Goals for 2009

1. Live a healthier lifestyle through eating and exercising.   Specifically eating more fruits and vegetables and doing some form of exercise 3 times a week.
   
   
2. Blog at least once a week.
   
   
3. Keep my room clean and clothes picked up!  Yes I am 13 again!  :)
   
   
4. Grow spiritually through more Bible reading and prayer.

Christmas in Pictures

Christmas season starts with getting the lights on the house and yard!  We added a spiral lit tree this year (not pictured) and will add to the "display" each year!  Chad has big plans for next year!

Day after Thanksgiving shopping excursion.  Yes, mom and I brought Anna with us and were to Target by 5 am.  We had a fun filled day and got some great deals. 
Decorating the Christmas tree.  Got a late start this year with Thanksgiving being so late but it is always fun to spend the time putting the ornaments on one at a time and reminiscing about each one.

A new tradition this year was to visit Santa in downtown White Bear Lake.  It was GREAT!  Thanks to the Vosbergs for recommending it.  We had breakfast at Key's and then waiting like 5 minutes to see a GREAT Santa and you get a FREE picture!  They even have horse drawn carriage rides.  It was a fun new tradition that we will for sure be continuing.  


Chad and I always spend a Saturday in December on a shopping date and then the next day my mom, Anna and I do some cookie baking.  We toned it down a little this year but mom still took the time to make cut-outs with Anna.  They had so much fun!

The best part of Christmas - celebrating with friends and family.  We had our friends, Joe, Sarah, and Kate over for dinner and then the kids exchanged presents.  Love watching them play together!

Later that same week we had Heath, Jill and Brevin for dinner and a present exchange.  So fun to see the joy and wonder in the kids eyes!

David flew in from NYC on Friday the 19th and we headed right downtown to see the Macy's 8th Floor display.  Really cute display this year!  Love this tradition.

Always after the 8th floor we head to Nicollet Mall for the Holidazzle - another tradition that I love.  It was a pretty "mild" night considering how cold it had been all week so we lucked out.  

Our first family Christmas with the Carstens at Dad and Sue's house in WI.  Anna got a pink guitar from Gma and Gpa.  Pretty exciting.  

For Christmas Eve we headed to Rosemount for Christmas mass and then to my aunt and uncle's on my dad's side to celebrate.  I was so surprised to find at Christmas mass an old priest of ours in Monticello!  Fr. Bill was a favorite of mine and I really enjoyed mass with him!  

Family photo on Christmas Eve.

It has become tradition for us all to open new pajamas on Christmas Eve night - no matter how late we get home.  It is fun to be in new PJs for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning - checking out the milk and cookies that Santa left over.  Anna is holding up the notes she left for him.  One just says Santa - Love - Anna.  The other one says - Eat the cookies whenever you want to.  Anna wanted to make sure that Santa knew he didn't HAVE to eat the cookies right away.  He could take them with him!  :)  Santa wrote a nice Thank You note back to Anna too.

Anna holding the ONE present she actually asked for - Baby Alive.  I guess she probably could have done without all the other stuff.  Besides Baby Alive she was most excited about the tea set she got.  We promptly had tea after this photo!

Then we headed to Monti to celebrate Christmas with just the immediate family.  I didn't get a picture of Anna putting our baby Jesus in the manger but got one at Gma and Gpa's.  Baby Jesus sleeps in a drawer at both places until Christmas morning.

Gma and Gpa looking at their gift from Anna - a photo calendar. 

Our last Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family in Mankato.  We were excited to have my cousin and her family here from VA to celebrate with us this year. 

Playing a little Rock Band.  We never leave home without it!  :)  

Cousin fun!  I guess they would either be 3rd cousins or 2nd cousins once removed.  I have no idea how that all works.  Anna with Ethan and Bailey.  

And now adding in the "big" kids - Tommy, Hannah and Bridget. 

It always goes by so fast but it was a great week+ of Christmas celebrations.  The thing I love the most is how it brings people together.  Whether it be friends and family that you see often throughout the year or family and friends you see only a couple of times a year.  What a great time to connect and celebrate the birth of Jesus!  It brings a renewed spirit to carry us into the new year! 

Movie and Book Reviews

Oh it has been a while since I have blogged! We have seen a couple of movies and read some books that I wanted to pass along as recommendations.

Twilight. Both Chad and I read the four books and then saw the movie! We HIGHLY recommend that you read the books. Yes, they are teen novels about a vampire love story but they are so much more than that. The author is so talented and writes some of the most visual books that I have ever read. You really can visualize every scene in those books. So good!

The movie is good but not great. It was a low budget film and you could tell. I thought they did a good job sticking true to the book but the "special effects" were weak. But the movie definitely left me wanting more!

Milk. I didn't know much about this movie or the real person this movie is about, Harvey Milk. I had just heard that it was a great film and that Sean Penn nails the role, again. The premise of the movie is the real life story of Harvey Milk and what he did for the gay civil rights movement in the 70's. This turned out to be a great civil rights history lesson - one not taught in schools. I really thought it was a well done movie and quite enjoyable. There are some mild gay sexual scenes but the main story is about how Harvey Milk fought against bigotry and violence in a peaceful manner. And in doing so also fought for other "groups" that hadn't been spoken for in politics before. Not only is it a good story to be told but the actors in this movie are phenomenal. Sean Penn is great as is James Brolin. And many of the other small parts are well acted as well. I would recommend seeing this movie.

Our Few Seconds of Fame

We went to the Today show on Friday the 14th while in NYC! It was really fun to see the inner workings of the show and how they run in and out of that building so many times! Unfortunately, Ann and Meredith were not there that day and Matt never came out side. We did see Al though!

This video shows our first time on TV. You have to go to about 28:37 and then you will see us behind Al before he does the weather! It was in the 60's that day and this weather time tells all about how it won't be warmer than 30 degrees when we get home the next day!!

There were a couple more times that we were on but I am trying to track them down off the website. I will be sure to post them if I find them! :)

A Favorite City

We are home but I am ready to go back!  Our first trip to New York City was a success and oh so much fun!  We had good weather and good company!  We saw just about everything on our list of tourist sites and loved every minute.  

We were very thankful to David for inviting us out and letting us stay at his place. THANK YOU!  In the end it all worked out well even with the tight space.  David was a great tour guide of sites and food!  And we did pretty good navigating on our own when he was in class or studying. 

NYC exceeded my expectations!  It was friendly, safe, and fairly clean for a big city.  There was so much to see and do and each thing brought a totally different experience.   Here is a list of the highlights of our trip!  You can click HERE and HERE to see 120 of the 700 pictures we took while there!

What Did We See in NYC?  More like what didn't we see??? :)

• Central Park
• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
• Top of the Rock Observation Deck from 70 stories up
• Times Square (spent a lot of time there and LOVED it!)
• Ground Zero
• Wall Street
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Saw Mary Poppins on Broadway (Great, great show!!)
• Chad and I had a date night with drinks at the revoloving lounge on the 48th floor of the Marriot!
• Natural History Museum
• Rockafeller Center (Chad and Anna went ice skating)
• Today show!  (We were on TV)
• "Shopping" 5th Avenue

For all of you that have said you always have wanted to go to NYC - GO!  Make it happen!!  

Paying it Forward

Today I was waiting in line at the Caribou Coffee drive thru. It was dark and rainy and cold and I needed something to start my day with. It was a long line and moving very slow. As I was waiting I looked in my rear view mirror and there was a lady in her car that looked very sad, angry and impatient that the line was taking SO long. I kept watching her as we got closer to the window. I thought to myself, "that woman needs some cheering up - big time. I think I will pay for her coffee!"

So, I get up to the pay window about to hand my card to the cashier when she says - "The car in front of you paid for your drink!" WHAT? Here I was ready to pay for the lady behind me and the one in front of me paid for mine and apparently the one in front of that lady started it.

There was major pay it forward action going on in that Caribou drive-thru line today. I paid for the lady behind me but who knows how far it went! What a great way to start a cold, dark, rainy day. Oh, and if you haven't had any of the pumpkin products from Caribou - YUMMY!

Couldn't Have Said it Better...

With only two weeks left before the election I was going to do just one more post on why I support Barack Obama. But then I heard Colin Powell speak on Meet the Press on Sunday and realized I could never have said it better. Here is the video if you haven't seen it!