Christmas lights and other holiday shots

Trees and close ups of snow take the cake in this little entry. For good measure I scattered in a shot of snowshoe tracks in concentric circles around a tree, a very pine-y shot, and the obligatory "selves" portrait of my girl and me.

Melissa's first snowshoeing adventure

Melissa has been staying with us for the past week. Today we took her out for some snowshoeing around Brian's parents and grandparents houses. She got the hang of it pretty quickly and I think she enjoyed it.

We found some big icicles.

Afterwords, we tried out walking in the snow without the snowshoes. A little harder to do.

Our tree

I know that our Christmas tree was dead when we cut it down, but after forgetting to chop the bottom off when we got home with it, it was REALLY dead by the time we took it down a week before Christmas! Notice all the bare branches!

If you missed it on Facebook...

We had quite the blizz come through town this weekend. This opening shot is in the middle of the storm. You can't even see the end of the block from the apartment.


The path leading home.




My mode of transportation on the lake.

Prius? Nope, just areo-dynamic drifts like a prius.



The storm started with rain and ice. This shot below is cracked ice over a layer of snow and then blown clean of the 15 odd inches of snow that came after. Every step you take makes a crackle.


These "frosted flakes" are some of the biggest I've seen. Some are more than an inch and a half long.










It's amazing what a circular polarizer can do to pop atmospheric colors. "Blue and berries" is a great example.

Brian buys flowers for the third time

Yes folks it's true, I have bought my wife flowers. What sort of momentous occasion could bring me to spend money on a dying plant that you can't eat?
Kate has spent many years working up to this point where she has been granted tenure and is now an Associate Professor!
Not only did I get flowers, but the "holiday greens" around the bouquet were from Oregon, where it all started at Linfield College. And to mark the ending point in this chapter the container is wrapped in local birch bark.
Even part of ME is a little sad that MN is our home for good. An adventure to live in another part of the country could have been fun. There is however, comfort in knowing there will continue to be a fulfilling and meaningful career for Kate. Not to mention a paycheck!

Creative Night

We both had a creative night...

Kate in the kitchen...squash soup made from squash and onions from Brian's dad's garden, baked potatoes (also from the Knutson garden), left over pesto tortellini, and bread.

Brian in the bedroom...building a plant stand for the south-facing window.

Thanksgiving on Saturday

We had the Knutson Thanksgiving on Saturday this year do to our crazy schedules. It was great as usual and I'm sure we ate too much. Kate and I had to get back Saturday night, but that was okay. We took back a tree that dad helped us pick out. When we got home we cranked up the Christmas music and lit some candles and started decorating the tree. We don't have a fireplace, but we do have a TV on which we played a video of a crackling fire in a fire place. Nice!

November update

Sorry for the long stretch between posts! It's been a busy November and, somehow, updating the blog is always the last thing on the list. So here a a few highlights from the past few weeks...

The neighbors across the lake tried to set their yard on fire. Luckily, the Kasota fire department moves quickly and they had this one under control in no time!
The days are much shorter now, but we've still got some beautiful sunsets out there...you just have to be there at 4:30!

Brian and I both had a weekend off (well, my work was portable), so we packed up and headed over to Rochester last weekend. We got to spend some quality time with family and friends. Here are a few fun shots from the weekend...
While we were in Rochester, we missed a huge storm in St. Peter that dumped about 8 inches of snow. We got home on Sunday and headed out to the cabin to dig out. Thank goodness for the snow blower!

Brian is busy getting the day after Thanksgiving sale stuff ready to go at Menards. I've been busy with lots of grading and planning for our trip to Hawaii in January. My tenure stuff is also moving along and I learned I should find out the answer on December 10. I'll keep you posted.