The Bisek family got together for lasagna on New Year’s Eve. We had a blast!

I had breakfast with the Stayers.

And dinner at Olive Garden and Kiwanis lights with Nancy, Danielle and the family.

Eric missed all the fun because the poor guy was sick.

 I hosted Christmas Eve Dinner at our house. DJ, Allista and Bailey came over for Ham, Cheesy Potatoes and pie. I was feeling awful. I started feeling sick on Friday (12/22). I struggled through tamales and Sever's lights on Saturday (12/23).  So for Christmas Eve I started the food and then crashed on the couch the rest of the day. Reba and Finn were waiting patiently for dinner.  The rest of them played games all night. I capped off the evening with marathon of Sister Wives.  Christmas Day I was feeling better but Eric was hit with the sickness. We went to Christmas Mass and then I went to New Ulm to spend the day with Danielle and her in-laws. I had a blast. The food was great and we played cards for hours. I had a great day.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here is hoping you had a great 2023.  We had some fun times this year and here are some highlights.

In late February, we visited the Ice Castles with Danielle’s family and Nancy. The weather wasn’t too cold, and the ice castles were amazing. It helped to get us out of the late winter slump.

We attended several Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Loons (soccer) games this year with family and friends. We had some unique experiences including on field access to Twins players’ batting practice and on field access holding the Loons’ banner during the national anthem.

Our godchild, Carmen, celebrated her First Communion in early May. Eric’s niece, Banyan, graduated from high school in the middle of May. We traveled to Omaha for a lovely tea party to celebrate.

Also, in May we drove to Montana to run the Queen Bee Half Marathon. This was state #29. It was brutally hot with wildfires in the vicinity. Eric’s brother Phil joined us for the race. We made a mini vacation out of the trip by stopping at Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the way out and Pompey’s Pillar National Monument and the North Dakota State Capitol on the way back.

For Memorial Day we made a quick trip to Chicago for a baseball doubleheader. We saw the Cubs at Wrigley Field for a day game and the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field for a night game.

June was a very busy month. It started with Adrian visiting from Brazil. The first couple weeks were a whirlwind with Anna’s graduation activities. She was part of the largest graduation class in Shakopee history with almost 700 kids.  We had a lot of Eric’s family from out-of-town visit during the week leading up to the party. It was fun to do activities with them, including kayaking, hiking, grilling and a Twins Baseball game. We capped the busy week with a nice grad party.

We went to Milwaukee in July for the Annual Race to Cure Sarcoma 5K Run in honor of Dylan. Melissa hosted a nice after party at her house. We also took our great nephew, Blake to his first Brewer’s game.   At the end of July, we had all the family over for a July birthday celebration. Eric, Caio, Anna, Alec and Celeste have late July (or early August) birthdays. Danielle’s family camped in a tent in our back yard, so we had s’mores by the campfire that night. The next day we went to Valleyfair. It was a fun weekend.

We helped Anna move into her dorm at MSU-Mankato in August. It seems like she really enjoys college life. The next day Eric, DJ and I flew out to Vegas and met up with Eric’s sister, Tracie for a long drive to Spring Creek, NV. Eric’s niece, Heather got married in a nice outdoor ceremony. There was a good turnout of Williams family at the event. We stopped at the Valley of the Fire State Park on our way up. It was a very long, desolate drive.

To celebrate our 20th Anniversary, we went on a big trip out west. We started in Pocatello, ID for a half marathon race in state #30. Phil joined us for this race too and he brought his two boys along for the ride. After the race, we started our weeklong trip around Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. We saw Craters of the Moon National Monument, went rafting down the Boise River, toured the Idaho and Utah State Capitols, drove out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, and the highlight of the trip was seeing the night sky at Great Basin National Park. It was an amazing sight.

Caio moved back to his college apartment in September, so Eric and I are getting use to our alone time again. We are really enjoying it! :)  

This fall, Eric’s niece, Allista and her husband Bailey moved to the Twins Cities from Montana! We helped them move some items and we didn’t give them a chance to settle in as we dragged them to a corn maze the first weekend. We also got to meet our newest great niece, Brynne. Abbie had her in October. She is so cute and such little peanut.

Last weekend we went to Denver to see Eric’s niece, Katiana graduate from the Police Academy. It was a nice ceremony. They showed a video of their training and all I can say is OUCH. Pepper spray, tasering and being attacked by K9 dogs. Yikes!

Hope you have a wonderful Holiday season and a great 2024.

Eric, Kim and Company

Tamales & Sever's Holiday Lights

Celeste came over to teach us how to make tamales. This was Linda's idea. She wanted to learn how to make them. It was a lot of fun and they tasted really good. I'm not a huge tamale fan but these were delicious. Allista and Bailey came over too. We made approximately 50 savory and 50 sweet ones. We have a lot of tamales!

After that we went to check out Sever's holiday lights. It was bit expensive but done really well.

On Saturday, we went to the Dittner Family Christmas party in Eau Claire. It was nice to see my cousins after missing last year's party. The food was great and we played a fun game called Blank Slate. I won the first round. 

After the party, we headed down to Arcadia to see Alec in the high school's performance of Footloose. It was pretty good considering they are high schoolers. I had to keep reminding myself they weren't professionals like at Chanhassen Dinner Theatre. Overall it was good.  

We had to rush back home on Sunday to take Anna and Caio to the airport. 

Last night we took Allista and Bailey to the Mankato Kiwanis Holiday Lights. It was so warm, temps in the upper 40s and no rain or snow. It is the warmest time we have visited. Normally it is freaking cold! I'm happy to report we didn't get rear-ended this year either.  

We flew out to Denver last weekend to attend Katiana's Police Academy Graduation. It was a very nice ceremony. We got to see them sworn in too. They showed a video of the training and there is no way I could do it. They got tased, pepper sprayed and attacked by dogs!

When I took my contacts out on Tuesday, I had an intense burning sensation in both eyes and they were bright red. Oh no. The next morning I had the tell tale sign of crusty eyes. CRAP!  I went the clinic at Hy-vee and she confirmed what I suspected...Pink eye. She gave me some drops and sent me home. The drops made my eyes burn but I didn't think anything of it. After a day of drops, it wasn't getting better and it continued to burn. I didn't use the drops for a while before we boarded the plane to Denver. I was dealing with crusty crap on the plane but my eyes were looking better. When we landed I put the drops in again and it hurt so bad and my skin around my eyes just got flaky and chapped and painful. I was so embarrassed by my bright eyes I couldn't look the rental car guy in the eyes nor the person that checked us in at our hotel. I tried to calm it with warm compresses but it just was getting worse and worse. Finally at 2 am I couldn't deal with it anymore and I was experiencing cloudy vision. I called the nurse line and she told me to go to ER. So I woke Eric up and we drove into Denver to the closest ER. 

Thankfully it was not busy and they got me right in. They said I was having an allergic reaction to the eye drops. So they gave me a steroid and put me on a different type of drops. We were in and out in no time. It was so nice. The steroid kicked in and calmed my eyes down and the drops seem to work. My skin around my eyes and eyelids were very dry and painful. I discovered that Vaseline is a miracle cure. I'm finally feeling ok again. 

Steroids are AWESOME!

   

Eric and I did our annual tradition of running on Thanksgiving morning. We did the Chanhassen Turkey Trot 5K. It was very breezy and cold but not terrible. The course is very hilly with a couple long stretches up hill so I walked a lot. Overall not horrible! Only 25 seconds slower than last year. 

Abbie, DJ and Brynne came by today to visit. She is such a tiny peanut. At a month old she is still under 7 lbs. We went to Buca for lunch and she slept the whole time. They stayed long enough so Eric can meet her too.

I went down to New Ulm today to see Melissa and the rest of my family there. Eric had to work so I drove by myself. It was nice to see Melissa again. And Leslie was there too. 

After lunch, Nancy and Leslie went home to get ready for their ABBA concert and Bradley took Melissa flying so Danielle and I were home alone with the boys. 

The ice cream shop was open today so we walked there for a treat.  Blake and I both got the Zanzibar chocolate. Carter got a pumpkin flavor and Danielle got plain vanilla. The boys were up to their usual antics. They are so cute…and LOUD! 😂

It was a fun day! And Danielle gave me these cool sunglasses for Reba.