Christmas 2019: MN > VA

Christmas 2019 was with Sara's family in Buffalo, MN. The plane ride was uneventful, except the fact that Julia talked the entire time. On the way home, she didn't even use her iPad.

Days 1-4

We stayed at the Martin's farmhouse so we got to unplug for a couple days.

  

Doug found a place to work in Minneapolis ... that was 3 blocks from the Packers - Vikings Monday Night Football game. The view from the office looked at the baseball field.

We did a lot of ice skating on Buffalo Lake. Luckily Uncle Corey's skates fit and saved Doug's opinion of Aunt Anna. The kids found free rentals at the skate shack. The kids 'skated' over to some people who were ice fishing. After skating we climbed a snow-plow mountain.

  

We got quality time with Claire, Cecilia, and Lydia.

  

Days 5-6: Christmas Eve and Christmas

All the cousins arrived along with Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate Christmas. RJ played football and pool with the boys, while Julia got her nails done and played with the girls.

  

Next Santa arrived. Julia noticed that Uncle Corey was the only person not in the room.

  

Day 6 1/2: Christmas in McLean

To save money and avoid hassles, we flew home on Christmas Day. Turns out that everybody else had the same idea ... airports were packed ... unlike Doug's trip to Cleveland 12 years ago. Once in McLean, we opened gifts and ate dinner with Aunt Debbie and Granddad. Highlights included Sara's Saturn V Lego rocket, a massive bean bag chair, Judy (Abby's twin) with a double stroller, hockey sticks for RJ and Doug, and an automatic nerf gun. RJ also got some Dog Man books ... which he read in the bean bag with the nerf gun ready for protection.

    

Kenmore Elite Appliances - Junk

After the refrigerator nightmare, the Kenmore Elite (LG underneath) dishwasher decided to flood the kitchen. The problem was a 10 cent gasket that LG probably saved 2 cents per washer by using cheap materials.

Sara helped diagnose the problem the day before our trip to Minnesota. Turns out it was a half-inch seal (WPW10195677) that surrounds the diverter motor. When we returned, I bought a part from a guy in Stirling VA who said "Yeah, the washers that come with them are cheap and are not really the right size, they leak all the time." Great. Now we have a new washer, a working dishwasher, and a warped kitchen floor. Thanks Sears and LG.

  

Trains in 2019, O-Gauge

We setup the o-gauge trains this year. The layout featured:

• a large hole in the middle so kids could setup and play with Legos
• Adruino devices to sense light, run the signal block, and control lights with a cell phone
• A fancy switching configuration

RJ and Bradley built a lot of forts and we had some folks over for viewing.

  
Attaching cell phone to the NY Central for a spin around the layout.

US Botanic Gardens

Our friends Larry and Susan welcome us to see the trains at the US Botanic Gardens each year. This year we went on a Sunday so we had a bit of an early curfew. The trains were cool ... but I didn't take any pictures. I did; however, get a picture of RJ sitting in front of a bunch of poinsettia plants.

Ski House at Whitetail

On Dec 6 we closed on our ski house at Whitetail resort. Our first two weekends consisted of a lot of cleaning and some repairs, but we had some fun too!

On the first day we hiked up the mountain. On the first night they started making snow ...

The next weekend, the green slope in front of our house had about 18 inches of snow in spots ... perfect for snowballs and sledding.

  

After the first weekend, we successfully got the place ready by ...

• Removing 10 years of grease and grime from the kitchen.
• Setting up TVs and Internet - first Roku experience
• Repairing toilet that wouldn't stop running
• Replacing 10 light bulbs
• Attaching lights to actual switches
• Replacing front door lock with programmable keypad
• Adding floor mat to ski closet
• Caulking bathrooms
• Cleaning up after the kids

Happy Birthday Doug from VA DMV

My driver's license expired on my birthday. This is standard operating procedure. Plan 1 was to renew my license during a 1/2 day off a month ago - but the two hour wait prevented it. Plan 2 was to renew my license the Friday after Thanksgiving - but the DMV was closed. Plan 3 was to renew my license the Saturday after Thanksgiving - but the DMV was closed. Plan 4 was to arrive before the DMV opened on Dec 2 - but 5 minutes before opening there was already a 1 hour wait and I had to take the kids to the dentist in 1 hour.

Plan Desperate was to go to the DMV after the dentist appointment and get to parent/teacher conferences by 12:15pm. As you can see from the check in time on the ticket below, this was cutting it close.

There was 20 people ahead of us. The kids were hungry, so we decided to go to Subway for a 10:30am lunch. There was no parking at the first Subway, so I parked in a a reserved spot. After spotting a tow truck who was towing cars, we decided to go to the Subway at my old office. With some poking a prodding, we ate lunch and got back to the DMV by 11:05am to discover that the parking lot was full. So we waited for a spot to open up.

At 11:10am, we walked in. At 11:11am, they called my number. WHEW!

After saying hi to Melissa Gray, we scurried over to the book fair/parent teacher conferences - and made it with 10 minutes to spare. Double WHEW!

P.S. Shout out to all the DMV people who were very friendly.

Holiday Preparation and Electricity

Christmas preparations began early this year ... outdoor lights setup before Thanksgiving ... but most of the work was done during the long Thanksgiving Day weekend.

Neighbors came over to help make cookies and assemble gingerbread houses. Frosting got everywhere ... including on one chef's face.

  

Trimming the Christmas Tree was next.

Electricity and The Light

Pictured below is a light that was either stepped on or otherwise broken. Notice that this is an older incandescent variety bulb.

First Victim: Sara sliced her finger on the glass that was broken around the bulb.

Second Victim: RJ was determined to help by getting the bulb out of the socket. He did this while the lights were plugged in. Turns out that 110V with 15amps was ready to begin flowing through the broken filaments when a circuit was completed. This left two pin hole burn marks on RJ's fingers. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the burn marks because they were healed by the next morning.

Thanksgiving 2019

The BCC was full, so Aunt Rita used the backup plan ... the Annapolis Yacht Club. The backup plan was good because we got to see lots for sale in Sherwood and visit the McDonalds before 'dinner'. The yacht club had many more food options ... delicious!

After dinner we went to Baltimore to hang out with Aunt Debbie and celebrate Granddad's birthday. The next day Sara did some Black Friday shopping while the kids and I got some more dirt for the garden. We were supposed to hang Christmas lights, but we couldn't find them.

Julia Starts Skating

While Mom was out of town, we had a packed schedule:

• 10:10am - 10:40am Swim lesson for Julia
• 11:30am - 1:30pm Bronwyn's Birthday party at Medstar Capitals Iceplex
• 1:40pm - whenever RJ playdate with Bradley
• 2:00pm - 3:30pm Grace's Birthday Party

Julia's first time on skates

Julia took a more cautious approach than RJ ... she fell a lot less and moved a lot slower. After 20 minutes she was skating on her own.

Public Skate

Julia had enough fun that she wanted to go skating again. So a week later, while RJ played hockey, we skated on the other rink. Sara took a video (from far away).

Muffler Gone Bad

The muffler on the new wood chipper has been reduced to a heap of metal, so I decided it was time to replace it.

As luck would have it, the bolt that holds the muffler in place sheered off, so installing a new one was impossible ... unless you took apart the entire chipper and drilled the old bolt out.

So that is what I did ... and it only took 2 hours to get the impeller off the motor shaft. This task involved spraying a lot of WD-40 into the removed screw hole, heating the impeller, and pulling with all my might with 2 pry bars. Finally I read somewhere that the impeller is designed to tighten as the motor spins, so I hammered the impeller in the opposite direction or normal motion while holding the motor in place by putting tension on the starter cord. Luckily it came loose without breaking the starter cord. You would have thought that 1 of the 50 videos/blogs/forums on the internet would have explained this.

I started by purchasing a bolt/screw removal kit from Home Depot. The 'all-in-one' kit didn't do a good job drilling, so I had to use another drill bit for that. But the extractor worked like a charm once I had the hole drilled.

After using every tool in the house (impact wrench, variety of wrenches, pliers, air compressor, etc.), I was able to install a new $70 muffler for the Briggs and Stratton 1450 series engine that I obtained from EBay.

Halloween 2019 - Unicorn and Ghost

On Halloween night, Julia was a splendid unicorn and RJ was scary ghost. Together they accumulated about 10 pounds of candy.

  

Doug's attempt to dress up as Cloud ERP software was probably the scariest thing on Halloween.

St. Agnes had a super Halloween celebration. The kids dressed up, played games, and ran through the haunted house. RJ ran through the haunted house about 10 times - glad I wasn't volunteering.

  

Halloween Prep - Carving Pumpkins

The scariest thing this Halloween is the fact that the kids got their hands on knives in order to carve their own pumpkins.

  

Yes, Julia is dressed as a Miami cheerleader at the end of October ... but she is going to be a unicorn for Halloween.

Hockey Season 2

RJ enjoyed the spring season so much that we are playing again in the winter of 2019-20. This time we are on the light blue team.

The team had picture day. We didn't go for the $40 glamour shots ... but I got a couple of pictures from the back with my so-so phone camera in low light.

  

RJ always rushes to center ice in order to take the face off. Given the effort, I guess taking the face off must be a lot of fun.

11 Year Anniversary

To celebrate our 11 year anniversary, we stayed home with RJ who had a bout of intestinal blockage.

The next day we made up for it by taking pictures and expanding the garden.

  

Garden Plus 8 Feet

Everybody pitched in moving rocks, tilling, and digging to add an additional 33% to the garden. Next spring we have 24 ' x 12' to work with.

  

Free Trip to Russia

Part of my job involves travelling to Russia. I work from 8:30am - 9:30pm. Somebody likened it to a Russian Gulag. On the positive side of things, I do get to visit exciting places like the road in front of the Russian office building.

The 9.5 hour flight is super fun. On the return trip I get to tack on 3-4 hours in New York at the JFK airport. I did happen to look out the window as I was flying over Norway on the return trip.

Day in Delaware

NDSU vs University of Delaware

How often does the North Dakota State University play football within driving distance of Washington DC? Not too often. So we drove up to Delaware so Sara and RJ could watch the national champs.

 

Longwood Gardens

Thinking that Julia would not last through 2-3 hours of tailgating plus 4 quarters of football, Doug met up with ex-college roommate Shawn and his wife Rosemary. They bought the kids gifts, took us to Longwood Gardens, AND bought us lunch. THANKS!!!!!!

Julia liked the tree houses and the fountain show ... but her favorite was the water exhibits that you could play in.