Hows my little 1400 mile trip?

Since my parents left Laura and I in the dust and ventured back to Minnesota Laura and I were able to swing past both families for one round of travels during the holiday season. We kicked it off right by driving at the front edge of a great Blizzard, we skipped our hotel we booked for the night and pushed through the evening to Washburn and avoided all of the snowy mess. Once again proving me right, worrying about something you don't even know for sure will happen is a waste of energy.

Washburn was great as always, we spent a couple of days relaxing with the family, did some geocaching, lots of eating, and even managed to get a white elephant game in. This was my first White Elephant experience and I loved it! Giving and getting weird old odd things was great! I think I did pretty good getting a sweater sleeve, a couple of candles, and several tiny bottles of booze (perfect for flights!).

Tim's 7 lb Prime Rib Roast...yum!

On our way out of Wasburn Laura and I stopped in Duluth to swap out Brewhouse Growlers and to check out the new brewpub Canal Park Brewing. We were very impressed with the joint, they've only been open for a few weeks now and I think they have to iron out their beer recipes a bit more but they have a good IPA and think they have the knowledge and excitement to get some really good stuff going. Laura knows the guy who is running the place and managed to get us a behind the scenes tour and it was really cool to geek out over things like filters and tanks, while still learning about their brewing process.

One of the biggest things I miss about Minnesota is aside from hills, snow, and trees, are my friends. This year I was able to catch up with a bunch of old friends and it was so great. I got a night at Gasthofs organized which was really fun. My parents also hosted a gathering at their house for a bunch of friends as well, which was another great evening of catching up. I had the sudden realization that life is in fact marching on, and words like consulting, business, babies, and future, were casually tossed around. I'm really trying to embrace this newfound adulthood but its challenging.
Not as hard as when I turned 10 and my Dad told me that I'll never be a single digit age again, that sucked.

Using the most plentiful resource in MN, Cold and Snow.

Christmas with my family was grand ol time. We added some possibly new traditions at my parents new digs in North Oaks. One was the family pool tournament where my Mom and I sucked it up big time. Another was a Christmas Trivia where we all did surprisingly good, Andy has an impressive ability to recall Christmas songs on the spot. We also had a dramatic reading of Twas the Night before Christmas, which I really enjoyed.

The trip as a whole was great for so many different reasons. The most important one was seeing so many of the people I love. I've got the best group of friends and family anyone could ask for, and for that I'm thankful.