Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! We were blessed to get to spend the holiday season with our (growing!) families in Minnesota, and hence, we fell behind on our blogging. Today we'll make up for it with a photo recap of our snowy, really really cold time in the north land.

We spent our first days in Duluth, with Nathan and Rebekah, who were patiently (it seemed to us, at least) awaiting their first child. We got a tree from the Farmers Market, ate at wonderful restaurants (wild rice burgers--who knew?!) and relaxed together. It was quite a temperature change...we left the Dominican and it was 85 degrees...we arrived in Minnesota and it was 30 below. Whew!
Because we're slightly crazy, we drove from Duluth to New Ulm, MN where we ran a 4-mile fun run with the Lundquist parents. From there, we drove to Gustavus Adolphus to celebrate Zach's football season at the team banquet (and cheered for him as he was voted captain!).

We made it back to Duluth in time to welcome baby Katherine Joy to the world...
I'm quite sure her uncles are head-over-heels with her already.

From Duluth, we headed to Euclid, MN (near Grand Forks), via Pine River, to spend time with Jessi, Brian, and our nephew Cormac. It was a bit of a drive...but this guy is worth it!
We celebrated Zach's 21st birthday with him, and woke up to the Christmas Storm (we heard it referred to as Stormaggedon on the radio). The northern part of the state was hit the least, but we still got over 2 feet of snow. Still, we made it back to Pine River in time for a lovely Christmas breakfast with the Johnsons.
We were snowed-in on Christmas day, so we held the Johnson Game Olympics to keep ourselves entertained. Here, Owen and Christine are in a heated puzzle race.
On the 26th we made it back to Duluth...
And enjoyed an entire day of admiring Kate.
Soon after, we headed back to Pelican Rapids for the Lundquist Christmas-New Year-Extravaganza. We gathered in the new garage/family room and played games...
...and held the annual venison sausage making fest...
...and drank beer as the Germans do...to help Zach acclimate to the culture he was getting ready to experience during his trip to Europe, of course...
...but mostly we enjoyed just relaxing together (and admiring Cormac, too!)...
So, if you feel like this blog was a whirlwind of adventure, then you have gotten a taste of our time in Minnesota. We had a great time and are ever thankful for our awesome families. They put up with our nomad-ness and the fact that we never really "move out" of their homes, just leave a trail of our belongings...
We're so excited to be back in the Dominican, and we've got some big projects that we're working on. Stay tuned for some photos from the inauguration of the new preschool. Meanwhile, we'd better go soak up some of this Caribbean sun...it was a snowy December!