HOLIDAY CATCH UP

Our holidays were wonderful! Aimee arrived Thursday morning and Erik came that evening. We spent time doing that last minute shopping for all those people who had nothing on their shopping lists! Actually we did quite good coming up with the "perfect" gifts. Saturday afternoon Aimee and I went to Ellie's theatre production of "The Best Christmas Pageant". We previously went on opening night (the day after Thanksgiving and the day her sister was born!) so it was fun to see it a second time. I was so blown away by the caliber of this community theatre production. It was GREAT and, of course, Ellie was the cutest baby angel on that stage! That evening Erik, Aimee and I went to see Sweeney Todd. Not sure I liked the movie, but I did like the performances of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

Sunday Aimee babysat for Sophie in the afternoon. It snowed mountains during the day and the roads were horrible. I had tickets for Vikings/Redskins game that night and I wasn't going to waste them. Erik and I left VERY early and made our way downtown to the Metrodome. It was tough walking from the parking lot to the Dome because a lot of the sidewalks hadn't been cleaned yet and there was ice under all the snow. By the time we got to the Dome, I was actually winded and my thighs were aching. They had swept the snow off the ramps around the Dome, but there was still ice. We saw a guy laying on the ramp before us and security came rushing over. The guy had slipped on the ice and hit his head. We walked slowly and tenderly around the man and the security guard and I proceeded to slip on the ice myself. Fortunately I fell on my side and didn't get hurt. Erik helped me up and then he almost fell. That concerned me because he had knee surgery a year ago and I didn't want him screwing up the knee again. We continued walking to our gate holding onto the chain link fence. When I got to the gate I told security that they needed to get something on that ice or people were going to get seriously injured. I could just see all the drunks trying to walk on that. Unfortunately my Vikings lost...boo hoo.

Christmas Eve we packed up the cars with all the gifts for Tony, Darcy, Ellie and Sophie and headed to their house. They usually come here on Christmas Eve, but this year we decided to go there so they didn't have to take Sophie out. It was great! I brought the traditional meal of lasagne with me. After we ate it was on to gift opening. Ellie and Sophie made out like bandits! Since Aimee works on the Disney Shopping and Disney Store websites, she was able to gets lots and lots of items at their sample sale so Ellie truly had a High School Musical Christmas. I think she got EVERY HSM musical item on the site!

We gave Ellie the High School Musical video game. At first she didn't understand what it was, but when she saw the microphone and realize she could sing all the songs karaokee style, she was all over it! She's such a competitor....only A+ was good enough! One of the best performances was when she and her Auntie Aimee shared the microphone!

Then it was on to some Wii!! Ellie played a wicked game of tennis and almost beat everyone bowling. Boxing kind of did her in, but she had fun!

I had to get a family photo! Tony, Darcy, Ellie and Sophie on Christmas Eve.

Yesterday was Chuck's birthday and today is Darcy's birthday. We celebrated last night by going to Famous Dave's for their fabulous feast. I got to spend lots of time cuddling Sophie. I can't believe how big she is getting and how she is filling out. She's 6 weeks old already!
We also went to the Science Museum of Minnesota after dinner last night to see the Pompeii exhibit. I have always been very interested in Pompeii and seeing the exhibit was fantastic. They have 3 of the original body casts which were very moving. I so enjoyed seeing the foods, paintings, mosiacs, etc. It must have been a marvelous city before it was destroyed.