Old habits die hard. . .

Kathleen loves to shovel the snow. Always has. Even now, with everything taken care of for us, she keeps a shovel sharpened by the patio. So every once in a while these days, you hear a scrape, scrape, scrape coming from the frozen outdoors.

Christmas 2017

Front row, Danny, Stan, Kathleen, Birdie; Second row grandson Max, Marcy, granddaughter Emily, Missy, Jennifer with her boyfriend's dog Breezy. Below, Nevin from Turkey with her second family, Emily, Jennifer, Stan with new Christmas baseball cap and neck warmer. Emily is now taller than her aunt Jen and surpassed Grandma long ago. The only way to get her to fit in the photo was to display her horizontally.

Oh, The weather outside is frightful . . .

Yes, the weather outside is frightful, today's high was 2 degrees this morning, but there is business that must be done. So Birdie bundled up in JD's hand-me-down hand-knit sweater and Emily's baby socks. Should be good to go.

This year's cookies

Photo taken while visiting with Santa

Every year, Santa and Mrs. Claus have made it over to Tom and Sandy Story’s house to visit their grandchildren and hand out gifts. Some of the grandchildren are now in college.

We all look forward to the visit. But this year, Santa and Mrs. Claus had moved their toy headquarters to St. Paul and would’t be able to make it to their former neighbors, at the usual place. What to do? Lucy and Cam were so looking forward to the annual visit and it would be a shame to disappoint. 

So we cooked up virtual Santa. An important phone call was made by Santa to Lucy and Cam’s parents' car,  taking the family from Wisconsin to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Christmas. Santa carefully explained over their speaker-phone that he had to change the route this year and he wouldn’t be able to see them, but the gifts would all be there as usual. By the looks of the faces on the photo taken by a parent (above) and then transmitted to “Santa”, everything will be alright and we’ll all have a Merry Christmas. You have one too.

Last year's Story Christmas before we moved and Santa couldn't make it at the usual time. That's Lucy and
Cam, true believers, in the front. The rest of them, not so much.

Christmas excess

Our host said “at last year's party we ran out of food and it was so embarassing and it’s never going to happen again.”

Residents and friends at the Chicago Lofts jammed a condo on the 12th floor tonight for their annual holiday party and helped themselves to the largess. Including us. Then US Representative Keith Ellison dropped in, just back from D.C., and of course we had to get a picture — out of focus due to excitement and incompetence.

 Merry Christmas!

Cut to the quick

Our move to St. Paul meant a new groomer for Birdie. Today’s appointment for her Christmas cut went well, until we saw the blood stains on the upholstery and carpet. Quick action and cold water got them; Birdie’s foot had restarted bleeding from a toenail clipped too close to the quick. Emily’s baby stocking was slipped on in case it starts bleeding again. Maybe we’ll keep looking for a groomer.

Sunday during the Vikings game

The Vikings had the Bengals well in hand by the fourth quarter so we broke off and took a walk past Ft. Snelling. Beautiful, warmish, overcast day, you could hear the snow crunching as these runners flashed by. Home again, we binged shamelessly on "The Crown."

Star of Bethlehem

Christmas cookies cool in all available kitchen spaces as their seasonal smells fill the new apartment. The cookie baker is hard at work, stirring, rolling and cutting. These Star of Bethlehem samples come out every year and go fast unless carefully guarded for later consumption or  Christmas company. Oh well, there are always broken and unpresentable ones available for casual munching.
One disappointment this year: Sadly, Rudolph will go without his traditional nose. The empty red dot candy vial couldn't be refilled at the vendors we know of in this new community. Too bad. We'll make do.

Just the right day

It seemed like the right day to fix Dan’s garbage disposal. Overcast skies, light snow and nothing better to do. And he’s been waiting a couple months now. He mostly eats out so this is not a great inconvenience. We don’t know how to repair a garbage disposal but it didn’t look that hard on the Internet Machine we consulted.

We took a stab at it, to no result, and were grateful when Andrew called to see what was going on. We enlisted his help, he came over and we took it out, squirted some oil on it and whadda ya know. It was spinning again.

The hardest part was finding a parking place for a plumber and tools.

This is the best we could do for a photo of Plumber's Crack. Sorry.

We reinstalled it and then decided what the problem was. Metal, water and rare usage and the thing just rusted up. Dan just didn’t use the appliance often enough. We told him to spin it once in a while and we’d be good to go.

We retired to the ground floor and relaxed to the Christmas tunes turned out by some jug band at the Global Market.

It was just the right day to fix Dan’s disposal.

Here comes Santa Claus.

Mama D's last night

Got a chance to sample the fare at the newly-opened Mama D's in the Midtown Global Market last night. They threw a nice get - acquainted party for the Chicago Lofts (upstairs) and served up some southern-style treats, but none more pleasing than Mama D herself. The charming, bubbling 45 -year -old has been in the catering business for years, always cooking and managing for somebody else. She manages 18 booths at the Renaissance Festival, for example.

This is the first business of her very own though and it's off to a good, exciting start, it would seem. Besides the usual, her catering sideline has a contract with the Super Bowl committee to feed breakfast and lunch to 4,000 drivers working the event. Kudos or rather "Hallelujah, Amen!" to the part-time youth pastor. Her specialty is southern cuisine, with a huge menu of Louisiana/Mississippi meaty, spicy delights, but also some vegan items for those not so inclined.
Those who remember a couple of closed Mama D's restaurants in the Twin Cities market years ago, no relation. "I am the original Mama D!" she says with a laugh.
This new entrepreneur certainly is.

First Christmas Party

We met a whole bunch of new people tonight at the annual Plaza holiday party. That's our building manager, Catherine, dishing up some salad for the fun seekers. Now if we can remember everyone's name. Would have taken more pictures but it was so dark I couldn't focus. Oh well. We get another chance tomorrow at the Mama D's soft opening at the Global Market. Party, party, party.

Christmas is coming

We got an ax, trudged through the snow, and chopped down the perfect apartment-sized Christmas tree, tied to the car and brought it home today, the first errand after Stan got back Sunday from California. Well, actually we went to Target and bought a pre-wired job, wheeled it up the elevator from the garage and hooked it up in the corner. We had thrown out the old one after we had used it for 20 years, but decided we still needed a tree, so we're starting with this one. Decorations are still in the storage room... the ones that survived the move. This tree "rotates" but we don't think we'll be using that feature. Birdie, foreground, is disinterested in the whole Christmas deal.

Lemon tree, very pretty

Just the thing to squeeze on your fresh tuna.

I always hear the Peter Paul and Mary song whenever I see this tree, but never knew the actual lyrics. Here they are:

When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me
"Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree"
"Don't put your faith in love, my boy" my father said to me
"I fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree"

Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat

One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie
A girl so sweet that when she smiled, the stars rose in the sky
We passed that summer lost in love, beneath the lemon tree
The music of her laughter hid my father's words from me

Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat

One day she left without a word, she took away the sun
And in the dark she left behind, I knew what she had done
She left me for another, it's a common tale but true
A sadder man, but wiser now, I sing these words to you

Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat

Songwriters: Will Holt

Lemon Tree lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc