Happy New Year ... and more Merry Christmas :)

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We enjoyed another Christmas at home in Sun Prairie with my brother and sister, nephew and niece. Or should I say that the kids enjoyed it? They enjoyed unwrapping many more gifts - and then playing with their cousins. Of course, we ALL enjoyed spending time together again. The four of us (me, wife, 2 kids) were down for almost 5 days. It was my brother and his family's turn to spend Christmas in Iowa with the Prices, so we met them in SP this past weekend for our own (smaller) family Christmas. Loved it! Everybody did.
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Also got some more time with the Grandmas and Jerry. The only real bummer of the weekend+ was the Rose Bowl loss. But, no time for the blues, cuz the Pack came back and beat the Bears the next day to play themselves into the NFL playoffs.
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It was kind of a neat week/weekend. My parents had gone to the Packers/Giants game on the previous Sunday. I got to watch the Badgers (on TV at home) beat the Goophers in men's basketball on Tuesday. My son and I went to his first hockey game at the Kohl Center on Thursday. It was his first trip to the Kohl at all, and we made it special. Dinner at Paisan's with the family before the game. Tickets three rows from the glass. Seats on the railing above the Badgers' players' entrance to the rink. He got high fives a couple times from quite a few players and even ended up getting a hockey puck courtesy of the security person who opened and shut the boards/door for the players. And we got a 5-1 win!
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Then, as if that weren't enough, we got to watch the Rose Bowl in Wisconsin (albeit, a not-so-good ending). And my brother went to the Packers game versus the Bears on Sunday. Thank goodness the travel was so nice. Us BadgerCubsinMN got home early enough to watch all the Packer game, too.
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Here's what our snow looked like before our trip back to Wisconsin. That's the kids in front of the "fort" or "badger den" on the side of the driveway. You can see that the snow piles around the driveway, sidewalk, and walk to the front door are almost as tall as my son - and almost all taller than my daughter. We had a record snowfall this December and I got my shoveling for the year in already. I've had a lot of help from our neighbors - which I'm ever so thankful for! :) When we got home, the snow level was way down - thanks to a slightly warmer few days and some rain. Unfortunately, the temps today are reaching the sub-zeros. Oh well. Winter in Minnesota. What-r-u-gonna-do?

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