It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Holidays from the Swansons.  It seems as though the New Year is upon us again in the blink of an eye.  As time moves on, we give thanks for the friends and family near and far who are such an important part of our lives.  We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and had the opportunity to connect with loved ones, as well as reflect upon the magic and hope this season brings.

Fall went by far to quickly.  We enjoyed a long weekend at Gunflint Lodge for our third wedding anniversary.

We spent time hiking, boating and taking pictures of the new greenery that had emerged since our last visit in June of 2007, shortly after the Ham Lake Fire.

It was amazing to see how mother nature heals the scorched earth.

Thanksgiving brought us to Clarissa to enjoy a long weekend with the Romstads in Clarissa.  As usual, we cooked way too much food.  A good time was had by all.  Christmas Eve, everyone gathered at our home in St. Peter for dinner and church.  We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed spending time together.

Rest assured, Axel and Gracie have enjoyed the holidays-particularly the fact that it was a white one. 

No formal plans as of yet for the New Year for the Swansons.  More home improvement projects are definitely on the horizon, including hopefully beginning the renovation of the basement.   Mike would like to run a marathon this spring or fall, and will spend much of the winter training.   We hope to do some more travelling, with trips to Florida for Twins spring training or perhaps to Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park. 

May 2009 be a year of hope, prosperity and blessings for you and those you hold dear.  We hope that 2009 brings our paths together as well.

Finally, the search is over. And the winner is...

 

 

Dolphin Fin, a lovely shade of gray paint by Behr Paint.  At long last, the hallway and foyer (ha ha) have a color all their own.

 

Now we just have the guest room left to paint and the painting on the main floor will be done.  Next on the list will be Mike finishing up his desk for the office and perhaps a dining room table and chairs that match.  Then on to the basement.

The dogs were a great help painting.

We did manage to get one camping trip in with Matt and Donna.  We stayed at Brennans' Campground in Sheildsville.  It was a great campground run by a great group of folks.  We had a great campsite, and even though Matt didn't catch any fish that day, he made up for it later.  More on that to come.  After our night of camping, Matt and Donna joined us in St. Peter for a crazy weekend, including Matt's attempt to slay yet another Chuck Norris Burger.  The third time will be a charm, I'm sure of it.  Matt enjoyed some time in our pool with the hounds.

 

The next day, we went to Daly Park south of Mapleton.  Matt caught one helluva bass.  Donna and I stayed on the shore and enjoyed a lovely August afternoon.

Now that the summer is officially over, Mike and I look forward to a lovely fall, full of Twins playoff games, a Brett Favre free NFC North, and our third wedding anniversary.  This year, we will spend our anniversary on the Gunflint Trail at Gunflint Lodge.  We're looking forward to some time away to enjoy the peace and quiet of the north woods.

In more Twins news, check out our AWESOME "Circle Me Bert" sign.  Can you believe we didn't get circled with this beauty?  Seriously, what more does the man want out of a sign?

Mike would like you all to watch this video.  He says it's awesome.

Dancing Matt-Gum Commercial

Paul Bunyan, where are you?

Or perhaps several lodges of beavers,  If either of the above were unemployed or simply looking for a hobby, St. Peter would be the place for them.  Thursday another doozy of a storm came through town, snapping and uprooting trees, flooding the streets and pulled one of the awnings from the office.  I was fearful that I would have yet another vehicle lost to water.  Towns on either side of St. Peter lost electricity and downed power lines dot the sides of local roads.

One of the storm's victims was our boxelder tree, which snapped and landed on the roof of our house.  We were very fortunate that no windows were broken and the roof remains in tact.  The gutter was pulled off the back of the house and the air conditioner roughed up a bit, but it does not appear that there will be any lasting effects from the tree's landing.

Some folks think that St. Peter must be cursed for getting all of these storms.  I consider how fortunate Mike and I are to have a home that wasn't impacted by the 98 tornado, the 2006 tornado, or the storm this week.  Living here may not be for everyone (no chipotle, starbucks or caribou), but we sure love it and are grateful for our friends and neighbors who have made this home for us.  Neighbors were helping neighbors remove debris.  In fact, a tree fell on another home down the street, and the homeowners were on vacation.  When they returned, the only proof that a tree had even fallen on the home was a bent gutter, and a stack of logs.

Here are some photos of the debris.  By the time I got home from work, Mike had already removed the tree from the roof, which apparently went to the peak of the roof.  I guess he got up on the roof and started cutting the tree segments from the top of the roof and moved down the roof until it was freed.  He's pretty sore today as you can imagine.

 

In other news, the Twins continue their post-All Star Break tear through their opponents.  The White Sox series was tremendous, with my personal highlights including AJ being booed constantly and Gardy getting tossed.  Of course, some great clutch hitting (lots of doubles this series) by Punto, Harris, Kubel and of course Mauer and Morneau didn't hurt.  Right now Mike and I are planning on spending our third wedding anniversary at a remote lodge on the Gunflint Trail, which is great, unless the Twins are in the World Series.  I think there's cable in the bar...

Enjoy your weekends one and all.

F is For: Fun, Family, Friends, Fireworks, Freedom and Frankfurters (Dome Dogs)

The past two months have been busy ones for the St. Peter Swansons.  We've logged several Twins games:

 

celebrated Matt's 30th birthday and Mother's Day;

went to Tim and Lindsay's wedding in Rice Lake, WI; celebrated Kristen and Dad's birthdays (which apparently was too much excitement for Matt to handle, but since he's 30 now, he gets tired easy);

Celebrated Clarissa Days, Father's Day, Mike's and Mom's Birthdays;

and enjoyed another pleasant 4th of July in St. Peter with friends and family:

We've also managed to fell some trees:

visit Matt & Donna in Rochester,  meet the newest member of the St. George family and catch up with dear friends:

Meet up with Paul, the Bean & Chad for a Twins/Brewers battle; Oh, and get Pat Neshek's autograph!!  Hope you're healing up Pat.

 

Kristen's softball playing days are nearing an end, which is a benefit to her kind co-workers who have tolerated her rookie season gracefully.Before the end of the month, we'll travel to Illinois to visit Mike's Dad and cousins for a long weekend.  After that, hopefully we'll get in a camping trip or two before the frost returns. 

Until then, "Everything is better when summer comes..."

-Great Big Sea  (coming to the State Theater September 12, 2008)

Spring, yo?

Look, I'm getting tired of this snow. Enough already. It's March 31 -- this is supposed to be sunny "southern" Minnesota. What's the deal?

Kristen and I recently got on the Facebook bus. Per usual, I manage to hit things just about the time they're getting uncool. It's nice to get in touch with long-lost college friends, though. I can certainly understand the utility of Facebook -- never having to memorize another email address or phone number again... And you can "tag" embarrassing photos of your friends. Good times.

St. Peter celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the big tornado. Here's a link to a nice article on MPR with some great pictures (including a couple of folks we know). It's quite the punctuating event down here. Also, with the way the weather's been lately, it's hard to believe that a tornado could have come so early in the year. We're lucky that we have mature trees in our lawn, as the tornado just missed our little neighborhood. Amazing that in 10 years, I don't think the average person -- if they didn't know what to look for -- would be able to tell that a tornado came through.

Please, spring -- if you're out there -- come back to us. I promise that little fling that I had with summer meant nothing. You're the only season for me!

Our Maui Vacation in Pictures

U2 3D-As Close As I'll Ever Get To Touching the Edge

Tis the Season...

Happy New Year to one and all. We hope you had a blessed holiday season with family, friends, food and drink.

The holiday season was a happy one for the Swansons. We spent Thanksgiving in Clarissa with my parents, John and Mikey. We hadn't been up north for a visit since Clarissa Days in June, so it was great to get away for a long weekend. We particularly enjoyed checking out the nearly final product of a mega-renovation project at my parents house, namely the conversion of the building formerly known as the old garage. The new space is called many things, but most importantly holds my parents' Wii and Dad's train, which now runs on a shelf along the perimeter of the ceiling. We also celebrated my uncle, Mikkel's, 60th birthday, with my cousins Andy & Rebecca, Aunt Annie and good friends Don & Bonnie McLelland.

Christmas seemed to come before we knew it. My brother and his girlfriend, Donna, joined us on December 23 (aka Christmas Eve Eve) for relaxation and to show us how to play Rock Band. My parents and Uncle Mikkel arrived on Christmas Eve for another semi-traditional Scandahoovian meal of Swedish Meatballs, lefse and fruit soup. We were again lutefisk deprived, but since I know my dad has attended at least one lutefisk supper this year, I think he'll survive. Christmas Day was spent in Eden Prairie with my cousins and Aunt Shelley. We are grateful to have family so close to spend the holidays with.

The definite hit of the holiday season in our house, aside from a variety of chew toys r eceived by Axel & Gracie that are in various stages of destruction, was the Wii. Mike has acheived professional status in bowling (Wii Sports), explores other galaxies (Super Mario Galaxy), and has also become both a professional race car driver and football player. In fairness, I have been known to play the Wii, but Mike will admit that the Wii is more frequently a source of frustration for me than amusement. Most commonlyheard is "I can't get this *#$@ing Wiimote to work right." Guess I'll have to keep my day job. My favorite games are Rapala Fishing and Trauma Center, where I can safely pursue my interest in medicine without my mathematic ineptitude killing anyone.

What will the new year bring for the Swansons? Whatever the good Lord sees fit. Nothing major has been planned for the moment. We are hoping to take a jaunt somewhere in early March, but just where has yet to be determined. Other than that, the home improvement projects continue. We recently swapped our living and dining rooms-photos to come. So there's no telling what we may take up next.

May 2008 bring joy and blessings into your home. We hope to see you for a visit soon.

Love,

Mike, Kristen, Axel & Gracie

In memory of Barney, a beloved Romstad family pet. Barney can be seen above (far right) wearing his Halloween costume, as an enterprising canine (aka Pimp). As Dad said, he's "ready for business."