Skip to main content

On The Eighteenth Day Of Advent We Had Special Guests and Went To Our Neighborhood Christmas Party

Ever since we moved in we talked about having the previous owners over. We wanted to wait until we had refinished the floors before having them. Since we never did that I finally decided to suck it up and call them.

It wasn't going to happen this winter.

The husband passed away this spring, but his wife was excited I called. I told her she could bring her kids if she wanted. That way we could hear stories about being a kid and a parent in the house. After calling back and forth figuring out a time we finally decided on a week before Christmas. Two daughters out of eight children came along.

 I always wondered how they had so many kids in the house. I guess they fit as many kids as they could into each room. They also had a dining table that fit 10 people. One of the kids said they would go down the stairs backwards because it was so deep. 

We had asked them to bring photos from when they lived in the house. I should note that they had owned the home from 1952-2006. It was so neat seeing old photos. Our home looked exactly the same with different decorations.

The only big change was the back porch. I always wondered what it looked like. I like our enclosed porch, but it would've been nice to have a small, open back porch.

They used to flood the backyard to make an ice rink in the winter. They also had swings and a giant chalkboard in the basement.

We also learned how the kitchen looked when they bought it. The sink was where our oven is, the oven was where our fridge is and the fridge was where we hang our coats.

They also said to look out for lost baseball cards and a paint set.

We got our picture taken with her.

They were so sweet and brought us a poinsettia, homemade cookies and a gift for Meadow. We told them that the other family members were welcome to stop by as well. 

After they left I baked some molasses cookies I'd prepped the night before.

Gingerbread cookies may be fun, but these are way better.

Later we attended the annual neighborhood Christmas party. At the last second I was given Santa picture duty.

Meadow loves sitting on Santa's lap. At least she wasn't crying, just tried to get away.

I talked with our neighbors while Meadow worked on a craft.

Meadow made a really nice card.

Everyone wanted a picture with Santa.

Not a bad a way to spend a December evening.

I think we all had fun.

Comments

Amanda said…
I think it is so sweet that you guys invited the previous owners. What a neat experience! I'll bet they loved it.

Popular posts from this blog

Yardwork, Ikea and Pumpkins

My new parents-in-law got us a dehydrator for the wedding. Knowing we were going to be cleaning up the garden and going to farmer's market, we took a gander at our millionth kitchen device during breakfast.   Scott added granola to his oatmeal.  The oatmeal was rather bland, just the way Brooke likes it.   Scott was actually cleaning up so I had to take a quick photo of him as proof.  Scott told me he was, "putting a blanket down for Peanut," while singing. During the winter months peanut needs a warm place to peer through the window. Seeing as it was nearly November, I setup his blanket for him. Seeing as the farmers market season is dwindling down, we headed to the market...once again. The close proximity to the cities central farmer's market has to be one of the best assets of living in NoMi. We were both amazed by the bounty of produce still on sale. We quickly filled up our first bag and took it back to the car....

Japan Family Trip: Exploring Sangenjaya, Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku in Tokyo

After a 12 hour flight and years of planning we finally made it to Japan. I'd been looking for a decent deal to Japan for ages. Tracking on Google Flights. Searching different points websites. Then finally a flight showed up on Points Yeah the same week Meadow and Theo were off for 3 days. After a nervous half hour of transferring points from our credit card to KLM Air France, we got 4 direct tickets to Tokyo Haneda! Day 1 But first we had to fly and fly and fly. Ready for our longest flight ever. At least we were lucky and got a direct flight.  Theo looked nervous. I couldn't really see the kids too well since I was stuck in the center rows with strangers. Meadow, Brooke and Theo got the better end of the deal. He had been worrying about this trip ever since he learned we were going to have to sleep on the plane.  Meadow was excited to see that the flight had anime. First time in a long time that I've had a meal on the plane. My chicken curry was pretty good.  We got an...

Duluth For The Day

 After work I decided to drive up to Duluth to visit my little brother Blake. Scott would have come with me if he didn't have to work. Like most streets in Duluth he lives on a steep hill. I couldn't remember how to park on a hill so I copied the car in front of me.   He gave me a tour of his house and when we were in his backyard I heard rushing water. There was a trail and some woods that we followed down a hill to Chester Creek. I had no idea he lived so close to a park.   Or a waterfall.        We walked a ways to find an old ski jump. Blake said he climbed it when he first moved here and a month later the city took the stairs down.      The ski lift is still in use for sledding.  Walking back to his house we passed another ski jump. Back when this was first built it was the tallest in the world. During World War II 50 feet was taken off the top to give to the war effort....