Church Board Night Out

I am embarking on a new adventure this year.  I was nominated for our church governing board last fall and received congregational approval in December.  My 3 year term officially started January 1st and I am excited to be a part of the leadership at our church.  Now that both kids are vaccinated, we are looking forward to being back in persons for services once the Omicron wave subsides.  We are also waiting for a new buddy for Parker which is trickier while our kid's staff is still rebuilding the program.  

My first bigger event in this realm was this past weekend.  We had a retreat that included a social on Friday.  We went to Punch Bowl Social in St. Louis Park.  We had a great little spread and got to play bags, go bowling, and belt out some karaoke tunes.

I know or at least know of all of the people on our church board, but it was fun to let loose in a casual environment and just be ourselves.  I am looking forward to having a more intentional impact on the future of our church.

Two Harbors Birthday Trip

We took another trip up north to celebrate our nephew, Paul's, 12th birthday.  Esme sent some preliminary smack talk to him after her decisive win is Sorry and other games at Thanksgiving.  

We saw this crazy bus on the way up, what a ride.

Esme was so excited to go through the tunnels again then promptly fell asleep just after getting through Duluth.

Paul requested chocolate chip cookies instead of cake and everyone else approved as well.

Everyone gathered round to watch the Sorry rematch.

Paul took back the title this time, but I can see many more in our future.

One more cookie and visit with Shelly before heading home.

First Sledding of the Year!

We finally got a chance to get out to the sledding hill.  We didn't have enough snow for a while, then it was really cold.  We all got our steps in!

I was more than a little sad to see several trees marked to be removed.  They are putting in a new structure this summer which is exciting, but they are taking away the shade that I love! 

Hopefully we get to visit a few more times before the snow melts.

Emerald City's finest Lobster Roadhouse

For years I have thought about biting the bullet and forking out some big bucks to order the most delicious soup I've ever had from Seattle. A coupon for Gold Belly popped up just before Christmas, so I finally did it.  We were just going to have a soup night and decided to go all out with all the shrimps and invited my parents over to join. We also had some Texas Roadhouse rolls from a school fundraiser.  Definitely one of the best home meals we've had in a while.

Dessert was a ginger creme brulee inspired by our date night in Seattle at Ray's Cafe.

We finished with a roaring game of Sorry.  We will have another quart of soup to eat another time and I am already dreaming about it.

Bring on 2022!

One more week of 2021.  As much as we've loved going to Popped Corn, we also have a local popcorn guy just down the road from us.  Redmon's Popcorn was featured on Late Night with Stephen Colbert back in November. b He got flooded with requests for shipping and ended up getting briefly shut down due to some licensing issues.  Jimmy started a Go Fund Me to help him get in to a more suitable space.  He visited Zack this week to pick up some pre-New Year's snacks.

We also made our requisite holiday visit to the Mall of America.  We were actually down there to get a chair at IKEA (see below) and decided to stop at the M & Ms store quick.

In addition to our popcorn snack, we made homemade pizza, half BBQ chicken, half spinach artichoke chicken, and a charcuterie with baked brie.

The chari from IKEA is for my new nook in the living room.  We decided to move the kids' toy boxes to their rooms after the tree came down which left this corner open.  Here is a little time lapse of each addition.

I bought a whole hair- on cow hide a couple years ago at a crazy low price.  I couldn't pass it up, but also didn't know what I would do with it.  This spot was the perfect first use.  I cut off a small section for an area rug and I love it.  I leaned in hard to the farmhouse vibe once that was in place.  A repurposed barrel from my mom made the side table and the open bulb light almost finishes it.  I still need to get a foot stool to make it truly functional for me, but the kids love hangin out there already.

Jimmy had New Year's Day off, but worked Sunday, so we visited my parents.  Esme has been loving games, especially Sorry.  I am so impressed by how quickly she's picked up the strategy, she is so good!

We put on our "number shirts" to watch the Vikings lose to the Packers.  Looks like the light strip color called the winner.

Looking forward to another year of fun!