Scenes From A "Picture Perfect" Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I always wish we could be with ALL of our family for the holidays, but the miles between us makes that prohibitive. We had a lovely Thanksgiving at Fred's aunt and uncle's house.

I think pictures can sum up the atmosphere of our Thanksgiving feast better than my words can, so I'll share a few...



Aidan with baby Samuel:




Juno in one of her quiet moments:


A French pumpkin begging to be photographed:



Dinner preview...one turkey had foie gras spread under the skin, and the other had a mushroom paste spread under the skin. (No, they are NOT from our neighborhood!)



Details, details, details...

Spiced nuts as a pre-dinner snack:

Wine glasses ready to go:

Fred carving one of his works of art:

The picture-perfect Thanksgiving table:

WOW!

And the meal was as picture-perfect as the table!

We had a big crowd, the company was delightful, the food was amazing! We hope your Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful, too!

Hasn't Anyone Told Them...?

Hasn't anyone told the turkeys that it's almost Thanksgiving? This was the scene in our yard a few days ago:

Today I found this pretty creature lying between my house and my neighbor's...

I know, it would be a much better photo if I had moved over to the right about 15 feet, so I could have gotten rid of my neighbor's fence in the background, but I was afraid that he/she would run. I got within about 15 feet of this deer, but then he/she decided that was close enough.

So, I left some apples on the ground for it and walked away. It's the closest I've ever been to a deer that was not in captivity. It was really a pretty cool experience!

AAARGH!

Now that the weather has warmed back up, it's that time of year...time to try to get a decent family photo for our annual holiday cards. The challenge, of course, is to get a decent expression on everyone's faces, while using a tripod and the timer function on my camera. Okay, everyone, say "Cheese!"

Hmmm...okay, boys, how about REAL smiles for the next one? Okay?

Okay, you need to sit UP, too...

Not quite, something isn't quite right about that one. Let's try again...

No, screaming during the photo is NOT funny, and it wrecks the picture!

FRED: "Why can't we have the dogs in the picture?"

ME: "Because we can't even control the KIDS for this picture! How are we going to control our unruly puppy, too?"

Okay, we give up for now.

If you get a non-photo Christmas card from us this year, at least you'll know why!

Also, if you're curious about just how big that tree was that almost fell on my car, and just how close it came, here you go:

I had to REALLY back up to get the whole thing in the photo! The spot where it broke off was about 7 feet up, so that gives you an idea of the size. This was Fred's and the boys' big project last weekend, cutting up the tree and hauling the branches away. Fred actually had to get a new chainsaw to do the job. I think he secretly LIKED having an excuse to do so!

Yep, it crushed our lilacs, which makes me REALLY sad, because they bloom so beautifully every Mother's Day. I don't know if they can be saved. Oh well, at least it didn't crush any of US, as we were all out there playing in the snow when it fell. It really was quite a sight!

Snow Day?

I took the following photos a couple days ago. Please forgive the mediocre quality, I took them through a window, and there is definitely glare/reflection showing up in the photos. These were our "guests" inside our fenced in backyard, dining on our burning bushes.

Yep, that's SIX deer, just hanging out together, eating whatever they can before the snow comes.

I'm always amazed at how close to the house they get. I watched two young bucks wrestling each other with their antlers the other day...they were 40 feet from me, and I was sitting outside talking on the phone. It was almost like they were putting on a show just for me!

This is one of the fawns who lives around our yard with her mother and sibling. About 1/2 a second after I took this picture, she took off running, because Colin openend the door and yelled, "Get off my lawn!" at the top of his lungs and slammed the door shut. (Thank you, Monster House!)

So, we've had lots of beauty and wonders of nature around here for the past few days, and we've been doing our best to appreciate all of it. Lucky thing, because THIS is what we woke up to this morning...

(Oh, and that dark pine tree you see beyond my car...it is now laying on the ground about 1 foot away from my car...it fell down while the kids, the dogs and I were outside playing in the snow. It was pretty scary watching it fall; we decided it was time to go back inside.)

This snowstorm was NOT forecasted by ANYONE, so I am woefully unprepared. Our power keeps threatening to go out (and most of our neighbors have no power), so I've got a big fire going in the fireplace, and I'm trying to get everything that requires electricity done, just in case. Anyway, about another 3 inches has fallen since I took these pictures this morning.

UPDATE: Our power DID go out before I could finish posting this blog. It's back, now, though...I'm loving having heat and electricity once again! We've got about a foot of snow on the ground, and it's still snowing furiously. Luckily, the wind has picked up and is blowing much of it off the trees, so hopefully we won't lose any more to the weight of this wet, sticky snow!

BEAR!

So, this guy (or gal) was playing with Aidan's red soccer ball in the woods in our front yard. By the time I got outside with my camera, he was exiting via our driveway...

No, I'm not nuts, I would NOT have gone out there to take pictures, except he was already 100 yards away! We saw him because Sadie was outside and started barking like crazy. She's a good bear alarm, but bears are apparently NOT afraid of dogs AT ALL.

I must say, it's really a breathtaking thing to see a bear that close up...Did I mention that he was IN OUR FRONT YARD?

Draining the Lake

Our community is "drawing down" our lake so that we can remove a couple sand/gravel bars and get rid of a lot of weeds that are threatening to overtake the lake. It was a big community event today...lots of exitement!

Yes, that's Fred standing on the dam in the white Chicago Bears jersey!

Get ready...

Here it comes!

Just a pretty shot...

Neighborhood kids coming to watch...

Even the local geese came to watch...

I have no idea how long it will take to drain the lake, but it's fun to watch the process. I'm hoping it will refill quickly once we're done with this project.

Whew, it's been awhile...

It's been way too long since I wrote my last blog. Life at our house has been really crazy with a puppy (do I dare say that I think she's finally housebroken?), soccer four days a week and getting back to doing "real" schoolwork.

While I want to post photos of some of what we've been up to the last couple months, today I need to post something a little bit different, because it was a very dangerous day for driving around here today. This was not due to rain or snow or ice or any of the usual hazards; it was due to the weak-in-the-knees-stunning colors that autumn was showing off today...it was impossible to keep your eyes on the road!

Lipstick on a Pig

Okay, I can't believe the big deal that is being made about Obama using the phrase, "lipstick on a pig" on the campaign trail, and the accusations that it's some kind of sexist remark directed at Sarah Palin.

So, just to point out the absurdity of this accusation, here is our friend, John McCain, using the EXACT SAME (and may I point out, very COMMON) phrase on the stump, with regard to one of Hillary Clinton's plans



By the way, I am only posting this as a matter of fairness. My intent is not, and never has been, for this blog to become a political blog, although I am not shy about who I support.

I do, however, think the media is doing an unbelievably lame job in covering this year's election. Whatever happened to investigative journalism? Why not spend more time fact-checking the political ads, and calling a lie a lie, and shining the spotlight on who is doing the lying? Instead, they sensationalize every rumor and focus more on what opinion polls say than they do on actual FACTS.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox...for now, anyway!

Sexism? This Sums It Up For Me...

Exciting Day

Well, we've had some excitement today. We woke up at about 7:45 this morning to some low rumbles of thunder and a very dark sky. I decided to check the radar to see what was coming our way before we drove 2 hours to my mom's house. Hmmm...severe thunderstorm warning and winds in excess of 65 mph headed straight for us.

I headed back into the bedroom, figuring I'd distract the boys with getting dressed and stuff. Not a chance. The wind picked up like crazy, the rain came pounding down...and then the power went out. The room was as dark as night, and the boys were scared. Then the sirens started going off. (My dad's house does NOT have a basement, by the way.)

Knowing that taking cover would possibly scare the boys even more, I debated it, but only for a second. There was a loud THUD on the roof, and I ushered them under the built-in desk in that bedroom and hauled pillows and sleeping bags in there with us, figuring they would at least be protected from flying glass if something should come through the window. We sat under there, listening to debris flying around outside and the loud wind and the thunder and the sirens. Once it finally quieted down, I got up to go see if it was safe to have them come out yet.

Here is what I saw looking out my dad's patio door...and yes, the sky was still that dark and it was now 8:15 a.m.

That tree lying across the walkway to the lake and leaning on the picnic table is NOT normally there. It is a huge oak tree that blew down and took part of the roof off of the building where my dad keeps his fishing and boating equipment.

I decided to wait until it got a little bit lighter to come out of our spot under the desk for good.

Finally, (it was really only about 5 more minutes), we emerged from our hideout. Then, my dad and my cousin, Andy, came home from work to survey the damage.

As you can see, there was lots of small debris laying around all over the place:

Here is a view of my dad's back yard, with tons of debris and the tree on the ground. I don't recall the chair on the deck being up there...I think it was blown up there, and it barely missed the patio door.

Here is part of the oak tree that blew down, apparently trying NOT to land in the lake!


Another shot of the tree and the damage it did to my dad's storage building.

Oh, there's where the roof landed...in front of the door of the building!

More debris:

My dad told me that he heard on the radio that it should be clear for driving now. So, we decided to head up to Minneapolis, considerably later than we had planned.

We stopped a few times as we were leaving my dad's neighborhood, to look at some of the other damage the straight-line winds caused.

Here is a camper that was flipped onto its side:

And a dock and a boat lift all mangled by the storm:

Another mangled boat lift, and a boat completely flipped over:

A pontoon that was COMPLETELY flipped over. Do you have any idea how HARD it is to flip a pontoon?

A broader view:

The road signs were casualties as well...

We learned later today that these were straight line winds that were up to 84 mph.

Hey, Becky, aren't you glad you and the kids weren't camping in a tent for THAT?!?!

ON A HAPPIER NOTE... Fred picked up Juno today! Here he is, at the home of her breeder, holding our "little" puppy!

She's only 12 weeks old...I don't think she's going to be "little" for long!