Merry Early Christmas!
Evan received an early Christmas present from his Grandpa Vardell and Grandma Brenda It was a trike which he thinks is the coooolest! Rob wrapped the present and the 3 silver curly ribbons represent Evan's hair (very creative, Rob)! Evan loved unwrapping his present and was very meticulous about getting every piece off.
Evan helped (or possibly hindered) Rob put the trike together.
Evan was too excited about his "bike" as he calls it, that he was sitting on the seat before it was even on the frame!
Evan was one happy boy once his trike was put together and he was able to ride it. Well really he just liked to climb on and off, put cars and trains in his "trunk", be pushed around by his dad, and instead of pedal the trike he straddles the bar and walks the bike. Evan's legs need to be about 1/2 inch longer to fully pedal the trike!
Evan doesn't care where he rides his trike, inside or out! He also loves the bell that is attached to his handlebars.
Luckily it was mild weather and we were able to take Evan out to ride (be pushed on!) his trike. The trike has this great push handle that also steers. Evan kept saying all day, "I like bike". He has squealing with delight!
Saturday night we went to the Holidazzle Parade on Nicollet Mall. It is an electric Christmas parade. It kind of reminded me of the Disneyland electrical parade but on a smaller scale. This is the 15th year they have done it and I don't think it has been updated .jpg)
much since it began. It was cool, just a little retro looking. which actually made it a bit cooler. All of the floats and the people in costumes are decorated with lights. They are the really large colored bulbs that you use to have on your house when you were a kid. There was a circus train, Evan's favorite, with little children dressed as animals. The children were darling, I guess it was my favorite also. There was a Peter Pan float, Mother Goose, and so forth and of course Santa Claus! 
Everyone was decorated in lights. Evan loved it! He cried when we left. I didn't expect him to enjoy it as much as he did. Evan also loved when the lightrail train passed by about a half a block away from where we were standing. It is so much fun to see the little things that kids get excited about. Luckily it was a warmer night, about 30 degrees and
it was so crowded that all the body heat kept you a bit warmer. It was fun to go downtown and experience a bit more of Minneapolis. After the parade we walked up and down Nicollet Mall and checked out a few stores. We are all getting excited for Christmas around here and have caught the Christmas spirit! The Christmas music doesn't stop playing in our house. Although it is a bit sad that we don't have a Christmas tree. I miss the smell! Well at least we will be with family for Christmas who do have Christmas trees! Enjoy the spirit of Christmas that is in the air!
One more thing checked off my list! My Christmas baking is done! It is actually bitter-sweet. I really enjoy doing it. I just really need to do our Christmas cards and focus on other things. And as for the Christmas cards, I hope you all don't mind receiving it via email since my handheld device's battery died and I lost everyone's address who has moved in the last 2 years. Who, by the way, is mostly everyone we know! Can't we all just get settled and keep the same address for a few years!
Well as for the Christmas treats I usually make caramels, but decided to be daring and different this year. So I made 
Now we know how it feels to be an elf! This picture is of us with Jarron Collins (6'11") of the Utah Jazz and Mark Madsen (6'9") of the Minnesota Timberwolves. My heavens, they are two tall guys!! 
Mark Madsen is in our stake and we sat in front of him at Stake Conference a few weeks ago. Mark's brother use to live across the street from us and Rob met Mark when they were helping his brother move. So we got talking at Stake Conference and Mark asked if we would like to go to a Timberwolves game. Like to go? I think Rob was about ready to overflow with excitement and burst out, "I would love to go!" Well Rob kept himself contained and said of course we would like to go to a game. Mark is in the know and knew Rob was a Jazz fan so he said he would get us ticket for when the Wolves played the Jazz and then give Rob a call. Mark is a busy man and we thought that was the end of that and we would never hear from him. Well about 3 weeks ago Mark called Rob to confirm that he got us tickets to the Timberwolves vs Jazz game on December 8th. We were both ecstatic!!!
Well the big game was last night and we had a great time! We ended up having an extra ticket so we called up Steve who was flying solo since his wife and son are in San Fran, and he came along. We had 12th row seats right behind the Jazz bench. Evan did pretty well at the game he especially loved the wolf sounds they played. Evan has been working on perfecting his coyote sounds for his Grandpa Vardell. So a wolf was fun to imitate too! 
