Christmas at Home 2007

We had our own little Christmas at home on Friday night. We opened our presents to each other & had some eggnog. We like to just have a little Christmas celebration ourselves before the busyness of Christmas with our families. We drove up to Duluth today to spend the weekend, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with Todd's family. We wish you all a blessed Christmas with family & friends.

Sonja's Birthday ~~ 12/9/07

Todd sent these beautiful flowers to my office for my birthday. He sent them a couple of days early because he wants to make a "show" for my co-workers to see. My boss, Martin, was impressed. I said, "Yeah, he's good!" Martin said, "He's setting a pretty high standard that the rest of us are not living up to." :)

We went to the Lake Elmo Inn for my birthday dinner because we had a gift certificate. (Thanks Matt & Lisa!!)

The outside of the inn was all decked out with lights for Christmas. The inside was decorated with lots of snow globes, a beautiful Christmas tree and lots of other decorations. Through out the restaurant, there were several display cases containing a collection of hundreds of interesting salt & pepper shakers.

We had a wonderful meal and topped it off with a slice of strawberry cheesecake on a Happy Birthday plate. We highly recommend this restaurant for a romantic evening. ;)

The Christmas Window

Todd & I were in a new Christmas production at our church this year called The Christmas Window. It was about a boy named Tyler who learns about imagination & faith from a special friend (an angel?) & his grandmother by looking thru the Christmas Window. As you can see by the picture, I had my own coffee shop. The directors surprised me with my name on the shop because of my faithfulness in attending practices (& church services) very soon after back surgery.



Todd in his waiter costume with Mrs. Potts (our friend, Pat Ahonen) & Lumiere
(our friend, Matt Anderson) from the Be Our Guest scene.











Todd & I wore these fancy Victorian costumes for the Christmas Waltz scene. Isn't Todd handsome in his tux? This also made a great picture for our Christmas card. :)

Oh, Todd said I'd better include that he thought I was very beautiful in my fancy dress. :)












In the Biblical scenes, Todd was (in his words) one of the three wise guys..........here he is with his wise counterparts. (Rick Yapp & Barry Helgeson)

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving dinner #2 at Jeremy & Kim's house in Chaska, MN on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving #1 was at Todd's mom's house in Duluth on Thanksgiving day. Mmmmmmmmm..........







The kid's table in the kitchen. L-R J.D., Justin, Brenden, Nicholas & Evan.
Mom Lane and her 6 crazy grandkids. L-R Evan (4) (chewing his fingernails.......not picking his nose), Tiffany (17) Justin (2 days away from being 8) Mom, Tyler (1), Nicholas (6), J.D. (10) & Brenden (5).

I'm back........

I haven't been able to post for awhile because I had back surgery on 10/24 for a herniated disc. So I will try to catch up a little on some things we have done.

We went to watch our nephew, J.D., play football a few times this fall. He is #42 in the middle of the picture.

It was really fun and he is a good player. :)

We also went to watch one of Justin's basketball scrimmages. He made quite a few baskets that day & was fun to watch. :)

On Oct. 20th, we went to Sever's Corn Maze in Shakopee with Todd's mom & stepdad, his sister, Jamie, & our nieces, Emily & Sophia. I had never gone there before........it was really fun. :)

Todd & I at Sever's Corn Maze.

The day after my surgery, some of my favorite guys came to visit me in the hospital......besides my favorite guy, Todd, of course. Evan came with my sister, Angela, with a plant & balloon he picked out himself....

.....and J.D., Tyler, Justin & Brenden came with my sister-in-law, Kim. They brought me a raspberry shake from Culver's. Mmmmmmmmm!!! :)






Dr. Crowe said the surgery went very well and I have been recovering nicely. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers. I am very grateful for them. :)