Merry Christmas!

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And everyone went to his own town to register.  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.  - Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)

Such a short, quick story of the birth of such an important baby.  For as much fanfare and preparation as we give the anniversary of this story today, this version seems almost disappointing.  In the process of taking a census, it was time for Mary to give birth.  So she did.  Wow!  Riveting stuff!!  Clearly there is much more to this, regardless of how the actual birth is depicted in the bible.  There later was a little more fanfare by way of the angels coming to the shepherds and the Wise Men making their way to see this spectacle, but the birth itself as it's stated here seems a little underwhelming.  Perhaps that is because the birth, while a key chapter in the story of Jesus, is a far cry from the climactic ending. 

We need to look at the birth of Jesus with Easter in mind.  Jesus was born destined to die on the cross for our sins.  In doing both (being born and dying), he was and still is Immanuel "God with us".  Jesus came to all so we could be saved and have the opportunity to live for eternity with God.  We just have to accept him with a humble heart.  This Christmas, look toward Easter for the true reason for Jesus' birth and ponder the opportunity God presents to us.  As you open all your other gifts this Christmas, have you accepted and opened the one God has given you?  Perhaps you've just taken the box off...  Perhaps you've torn open a corner to take a peak...  Go ahead and grab it FIRST and rip into it!!  It's just your size and was meant just for you!      

Such a tiny offering,
compared to Calvary...
-Mercy Me

No white Christmas where you are? Come here, we got you "covered"

1" - 3".  That is what the weather dude said we were supposed to get last night.  My butt... 

This isn't 1" - 3".  It's nearly 6"!!

And remember that pink stick that was in the yard?  It's still there, but you can't see it anymore!  It's buried somewhere in here:

Whosever stick it is will have to dig it out.  NOT MY PROBLEM!  Unless it's fire hydrant on my property, I'm not digging it out... 

Like I said, if you don't have a white Christmas where you are at, rest assured we've got enough for everyone! 

UPDATE:  With last night's snowfall, this has been the snowiest December on record for Minneapolis/St. Paul.  The old record was 33.2" in 1969.  So far, we have 33.4".  And the month is not done yet.  Weather models are hinting at a New Year's Eve storm, but that is too far off to definitively predict yet.

Good thing Santa wasn't crawling around up there...

Take one Teflon coated fiberglass roof and put 17 inches of snow on top of it and what do you get?  You get a MetroDish instead of a MetroDome.  And a Vikings game that gets moved to Detroit!

Check out the video:
Metrodome Roof Collapses

Other pictures:
Pictures of the MetroDish

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Blow

This is what I got to do at 7:30 this morning.  What were YOU doing?  You will notice that the height of the drift is taller than the top of the front of the snowblower.  Even with a snow blower, it was tough moving this amount of snow because it had been so packed by the wind.  Still, I'm glad I didn't have to hand shovel it!

The drifts in the pictures looked so much taller when I was blowing through them.  They look wimpy here.  They were not...

Local Snow Totals

Shakopee:  21.5"

Red Wing:  20"

Lakeville:  17.4"

St. Louis Park:  15.2" 

Minneapolis (Airport): 17.1"

St. Louis Park is the closest to where we are, so we'll go with 15" at our place.  Tough to tell with 35mph winds whipping it around.  Now for the cold...

More snow!

It started snowing yesterday around noon and finished up sometime overnight.  Unlike the last snowfall that was wet and slushy, this snow has very little water in it.  Looks like 5 1/4" based on this ruler.  Now the cold will set in.  Low temps by Tuesday morning are expected to be below zero...

Kelli - do you still just have puddles of snow?  I'm sorry if you do...  The sledding hill is no doubt very busy today.

The Mysterious Pink Stick Update

Well, it appears we are NOT the lone pink stick in our neighborhood.  This morning we left the to go out for breakfast and went a different way out of the neighborhood than the way we go to work.  There are a few more sticks in various yards down the street- mainly on corner lots...  Still not sure what they are for, but we are not the only ones...  The mystery deepens!

The Mysterious Pink Stick

We came home from work yesterday to find this pink stick staked in the ground outside the front of our house - about 5 foot in from the curb:

None of our neighbors seem to be lucky enough to have a similar stick in their yard!  So, I called the city today to see if they could help solve the mystery.  I didn't find much in the way of specifics, but I was told that the color pink (as it relates to mysterious sticks appearing in your yard) typically indicates a "temporary site survey".  City Clerk/Sister Diane, can you perhaps confirm???  Like I said, I don't see any other mysterious pink sticks around.  Perhaps someone is going to build us a new house?  Hopefully, they let us know before they demolish the current one...

Pictures of us!

Last month we met Jennifer Swanson for a photo shoot.  She was looking for some victims, er...  test subjects to begin building her photography business.  For those of you who don't know, Jennifer is my sister-in-law's sister.  She took a BUNCH of photos and the link below is to the ones that turned out the best.  You will need Adobe Flash Player version 10 in order to view them.  Check them out!  And check out Jennifer's blog for prices for your own photo shoot.  We think she did a GREAT job!

View the entire album

Check out Jennifer's Blog

Frito-Lay Trashes Compostable Bags

Praise God the revolt worked.  Anyone who likes Sun Chips as much as we do knows that after Frito-Lay switched their bags to be 100% compostable, one really annoying feature came through loud and clear.  The bags are super-annoyingly, off-the-decibel chart LOUD!!!  If you are headed for a midnight snack, you best bypass the Sun Chips bag because you'll have the whole neighborhood up!  Apparently, enough people complained and stopped buying the product that they are trashing the compostable bag for now.  The picture is of our favorite variety (Garden Salsa) 

Click here to read the article.

The Carpet is Here! The Carpet is Here!

The carpet installers came Monday morning at 9am and were done about 4pm.  Everything went smoothly (and with little damage to the walls - just a couple places to touch up).  Below are pictures of the carpet and the space now!

Tuftex Carpet by Shaw.  Color:  Brown Derby

Desk Corner.  The bottom drawers in the desk went back to the cabinet maker to be modified.  They are too low now - they drag on the carpet.

Fireplace & TV corner

Game Table Corner

Walk Up Bar

Hallway

Stairs