The 2008-2009 Saintettes Danceline Team
the seniors

the juniors

the sophomores

the freshmen

The girls practicing in the cafeteria.

Danceline

The Saintettes performed with the "Dance Express" little girls at a girls basketball game on Friday, December 19th. It was fun to see the little girls perform and everyone wore Santa hats. Very cute!

The big girls also did a dance without the little girls.

Christmas Day late afternoon, the presents had been played with and explored. Macy decided to help Daniel with putting the yacht together. See, I told you. You're never to old to play with Playmobil!! Thanks to Deb's daycare where Macy fell in love with it!

Daniel and his Christmas presents.

Emily and her Christmas presents.

Macy and her Christmas presents.

Christmas Morning at the Coleman's

Daniel searches for and hands out gifts. After he gives them a good shake and squeeze to try to figure out what's inside!
Macy helped me pick this out. It's a Playmobil Family Yacht complete with a kitchen and a bathroom with a toilet and lid! Playmobil is awesome! If you have creative kids, buy them a piece and see what happens! Macy has tons of it and still drags it out every once in a while. The boats actually float and survive the bathtub really well and some come with little motors and propellors that work! It's great stuff! I ordered this from Amazon but Target also carries it. They usually get sold out before Christmas but they always re-stock.

Yea, I know it's a blurry picture but she was so excited when she opened her iPod. She was moving and I was quickly snapping the photo. The picture below is a little better. I think the smile says she really wanted one! What do you think?

Grandma's Afghan

My mother-in-law crocheted me a beautiful afghan for Christmas. It was a project that kept her busy all summer long. Lyle said everytime she had a spare minute, she was crocheting. Then she'd stretch it over him to see if it was long enough yet. It has beautiful browns, tans and deep reds in it and it'll keep me warm for years and I'll fondly remember the mother that labored over it. Thanks, Gertie! for a wonderful Christmas keepsake!

John and I tried out the afghan. I'm not really sure why he's holding his chest in the top picture!

Grandma gave the girls pearl necklaces when they were little and this year decided to give them a special ring for Christmas. Pearl rings will go perfectly with their pearl necklaces! A wonderful, loving remembrance from their Grandma!
The girls and their new rings.

I gave them warm, fuzzy slipper socks for Christmas. Ooppss... I mean Santa gave them warm, fuzzy slipper socks....

Cousin Jenna and Aunt Marlene made special fleece blankets for everyone.
Their names were painted on with fabric paint and random buttons were sewn around the name.

Very cute and an awesome gift!!

Daniel always gets to be Santa and loves touching everyone's gift before they get it. I'm sure he's trying to guess what's inside of it and also counting how many they get versus him. Typical boy!
My niece and her loot.

Emily and her loot.

Macy and her loot.

And finally Daniel and his loot. Wonder who got more presents??

Merry Christmas!

Our family on Chrismas Eve
My sister-in-law and her family

Christmas isn't complete without a picture of Grandma and Grandpa and the grandkids!

Emily and her cousin relaxing after supper.... ;-)

Red Jello

Living in southern Minnesota, Jello is practically a must in our diets and it's absolutely essential for potlucks, funerals and get-well wishes. I had come across a recipe for Cranberry-Orange Jello Mold on a box of red jello (probably cherry or raspberry) soon after we were married in 1983. The recipe sounded good yet simple so I tried it for a holiday gathering. It was a hit. I have literally made it two to three times a year ever since. I have tried to bring another kind of salad to family get togethers and everyone is polite when they see what I bring although I suspect they are secretly disappointed. When I ask what I can bring, my family members always ask for "that jello" salad... the one with the oranges and apples in it. I brought it to my sister-in-laws for Thanksgiving and I heard my niece suck in her breath when I walked in the door. Not because her favorite aunt had arrived (ha ha) but because of the jello salad I held in my hands! My sister-in-law told me she was hoping I'd bring that good jello salad! When my mother-in-law called to invite us to Christmas Eve at their house, she asked specifically for "that jello" that I make. We were supposed to go to my brothers house for Christmas on December 21st, and he called and left a voice message on my cell phone requesting I make the "jello salad". I CAN make other salads. Some of them are even good!! It makes me laugh when I talk about my famous jello salad. After making it for all these years, I'm always surprised when I hear the reactions when I set it on the table for holidays. Because it's made with cranberry jello, jellied cranberry sauce, mandarin oranges and chopped apples, it goes well with ham, turkey and probably any other kind of meat you could make for a family gathering. The picture below is the finished product. It is quite a good salad and as I sat next to my father-in-law Christmas Eve, he was enjoying the jello and asked me if I'd made it. When I told him I had, he replied "it's good, I like it". Very high praise from him. I had to chuckle. Really, it's from the back of a box of Jello about 23-24 years ago. An oldie but a goodie. And I brought home an empty salad bowl.

Too much snow!

After too much snow and worse yet, too much wind which causes mountains of drifts, this poor little shed roof collapsed. John came in Monday evening around 7:00 and said the roof just collapsed. He looked more than a little shell-shocked because he realized that he could have been on the roof. He had planned on being on it that day to push some of the snow off and he had even thought about going up after supper (yes, after dark). His added weight would have made it collapse immediately. Scary thought. This is an old machine shed that now houses our push lawn mowers, grandpa's fishing boat and John's old 1950 Ford truck. The truck was under the end that collapsed. We think the boat will be OK. John hasn't tried to get anything out of it yet and hasn't investigated the damage too far as we are waiting for the insurance adjuster to arrive. This little shed used to be red, then was painted white and the paint has started to peel off making it the most awesome picture background for Christmas cards. I used it again this year for the Christmas cards you haven't recieved yet but will shortly! I will miss this little shed!

The View from my Bay Window

This picture was taken several days ago to show the snow we have. Little did I know that we would have more snow last Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday as well as a blizzard watch, warning and sustained winds 20-25 mph with gusts at 30+. Welcome to southern Minnesota! We live very close to town and as the storm approached on Saturday, we measured it's severity by "can you still see town??" Thank goodness the trees just outside the window never disappeared but the blizzard did keep us house-bound for forty eight excruciating hours!! The grocery stores were busy and everyone was in a hurry to get home and stay safe. We missed Christmas at my brother's house. We missed a fun gathering at a friends house. We were bored and cranky and tired of looking at each other. The wind has finally died down and hopefully the county snow plow won't forget about us. In the mean time, I've gotten lots and lots of Christmas baking done. Puppy chow, chex mix, caramel corn, oreo bon bons, dipped pretzels...way too much good stuff! I need to get out of here!! We all hope tomorrow will be better!
This is a night time picture of an evergreen arrangement that I put on our front porch every winter. I cut evergreen boughs from the trees in the back of the farm and add red-twig dogwood twigs that I "borrow" from the neighbor to the south. (I've asked him if I could cut some and he told me that I could help myself anytime - it would help trim them!) We don't have an outlet on the east side of the house so I've been sad not to be able to put Christmas lights up. This year I ran an extension cord from the nearest outside outlet to the front porch and I now have beautiful colorful lights outside that make me smile everytime I drive up the driveway!

I tried to take a picture yesterday of the blowing snow but I don't think it does it justice. I kept an eye on the MN Dot website and they weren't advising any travel towards Mankato and today they are saying that some areas are impassible. I hope that nasty wind dies down and the plows can get out and we can move on with our business! Makes me appreciate the winters that haven't been quite this challenging!