLETELY complete.

Of course, this posting would be sadly lacking if it did not include mention of the deer Jon shot Sunday morning (a doe).

This marks the first time Jon has gotten a deer while hunting on our Colfax land.

It was actually his fourth time "out" on our land this past week. The first few times were met with frustration. One late afternoon he got to his stand just in time to have two neighbor dogs chase a deer beneath him.

On the next time he went out, a neighbor (the owner of the two "stray" dogs) walked out on our land, apparently ready to hunt. He saw Jon and left quietly, without the two of them exchanging any words. Kind of strange.

Another morning he went out and was barked at for about ten minutes by a different neighbor's dogs.

But, persistence pays off in the end.