Morning Frost

Christmas City of the North Parade

This parade is a HUGE deal in "the northland".

It lasts for two whole hours...and is televised throughout the holiday season. A total of 20 marching bands performed in the parade.

The theme this year may have been "young girls with fire". I lost track of how many middle-school and high-school aged girls were twirling (and dropping) fire batons.

Finally, after two long hours...SANTA!

***Bah-Humbug Alert***We had a great time, but next year we'll remember to leave earlier to find good parking. We literally missed the first half hour of the parade because we were stuck in a dead-end parking ramp that was FULL. Every car that went in, had to navigate at the top to turn around and get out. I won't make that mistake again!

Sedum

The Artist Next Door

This is my neighbor, Kay, and this is her latest painting. She's been working on it for as long as I've known her, which is four years. I'm not sure when she started it, but she says it will take many more years to complete the work.

Calvin chose Kay as an interview subject for his English class. He had to write a feature story about anyone involved with or related to his school. Kay used to teach art there, and her kids went to school there. These photos will be used in his paper, and I asked her permission to use them here, as well. Kay has quite a resume...you can check out her website here.

Thanks, Kay!

Duluth Curling Club

We went to a show at the Convention Center tonight and I was going to post pictures from there, but "no cameras allowed".

Good thing the Curling Club is in the same area. We stopped at the observation deck and watched a few curlers on the ice. We tried this sport when we first moved here. I think it's time to give it another shot, because everyone out there was having a blast.

There's a New Restaurant in Town

And it's called Five Guys!

(You can read about our Five Guys fascination here...or here.)

Tonight was opening night...so, of course, we had to be there!

Apparently all the employees had to be there too. It looked like a pretty tight squeeze behind the counter. Maybe it should be called Twenty Guys?

Our burgers were great and the fries were hot. What more do you need?

A Little Help from a Friend

Meet "E", the 13-year-old daughter of my friend Julie. "E" and her friend "L" helped me out with my portrait class by modeling for nearly an hour this afternoon (my boys would never tolerate this). After looking at the photos, I'm ready to head back out and shoot some more. I definitely need a little more practice...but I learned so much by doing this. Thanks to you both! I hope you had fun...maybe we can do it again sometime?

Lonely Guitar Holder

This was one of my favorite design decisions. I traced Cal's guitar on the wall in the craft room, and used a light blue paint to draw the "shadow" where the guitar should hang. Unfortunately, the secret plan to get Calvin to put his guitar away didn't really work. The guitar is usually left on a chair, the couch, or (gasp!) the floor.