Advent

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we got the tree up.

Clara seemed to be having an off day at school a while back and I had some cookie dough in the freezer that I thawed out for her to bake a few cookies with when she got off the bus. 

Nothing a little cozy reading by the Christmas tree can't fix....well, and the cookies.

Tessa, Elise and I road tripped down to visit Shelly. My head is covering up poor Lester. The staff at the nursing home set this all up for us to be able to eat lunch together. It was so good to see her and Lester.

Elise played a couple songs on the piano. 

While I was in South Dakota, Hubert had planned on touring UND and asked Brynn to come along. She really enjoyed touring the campus and they are both pretty interested in possibly attending.

Dana sent me this pic of them playing Nerts while I was on my way back home.

Brynn and Hubert put together a slide show of their relationship thus far. I thoroughly enjoyed their presentation.

Hubert and his fancy hot cocoa and festive Grinch sweatshirt. (We were about to play more Nerts that night.)

Clara and I made it out on our holiday lights walking tour through the nearby neighborhood. There were some pretty good displays!

Dana and I had a date night which started at Brewhalla/Drekker Brewing.

We ate dinner at No Bull Smokehouse which is always great. 

At Blarney downtown for our fav dessert.

Last stop was the Gastropub where I realized I still had some game at shuffleboard! 

Some of Clara's recent artwork.

Hubert and Brynn went skating at The Lights in West Fargo with another couple they're friends with.

Still and always my baby!

Mom and Dad came for a holiday baking afternoon this past Saturday. We made spritz, peanut butter blossom and raspberry ribbon cookies and krumkake. It all turned out so good!

Grandma is anti-stand mixer, so Clara had to get her muscles going. Haha.

Thankfully we had a taste tester show up.

This past Sunday Clara's Sunday school class sang in church. They did so well and sounded great.

We barely got any snow during a recent storm over the weekend, but it was still enough to pull a sled behind the four wheeler. I think Hubert had the most fun. :-)