Fire

About a week ago we went to the annual firemen's Christmas Party. This year it was at Vinny's BBQ in Dakota City. We were in the party room and had our own buffet with their rib tips, chicken and pork loin. They do a dry rub barbecue with sauce on the table. The past few years we've given the Chief a gift certificate for a restaurant, but this year one of the guys saw this display in Hobby Lobby and the guys thought the lamp would be a nice gift.

The pictures below were taken about a month ago when the department burned an old house in town.

Misc.

Bill has been doing odds and ends lately. He's been in the office catching up on bookwork, burning some stuff, and working on some equipment here and there. Last week we went Christmas shopping in Mason City for most of a day. The new snow blower arrived. Bill and Tim had been a little nervous that they had sold their old one before receiving the new one! They had to tinker with it a little to get it ready to go. Today Bill took our Enclave in (to Algona). Our fuel gauge has not been working. Sometimes we gain fuel as we drive and sometimes it goes down faster than it should.

Last Sat. Terry came out and replaced our very old dusk to dawn light that had quit working recently. See the brown van he's driving? That belonged to Bill's Grandpa and has to be really old! Terry told me that his uncle in Omaha reads my blog all the time! Hi! Glad you like it! It's fun - and surprising sometimes - to hear about people that like to read what we're up to. I know I like to read diaries of what people are doing every day in some of the magazines (like the ones written by the Amish in Our Iowa) so guess this is similar.

If we had not been on the home tour yesterday, I could've had some good pictures for a fun blog post! Our friend Kyle called and was stuck while out retrieving his deer stand at one of the farms. Tim went and pulled him out.

Last night we thought we heard rain but it was the sound of snow melting. As of today, all of our snow has melted except in the ditches and even most of it is gone. It's unusual to not have an all white December here! I personally would rather have white than brown but not too many agree with me! This brownness reminds me of winters in Indiana.

Nice Weekend!

Last year after Christmas when the decorations came down, I remember thinking we should've had people over during Dec. We did have Bill's family's Christmas Eve soup supper but that's it.


I got very little of my dad's hospitality genes, but I'm working on it! I've been reading the Reluctant Entertainer who talks about how to entertain without feeling like it's a lot of work and to enjoy it, your house doesn't have to be perfect and to not worry about this and that. Everything you read says that people who have good friends and get together with them live happier, longer lives!

So we got a date set, and I even planned a little trip to Humboldt to ride in a "Dream Carriage" to see the Dakota City Christmas lights. This is a horse drawn carriage with sleigh bells. We didn't tell the guys until that night!

We had appetizers and soup here first (got to use the new table for company again!).

We were all bundled up - it was 23 degrees or so and a little chilly when we were going into the wind but fine after that. It was fun to see these lights this way - they seemed brighter than from inside a car - and we even had the full moon.

Glenn & Sarah sat in the seat behind us and Terri & Todd were in front of us (they were too cold to turn around for a picture!). We were given hot chocolate after our ride.

The video below is mainly just dark but you can hear the clop, clop and the sleigh bells! We loved that. I hope to take Lacey since she's been singing Jingle Bells and about the "one horse open sleigh" so maybe I'll get a better picture of the horses and what we rode in then!

Today we went on a tour of homes in West Bend. Our electrician who did our electric work when we built our house had his home on the tour so that was fun to see. They started their house right after ours was done. The last picture is of one of the homes. It even has an outdoor kitchen. There were some things that these people today did that we didn't like heated ceramic tile floors, walk in showers with no doors or shower curtains and audio systems throughout the house. They all had finished basements with some bedrooms downstairs. All were very nice.

Last Weekend Babysitting

Last weekend I/we babysat the girls overnight. Lacey helped me decorate the Christmas tree like her mom always did. Sunday evening was Hometown Christmas where there were vendor booths, preorders for the cookbook and a soup supper (chicken noodle, chili or potato) which was a fundraiser for the Rodeo & Saddle Club. The highlight for the kids was Santa! This was Lacey's first time to be brave enough to actually talk to him and as you can see, Camry didn't like him and baled off right away! (Santa looks a little worried!)

Camry is like her mom and loves shoes. Every time she's here, she likes to go in the back hallway and get Uncle Bill's slippers. I'm amazed that she can walk so good in them! Just look how happy she is in them! Check out the video below. Her mom says she can also walk very well in high heels!

23rd Annual Gemutlichkeit Luncheon

Saturday we drove in snow showers to Humboldt to the German meal at the Zion Lutheran Church. We met Terri & Todd there. We waited in the beautiful sanctuary for less than 5 min. before our numbers were called. We went through a line where the ladies, dressed in German dresses, served us a brat, sauerkraut, German potato salad, and black forest cake with about 4 kinds of cookies including springerle. We were seated and a woman came and read this German prayer with us:

"Komm, Herr Jesu, and sei unser Gast und segne uns alles was Du uns bescheret hast. Amen." (Come, Lord Jesus, and be our guest and let Thy gifts to us be blessed. Amen.)

On the table was a basket of various breads. One even had candied fruit in it. There was a relish tray with pickled beets, candied dill pickles and regular dill pickles cut in tiny spears. We also had a little container of fruit soup.

VERY unfortunately, my camera batteries were low and I was only able to get this one picture of the sanctuary. Up front, the cross made of pots of poinsettias was so pretty! Many of the churches here have these beautiful, high wood ceilings. I wanted to take pictures of the food and more! Will have to go back next year - and we're planning on it! Like at the Norwegian dinner Terri & I went to and got to sit with and talk to two Norwegian couples, this time we were fortunate to sit with a lady who was on the team that made the German potato salad so she filled us in on how they accomplished this meal, etc. The food was very good, and it was a relaxing, special meal - all for only $10.

We asked how many they usually serve and they said 500 with about 150 of those meals being carryout. Like the church doing the Norwegian dinner, they wonder how long they will continue to do this as it's a lot of work.

Our landscape is all white now so probably will be until Spring! This morning the temp. was right at zero when we got up - but like it usually is here, the sun is shining bright. We babysat the great nieces overnight Sat. so our tree is up with the help of the little elves. I went along too for the visit to see Santa Claus so I have more pictures to share.

I Like This Store

This is the nice little rustic store at the meat locker in West Bend. Reminds me of Uncle Tom and Cousin Todd who like to hunt, and they have things like this on their walls at home.

Besides their fresh, frozen meat Skoglund's sells cheeses, beef stick, rubs and sauces for grilling and the Butter Braids. Lots of people really like their bacon. When Jim is here, he always has a list of items to get for his friends in Kansas City - including bacon! I don't go there regularly for anything but do like to stop in once in a while. We farm the fields around the Skoglunds' house.

We're supposed to get quite a bit of snow today and through the night and it has just started. This is our first snow of the season - later than usual. We have tickets to go to the German lunch at a church in Humboldt with Terri & Todd. May be slippery getting there (it's about a 35 min. drive).

Dave and Matthew are here today for Matthew's first time deer hunting. Hope they get one!

3:30 - the snow has been coming down since about 10:30 - perfect timing for putting up the Christmas tree! The little girls will be here tonight to help!