Jane and Terry hosted a Melhorn gathering on Christmas Eve.  Pictured here are Holly, Melissa, and Annie.  Annie also sends this photo of weird Bemidji snow..  the little loop of snow that is hanging from the deck?  Nothing is holding it up…  I have an explanation formed in my head but don’t feel the need to share it…

My friend Anne sent this photo of her granddaughter Liliana who is 3 1/2 already!  She also sends this photo of her son Tim who is now a student in the Le Cordon Bleu Program at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute in Chicago. Tim worked at the Great American Grill and at Le Bistro before attending school.

Yesterday Donna and family visited in Cook.  Pictured here are Jason, Robin, Dad and Ryan.  Jason just returned from a business trip to Edinburgh, Scotland.  While there he bought his beautiful bride a lovely souvenir…  this lovely Tartan wrap…  it is made of the most beautiful soft wool.  I will provide more detail when I hear back from Robin on the specifics of the fabric.  I tried to do a search for it but there are 2371 different Tartan names with variations on each name… 

Glen sent this photo of himself with Emily taken Christmas morning after he got home from work.

He also sent this photo of a bald eagle that showed up in answer to his distressed rabbit call while coyote hunting recently.

Sara and Aaron are inspecting the details of gifts they have just opened..

as are Justin, Ryan and Kelly on Christmas morn.

I spent a very lovely afternoon filled with good stories and laughter at the Hickoks.  Robin and Jason are visiting from Kentucky/New Jersey; Jay and Andrea and Ryan and Rachel, all from The Cities for a few days.  Donna and Harvey were delighted to be surrounded by their loved ones.

I checked my Woot gadget at 12:30 this morning and they had already sold out 4500 bags of crap…   damn!!!!

My first stop was at Dad and Shirley’s.  Tom and Lisa stopped over after sending off all of the kids on snowmobiles.

Dad and I stopped in at Siggie’s where the Kontio clan was gathered to celebrate.

Jesse and son Alex are pictured here with Mom and Grandma Sue Porter.  I think Alex was pretty wound up and looking forward to opening some gifts.  He is 5.

Tom and Lisa’s brood is preparing for their ride.. a good day to ride after 10 inches of snow.

And here they are back at the Subway still all in one piece.  Ryan spent 10 hours on the road yesterday driving from Houghton, Michigan where he attends Michigan Tech.  Aaron, Kelly and Sara’s drive from The Cities took over five hours.  Justin just had to make it from church to home and he did that okay too.