A busy holiday week!

Last Friday Hubby and I went up to Montana's equivalent of the Super Bowl: The Griz and Bobcat Game. Because we have season Griz tickets we also get tickets to this game when it is hosted in Missoula. I left school at 11:30 and we set out on some of the slickest roads I have ever been on! We weren't 40 miles out of town before I had lost count of rollovers, slide offs, and accidents involving multiple vehicles. I hung on for dear life and my knitting needles flew, row after row!

First Montana snowstorm 2010

Both the weather and the game went downhill with the coin toss. It was a hard fought game but the Bobcats were a stronger team and will be going on to the championship play offs.

Griz vs. Bobcats 2010

After the game we drove to The Chick's house and spent two nights there, waiting to see if the weather would change. In the end we slid home with The Chick's kitty serenading us in the backseat. We were hoping that would help make a less stressful trip for The Chick later in the week.

We weren't home long before the NorDak crew drove in, the last fifty miles for them were memorable, but they arrived safely. They had planned on making their trip a few days earlier but the roads had delayed them. We planned meals for the week, shopped and began working on the number one thing everyone had been planning on doing - relaxing! The Chick arrived after dark with only a few horror stories about her travels.

Thanksgiving was delicious and we were happy to be together. The kiddos did spend some time outside sledding as the temp rose above zero and they were going a bit stir crazy.

We went shopping on Friday - Purl Gurl was in charge of the alarm clock and getting The Chick and I up, sadly she set the alarm on her phone and that was set for North Dakota time - so we were up at 2:30!! With the early start we were forced to go to Kohl's for items that weren't high on our list, but it was a good lesson. The crowds were thick and the lines long, so we abandoned our low priority purchases and drove to the stores with our "must have" items before the stores opened. Each of us had our designated items to find, and the first person done got in the checkout line with the others catching up as they finished. Cell phones came in very handy! It was a very successful seven hour trip and I have all my shopping done except for one more item for Sadie Lou. The men did a great job running their Daddy Daycare. The kiddos were happy and had stomachs full of pancakes.

Black Friday, 2010

I made good use of the last day with the family....we cleaned, rearranged furniture, and decorated for the Christmas season. The Viking set the tree up and strung it with lights, Purl Girl wrapped my packages, and the kiddos decorated the tree - they were excited to think that they would decorate two trees this year.

The Tiger

SadieLou Who 2010

The Viking is such a good guy. The Chick and I both got some new electronics and needed his help. He good naturedly went from one to the other all afternoon and evening helping out and tutoring this gal. I'm now the proud owner of an itouch - mostly because Hubby got surround sound for his TV and I heard the great sound coming from the speakers!

We've been watching the road reports carefully. This morning, one car went east and one car went west. The Chick decided to take a two lane highway to avoid the black ice and snow. She was successful avoiding weather but ran into a cattle drive! We just heard from the NorDa Family and they are home and settling in for a week of school...

So everything is now back to normal, I have a cold - school is back in session tomorrow, with early morning duty outside for me - and it's snowing like it's winter and the holidays are coming!