Christmas in Minnesota (and New Year's!)

After spending a few days in IA, we drove up to the WONDERFUL state of MN for the rest of the week. Once again, it was so nice to be able to spend time with friends and family! On Thursday, I got to go to a bridal shower for one of my dear friends (Charity Schofield) who is getting married in 3 days now!!! :D That was very fun -- I was so glad to be able to be a part of that since I will not be able to go to the wedding! Then, on Friday I went out to breakfast with another of my very special friends (Christa Schofield). We went to good ol' Perkins (Our town is unfortunately very limited in the selection of restaurants, so it's always either fast food or Perkins for us!) and spent a few hours talking over coffee and muffins. (Can I share a little pet peeve now? Christa already knows about this 'cause I told her about it while we were at Perkins, but whenever I go to Perkins for breakfast I like to order a muffin. They have a nice selection in their menu, but the one that looks the most enticing to me is the "Chocolate Chip Bavarian Cream" muffin. So, I always order the Chocolate Chip Bavarian Cream muffin, and every time they say, "Oh, I'm sorry; we don't have that kind of muffin today." And so I always proceed to order the "Heath" muffin (a very yummy choice). Now, my question is, do they ever have the CCBC muffin? And if not (which I suspect they don't), then why is it on their menu tormenting me? Does anyone have any insights on this?) Saturday we were going to go to Klarissa Snow's wedding, but Julie got sick so we couldn't. That was a big disappointment. :( Saturday night Grandma came and we all celebrated Christmas with a delicious and fancy meal and we finally got to open our presents! :) It was wonderful to be back at my home church on Sunday morning! That afternoon and evening we had a blizzard (Yippee!); the only problem was that we had planned a New Year's Eve party (side note: This was the 10th year for our New Year's Eve party! It is always one of my favorite events of the year and I'm so glad that we were able to be there for it once again!) and the weather made it difficult for some people to get there. The guys still managed to have a good turn-out for their annual football game in our backyard and then we had about 40 people come for the party. We had such a fun group!! And my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Jill came from IL to surprise us (you should have heard Mom scream when they walked through the door!!). :D We stayed up well past midnight (I think it was 3-something when we went to bed) playing games and eating junky food. Jordan and I left Monday afternoon to come back here to Northland. I'm so thankful for the great break we had! We had so much fun seeing everyone back home -- we love you all so much!! Thank you for your hospitality towards us and also for all the wonderful memories!! Hope to see you all again soon!