Cocktail Sauce, Chili's, Child Labor, Christmas, 'Cats, and Competition

Today was a busy day.  This morning I took Joshua to soccer. On the way home we needed to pick up some cocktail sauce for the appetizer we needed for tonight.  Joshua enjoyed carrying it through the store.  He also enjoyed me foolishly letting him hold it in his car seat while we drove to our next stop.  It was closed and sealed, so I thought it would be fine.  But soon I smelled the pungent scent of cocktail sauce, and I knew I had a problem on my hands.  Well, not so much on my hands, but all over his car seat, which through the cleaning process ended up being on my hands I suppose.  We then went home, and since Clara and Hannah were still with Mom and Ron, Meghan and Joshua and I went to lunch at Chili's.  Joshua chowed down on some mac 'n cheese.

We still have some ice on our driveway, and since the weather was a little warmer today, I wanted to try to get rid of some of it while it was easier to scrape away before it refroze.  I used my snow shovel, and I invited Joshua out to use his new snow shovel that he got for Christmas.  He immediately went for the remaining snow pile in front of our house and went to work transferring snow randomly around the pile.

In the evening we went to Julie and Andrew's for Christmas with my Dad and Deb, my siblings, and our families.  Here Dad spends some quality time with the girls.


We had a really fun evening.  We had great food, and we all somehow managed to cram around a single table without feeling cramped.  Meghan then had to take the kids home to get them in bed, but I stayed to continue the festivities.  K-State's played in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl tonight, though it had a really late start.  Thanks to some technological workarounds, we were able to watch it on the TV, even though Julie and Andrew don't have cable.  K-State beat Michigan handily, capping a season that started poorly but ended quite well.  During and after that we played games, including a baseball trivia game and a fun game called TriBond.  We don't get to see Dad and Deb all that often, so it was really great to get to spend time with them, and it was all-around a really fun day.

Way Back Monday: Thanksgiving is the Best

This year we are staying here for Thanksgiving so I have my menu planned and will start doing food prep tomorrow and then Wednesday will be my big day of pre-cooking. I really love Thanksgiving and we have hosted it many times over the years and we have spent it at the home of other people at times as well. I enjoy hosting the most, though it is a lot of work. This is the first year that I can remember that it will just be us, though of course now that we are a family of five, we are pretty much a party all by ourselves. These pictures are from 2004, which is the second Thanksgiving we hosted.  We also hosted in our first year in our house in 2003 but somehow didn't get any pictures of ourselves.

Made-Up Games and Outdoor Movies

My dad was driving through town today on his way back to Minnesota and was able to stop by to see the kids (and, well, me and Meghan too, I suppose). One of the more fun games I play with Joshua is where he tries to throw a ball down the stairs to the basement while I try to defend against it. Joshua wanted to play this game with Dad, so they played several rounds of it, with my dad mostly successfully defending the goal. But every athletic endeavor carries some risk, and at one point while playing defense, he took a ball to the face.  But he shook it off and didn't need any time on the Disabled List and kept on defending.  After that, Joshua decided they should have a sword fight with the pool noodles (they are not actually used for the pool but were a car-ride activity for our trip to Florida).  Joshua thought all of this was super fun and laughed uproariously the whole time.  Even though it was a short visit, it was really fun and we made the most of the time we had.

Our neighborhood association does a good job of hosting different fun events. Today was a new event they hadn't done before, as they hosted a family movie night. It was held in the parking lot of our neighborhood pool with a large inflatable movie screen. The girls were still napping, so I took Joshua in our wagon.  They had s'mores available, so Joshua got to roast his own marshmallows, though he was a little intimidated but intrigued by the fire.  We ate the yummy treat, and then the movie started, which was It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  They also had freshly-popped popcorn, so Joshua chowed through a bag of it while watching the movie.  He hadn't really seen Peanuts before, so I tried to brief him ahead of time on Snoopy, Woodstock, and some other characters.  Incidentally, I later realized Woodstook (along with Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and probably others) hadn't been created at the time of that movie, so they aren't in it.  After another s'mores break, they started Hotel Transylvania, with the idea being to have one movie for littler kids and one for bigger kids.  It was dinnertime at that point, so Joshua and I skipped the second movie and headed home.  It was a fun event, and we'll probably try to do it next year, probably adding Clara to the mix.

Dining with Dad

My company has one of our roadshows tomorrow in Minneapolis.  I was arriving into town kind of late tonight, but I asked Dad if he and Deb might be available to meet for dinner.  Because of the logistics, it didn't work out for Deb, but Dad was able to pick me up from the airport.  We stopped by to see his new office, which I hadn't seen yet.  He's been growing his business and has needed to hire more financial advisors, requiring more offices, resulting in the need for larger office space. We then went to diner at Chevy's Fresh Mex, which used to have locations in Kansas City, but they all closed several years ago.  I like it quite a bit, so it was good to get to go there again, and it was great to be able to see my dad.

A Visit from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Deb

Dad and Deb have recently embarked on a tour of the Midwest, with stops to see kids and grandkids in Olathe and Houston and another stop in Kentucky to see friends.  Tonight they are staying at Julie and Andrew's, but they came over to our house for a couple hours in the evening.  While they were here, the kids had a great time with their Grandpa Jim and Grandma Deb.  The kids were a little subdued at first, but soon there was lots of laughing and lots of fun.  Unfortunately it was a short visit, but we will look forward to seeing them again around Christmas, if not sooner.  And if this visit was any indication, the kids are going to be extra excited to see their grandparents from the north the next time the opportunity arises.

Way Back Tuesday: The USS Missouri

Since Jason and I are getting ready to leave to go on a vacation to San Diego, I was thinking about other fun trips we have taken and I remembered the first time we went to Hawaii with Jim in 2005. Jason and I spent about a week in Maui together, which remains one of the top trips ever. Maui has so much natural beauty, but is also developed enough to be fun and safe and it has mountains, beaches, and a lot in between. We had a wonderful time. And then we met Jim, Julie, and Joanna in Honolulu. The congestion of Waikiki didn't hold a candle to Maui, but one thing that was absolutely incredible was seeing the Pearl Harbor memorial and the USS Missouri museum. This was something I wasn't sure I would enjoy because I am not exactly military history girl, but Jim really wanted to do it, and we weren't going to say no since he was so nice to take us on the trip. In the end, I was so glad he suggested it because it was really great and I am not sure we would have done it if he hadn't. I did decide to wear a skirt on a super windy battleship, which was not my best decision ever, but other than that, the day was awesome and it was so interesting, yet also a very solemn memorial. This was absolutely the highlight of our time in Honolulu and it was fun time that we all spent together.

Eating With Minnesotans

My sales territory changes periodically.  I mentioned recently how I am losing Illinois and Ohio (except for a couple accounts) and the surrounding states, but in exchange for that I now have Minnesota as well as some midwest states.  The new sales rep, Jay, started in Minnesota last month, and he's now getting up to speed, so we are now going on meetings together.  I was excited about this not only because I think Minnesota is a good territory to have, but also because I have friends and family in Minnesota.  I haven't had Minnesota as my territory in a few years, although I did get to travel there two years ago and was able to take advantage of it by meeting Dad and Deb for dinner.  Now that I'll be going there occasionally again, I hope to be able to do that more often.  Tonight was the first opportunity to do that, so we met at a restaurant called El Rodeo in Maple Grove.  The service was a bit lacking, but the food was good.  I like spicy foods, and Dad does too, but he met his match tonight as he asked for extra hot salsa on his burrito and for his chips.  Midway through the meal he was literally sweating and had to frequently mop the sweat off his face.  I was impressed by his bravery, but I think next time he'll probably just stick with the regular salsa.