It's a Christmas Miracle

I know I have been to Minnesota before. In fact, I did live there for ten or six years, depending on how you count them. But for some reason I was completely enamored with all the winter wonderland that was Minnesota this Christmas. It was so beautiful.

It was also really great to get to see my family again. I hadn't been up there since August of 2007 which is a really long time for me. Staying again with my brother and sister-in-law, a.k.a. disneyland, wasn't a bad deal either. I felt like a celebrity driving around in my brother's cadillac complete with a working radio and heated leather seats. Plus they have a really cute house on the lake that was totally frozen over. Matt and Shannon each took me out on their snowmobiles and we went all over Coon Lake, on the trails on Viking Drive and way back on the trails though the woods. I thought it was amazingly fast and cool with the scenery seemingly flying by, well, until Matt informed me that we were actually going about as slow as molasses. What the?!?! 

You also can't spend time with the fam without including hockey of some kind. I think because Matt and I grew up partially in Nebraska, the hockey blood doesn't really run through our veins, but it's fun to watch and yell things like "my cousin Jack is my hero," which, he really is. That dude can skate. He scored once and got an assist for the Pioneers, which I think is like the best high school hockey team in the state. This all made my six year old cousin Luke REALLY mad though because he was cheering the whole time for the other team. Loudly. Even though he was sitting in our section. Next to me. With a bright orange Bears hat he liked to take off and swing around.

I'm also a huge fan now of Guitar Hero, and can play a mean "Welcome to the Jungle" on medium speed. You know, we all have our gifts.

Now on to the Christmas miracle. My sister-in-law Shannon had planned this dinner on Christmas Day evening for me and Matt and her so we could spend time with her cousins. Honestly, we weren't too stoked about it, and we weren't too shy about letting her know. I mean, we already were going to a breakfast and a lunch at other family's house, so it was seemingly a bit too much. But we humored her. On the way back home Matt and I were going on and on about our dad and how it was fun to see him but that it's ok that we don't see him at Christmas. We pulled up to the house and there was a Honda Civic with a Nebraska license plate. I commented on this being similar to Papa's car, but didn't think anything of it. Matt said it was weird that the car had a number 4 on it because my dad always numbers his company's cars. And just then he stepped out, looking just like Indiana Jones as he always does lately in the winter. NO FREAKING WAY. Shannon called him a week earlier and invited him to come. So, no cousins, but my own father! Now why didn't we ever think of that? We had a really nice dinner, thanks to her, with my dad and taught him guitar hero, topping off the night with a few rounds of Hearts and 500. And of course, plenty of popcorn. He went back the next day after taking us out to breakfast (I actually had lunch for breakfast, as usual).

I am hardly ever really surprised, so that was something else. A Christmas miracle, I would say!

Here is Matt and Shannon and I saying goodbye to Papa!