Christmas 2009 Update.

Christmas was full of activity for us this year! We made the trip up to Fargo on December 23, driving up with Gabe. We enjoyed relaxing, video games, reading, chatting, and lots of delicious food the 23rd and Christmas Eve, before going to the Christmas Eve service at the Jenson family church. We even got to help deliver the famous Jenson cheesecakes—as delicious as always!

Christmas day we were hit with the big blizzard. Fargo got almost 2 feet of snow, which looked beautiful, but meant bad roads and cold temps. We enjoyed gift opening and spending time with the family. It was especially exciting to see that the Jensons enjoyed the gifts we gave them! We were especially excited about some of the gifts we were given—Desmond got a new flip camera, which made some of the videos you see here. Allison got a new sewing machine, which she has already used to make some curtains for our bedroom.

Camera for Christmas


Why Flip?


The 27th we were off to Brainerd, driving slowly, but we got to Cragun’s resort to spend a few days with the Heille family for a holiday celebration. The first night was wonderful and relaxing, eating a delicious meal, settling in, and opening wonderful gifts. Again, the best part was seeing how excited people were about the gifts we found for them!

We were glad to have a relaxing evening, because it helped us rest up in preparation for WINTER SURVIVOR 2009! Mid afternoon the 28th, Desmond, Allison, Jackie, and Guthrie entered the winter survivor competition, easily one of the most intense nail biters of the holiday season.



At first, our only competition was a family from Iowa—an easy win, we thought.



We easily took out the competition in the first contest, the snowshoe relay.



We then found out our competition had doubled: 2 more teams joined competition before the wheelbarrow contest started. While not as big of a win as our snowshoe relay, we took second place and felt our performance was still strong.



We barely had time to catch our breath before the next event.



Luckily, during tail tag, we recouped some of our losses. Desmond and Guthrie had particular talent for tail tag that helped the H-J connection come out for the win of this round.



All of our hard work paid off: we were in first! Unfortunately, we were tied with our arch nemesis, Team Ramrod. Our tie breaker was a foot race through the fluffy snow, and we won only by the fantastic dive ending by Guthrie. We were all glad he is so lanky in that moment.



Needless to say, our win was worth more than just 15 Cragun’s dollars. Here are some video clips of us reflecting on our victory. Training for Winter Survivor 2010 will start next week.



Other highlights of the Cragun’s weekend included a big Cranium match, snowshoeing and skiing, making and eating some delicious chili, and hanging out at the pool.