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.