Ready for Christmas

Ta da! Ready for Christmas...

A few days after Thanksgiving, Jon and the girls set out to find a tree for us. I was busy unpacking boxes of Christmas decorations so was glad when they didn't return right away, but after awhile I started to worry... why weren't they back yet? Where was our tree?

As it turned out, Jon had driven all the way to Cornell for a tree (only a 45 minute drive, but still!). We live near a big tree farm, so it seemed odd he would drive so far. But Jon explained that nice trees like this can be had for only $10 in Cornell (as compared with $30-$40 in the Eau Claire area). Plus they were able to stop in and have a nice meal at his sister Ann's house and visit with Grandma Jane awhile.

Well worth a trip to Cornell!

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home this year, just us and the kids. Jonathan and Jack came over for dinner (Lindsay had to work). It was a nice relaxing time.

We bought a "new" used piano recently, and the kids (even Jack!) have been having fun with it. Michael can play a few lines from the Pink Panther theme and Emma has her own musical specialty now she learned from a friend (I'll attach a clip of her playing it at the end of this blog).

We were told the kids' music teacher at school gives piano lessons for a reasonable price, so we'll probably look into that after she gets back from maternity leave.

Meanwhile the piano provides me with a new surface for decorating! Look how quickly my Christmas village found a home on top of it.

Jon got three deer during hunting season this year. No big trophy bucks, but plenty of fresh venison that will provide us with a year's worth of roasts, steak, summer sausage, ring bologna, garlic sticks, and hot dogs!

Last week Jon hurt his back at work. It was pretty painful and a different kind of pain than he's had before with his back. We were pretty worried because he could hardly walk, let alone sit... but after visiting a couple of different doctors and having x-rays taken, they determined that his injury was muscular (a pulled or torn muscle) rather than skeletal, which is good... it's something he will recover from eventually. Meanwhile he's on painkillers and is on light duty at work. He surprised us by coming home a couple of days ago for a quick visit... it was good to see him walking around and acting pretty normal, thanks to the medicine he's on. He sounded pretty rough when it first happened!

I'll close by warning the out-of-staters who'll be visiting us soon (Bragg Family South and David, I mean you!) that it DOES feel like December around here now. Evening temperatures have been hovering below the 0 degree mark and there's a fair amount of snow.

So dress warm!!! We can't wait to see you and the rest of the family soon.