Where the heck have we been????  Up north visiting family and friends that’s where.  Here is what our first day there looked like.   Luckily we had arrived safe and sound before that storm hit.  Thank you Minnesota for the warm welcome ;).

Our main objective for the visit was to enjoy the little grand boys :), which we did.

Aren’t they cute?

The weather warmed up pretty quickly after we arrived.  But you know Minnesota, just blink and the weather changes again.  Here is how quickly the weather changed while we visited there

On December 6th

December 11th

Snow was kind of pretty but we didn’t appreciate freezing our little tuchies off and trying not to slip and fall and break something.  But we all know that Santa can’t come without snow, so it was a good thing it snowed.

Every morning while I read my Emails, I always had a little visitor that wanted to pay computer games.  Here he is trying to master the mouse and the key board.  Look at that concentration 

We had to keep busy while we were there and so we took a trip to the Mall of America. Man, we hadn’t been there in 15 years.  We used to go there with the kids.  We’d get them an all day pass to Snoopyland and Gary and I would hit the bars on the top floor.  Now that was fun.  This time I just did a little shopping for a new hat

Cute huh?  I look like the dogs do when the doctor puts the thermometer up their butt. Hee, hee.  They still have Lego Land there  Wow! just think of the time and number of legos it took to build this big boy.

Of course we always had to take plenty of naps

Nap Time!

And there were the trips to BearTrax to visit my brother and his wife.  They own this bait/tackle/hardware/grocery/gas station place.  There the ones who visited this fall. 

They alway decorate so nicely.  And the neighbors really appreciate it.  As did we :).

Gary tried on a hat while he was up there.   He looks like the dog at the vet too ;).  Must be something about wearing hats????  What you can’t see very well is that he grew a full beard while we were up there to keep his face warm.  I must say, his beard is surprisingly lacking in grey hair.  Pretty good for an old duffer :).  I on the other hand, am doing what ever I can to keep those little gray hairs at bay.  And I make sure I take care of my hair too ;).

Of course while we were there, we had to go visit Santa.  We went to the downtown Minneapolis Macy’s.  That alone was an experience as we NEVER travel to downtown Minneapolis.  Too scary for us country mice! Anyway, it was going to be Macy’s last year to have Santaland (after spending a day there, I can see why).  So we all loaded into the car

Car ride! Car ride!

Papa had to drive because the only way to get to those back seats was to crawl over the kids car seats.  See those two young flexible people in the back?  They had a tough time getting back there.  Wish I thought to record that.  Always good to have blackmail on your kids no matter how old they are ;).  Besides, if Gary and I had to do it, we’d probably still be stuck there ;).

After our hair raising ride to “the big city”, we arrived and navigated one of those parking ramps that are made for VW beetles, not an SUV.  The parking spot was so narrow, we had to off load everyone before Gary could back the car in the spot.  But, we finally made it.

Ready to go see Santa!

Of course we went there on a Sunday forgetting that everyone was off on Monday, which would probably have been a better day because everyone else in Minnesota decided to visit Santaland on Sunday too.

Once we got to Santaland, they had que lines like you were at a Disney ride.  You’d walk into one room  and then you walk like a penguin and follow the family in front of you.  Up and down the lines till you get to another room.  Where you do the same thing.  Then you get to the actual Santaland!  Oh boy!  Almost there!  10 to 15 minutes, they say, and we’ll be at Santa.  So we walked thru Santaland 

 What??? Come on people, this is supposed to be for kids.  Quit trying to scare them with these scary elves!

Then I got a picture of Gary toting he new purse, he kind of look like he likes it, doesn’t he?

It’s a man bag, really it is.

We finally got thru Santaland and we thought we were very close to Santa, but turns out they had a Candyland at the end of the Santaland exhibit.  So, of course after waiting and walking like penguins for 3 hours, people were starting to get hungry and thirsty so we had to stop there and pick up a few treats.  Then we had to find the line for Santa again.  What?  Another back and forth que line?  Some parents left cause they didn’t want to stand in another line.  Well, we waited and after only another 30 minutes, victory was ours.

Who is that bearded man and his two little elves?

We got to see the bearded man.  The little fellow on the left got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas……2 screw drivers!  Hopefully he has been a good boy so he can get what he asked for.  So after only 4 hours, we finally got to talk to Santa.  I will say, for small little boys, they were both really good and didn’t whine at all.  I can’t say the same for the adults, especially Mema ;(. I think next year we might visit him at the mall.