Christmas Eve II

There were more people taking pictures than there were people having their pictures taken. (Does that even make sense?)


The kids didn't need any eggnog to start acting silly.

Eggnog!

As usual, Steve provided the eggnog and pickled herring for Christmas Eve. But this year there has been a lot of speculation about what exactly went into Steve's eggnog. For example here is a picture of Greg before he drank the eggnog.

And this is Greg after the egg nog.

O Christmas Tree

Early December the tree is up. Though the boys are more agile and limber, it's still my job to decorate the upper 2/3rds of the tree using the ladder.

There was a time when I told the boys they couldn't climb the ladder higher than their age. That worked well when they were 3 and 6, but now. . .I suppose I should let them do the ladder stuff.

Alborn

The tradition here is, shortly after Thanksgiving, head up to Steve's place to get the tree.

Steve and I pride ourselves in the ability to guestimate the height of a standing tree before we cut it. We want 18 feet. This one turned out to be close to 21 feet.

George always comes with. As the years go by it's 50/50 whether the boys will come. This time it was just George.

Going Way Back

OK. The Holidays are over. It's been a good time, but it feels like we've been bouncing from one thing to the next. So it's time to get it all commemorated here over the next few days.

First up, Thanksgiving.

It wasn't a large group that met at the Lindstrom household, but a good time was had by all.

Clever Clue of the Month

Happy New Year!

Please vote for the best clue for December. The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced Thursday night at approximately 9:00 Central. Here are the nominees:

Pink slippers? ...................................FIRERS
Cheaters, to teachers ............................ANAGRAM
It's no longer working ...........................RETIREMENT
The simple life? .................................AMOEBA
Stuck in Pamplona? ...............................GORED
Accord of 1985? ..................................USEDCAR

If you need one of these explained...

Merry Christmas!!!

We bought a new Canon camera a couple of weeks ago and i'm still trying to figure out how to use it. Almost wish i had gotten something more basic or simple.

I do not know how all of the lights turned into stars on this first photo???

The kids are all home for Christmas and acting like kids.

Merry Christmas!!

Just thought I would take the time to bring a smile to your faces. I know the Christmas season can get a little hectic sometimes. Just go to this link and you'll be hysterically roaring with laughter. P.S. hope the link works...

Turkey Day!!!

This year Amy and I decided to make a memory and join Dean and Kurt on the farm for turkey slaughtering day. As you can see there was much excitement to be had. We also gained a greater appreciation for our Thanksgiving turkey dinner, knowing all the hard work that goes into bringing that turkey to the table. We hope to make the turkey slaughtering day a tradition.

Global Warming

I have finally begun my global warming education. I began with Al Gore's: Inconvenient Turth...

It was powerful and persuasive...

Next, I read Bjorn Lomborg's: 'Cool It'...

Mr. Lomborg admits that global warming is a problem and that humanity has contributed to it. However, it is not the catastrophe some would have us believe - there are many bigger problems. "If our goal is to improve the welfare of people and the environment and not just reduce carbon emissions, we have to openly inquire how best to do so. Doing too little about climate change is definitely wrong, but so is doing too much." He was recently on BookTV - you can listen to him here.

Any advice for the next step in my education?

O Canada!

In 1968 the slide frames began to mark the date of development, but, in my opinion, 1968 was not a great year for slides. A lot of them were dark or out of focus. A lot were not what I would consider "memorable". Here's one that, for me, stuck out. I don't know, but I would guess, that this photo was taken because Steve was ready to leave for Canada.

Clever Clue of the Month

Please vote for the best clue for November. The Clever Clue of the Month will be announced Monday night at approximately 9:00 Central. Here are the nominees:

He or I, but not you: Abbr. ......................ELEM
38) With 38-Across, where you might
end up if you don't 38-Across? ...................SING
Master of the double take? .......................NOAH
Butt out? ........................................MOON
Where you might go if you're very sick? ..........BEDPAN
Point of no return? ..............................ACE

I wouldn't be surprised if you need one or two of these explained...

Annual Holiday Gathering in Lakeville

Inquiring minds have wanted to know the date of our annual holiday gathering. Because the only logical date would be the weekend of Alyssa's concert we are going to push it out to January.
In the past we have celebrated with a Swedish theme. But this year I thought it would be fun to celebrate my heritage (hispanic) and do a Mexican theme and hold the gathering on January 5,2008, celebrating 3 Kings Day. I know I am not officially Hispanic but growing up in California with a very large Hispanic family, we embraced many of their traditions. ANYWAY, back to the party. Everyone can gather, who would like to attend, at our house at 5pm, Saturday, 1/5/08.
I will be making a pork chili stew, enchilladas, mexican wedding cakes and snow pudding. (believe it or not a form of snow pudding is in my Mexican Cookbook. RSVP with what you're bringing and we'll have a great time. Sorry no Pinatas, Greg hates them. Have a blessed Christmas and hopefully we'll see you in January!
Love, Denise

Jean In The Water

Paul should now have the scanned slides. It's up to him to further organize and then distribute. But I'll continue to move through what I have with things I find interesting or questions that might help Paul know where to put things. This is an example of the latter. Judging from the frames this would be '65-'67, but other than that any idea where we are? There are a lot of Chub Lake pictures so the likely candidate is Chub.

Thanksgiving week 1961

There is an envelope with 8 negatives in black and white dated 11/20/61. They cost 69 cents. There is also handwriting that says "some pictures taken days before Helen entered the hospital".

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.

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I recognize Grandma Carlson, but is the other woman John's mom?

Circle Tour

Moving on. . .I've posted a few from the Circle Tour of 1961 that were misplaced. Here's one from the circle tour proper that I really liked.

Helen

We're up to the fateful year of 1961. This is from a batch labeled 2-16-61, so I'm assuming this is actually from the previous summer. This is my favorite slide of them all.

1. It is perhaps trite to say it because it is so obvious, but I will nevertheless say it. . .Helen was a beautiful woman.

2. From the stories I've heard and the portrait of these slides, it appears that she had an internal beauty to match the outward.

3. All her life Jean has been told how much she looks like Helen. That has been, I'm sure and I know, a mixed blessing.

4. Also in these photos I see images of her grand-daughters. In one I'll think "that looks like Katy" and in another "there's Heidi". They're lucky. It helps to explain why we have so many lovely grand-daughters running around.

5. The external beauty of the three grand-sons is still being debated.

John

Mark noted that John is seldom seen in these photos. So I went back to try and find him. Here's one place where he shows up.

Again, notice how baby Paul dominates all of these photos. What an egotistical twerp!

By the way, I say "John" out of no disrespect but only to distinguish him in my mind from "Helge". There was a time early in their marriage where I swore I would never call him "father". But, thank God, that quickly dissipated. Now, as time has distanced these events, I think of "John" and "Helge" just to keep things straight. They were both, in their time, my Father.

A Not-Duluth Picnic

This picnic is outdoors so I guess we're not in Duluth anymore. Anyone know where this is?

A Duluth Picnic

Hot dogs and root beer. Mark and Greg are so grownup they don't need bibs. Looks like Jean could use a Kleenex.