I'm spending the weekend with Dad. I didn't want to stay alone at the cabin, so I'm staying here too. There's a futon-y thing in the den, that pretty much unfolds as it should, and although it was, apparently, never designed to lay flat, it does the trick, and feels comfortable enough, especially maybe to a homeless person or whatever, and especially if you lay right in the center crack, (which is a slightly lower elevation than the rest of the bed), unmoving during the night. There is also a loud ticking clock in the den, which I'd thought my brother Paul dispensed with the last time he stayed here, but I guess had not.

My parents like to keep the house warm, so it's 200 degrees in the living room where the wood stove is, but stone cold back here in the den. Not complaining, just stating.

We had a nice day yesterday. Dad and I went over to check on the cabin, which seemed just fine. While I was in looking things over, Dad thought about shoveling some of the snow off the deck and down the walk. But then decided against. Fine with me, it was a glorious day for a drive. A perfect Minnesota winter day.

For much of the morning part of my drive up to Mom and Dad's place, the trees and all else, were breathtakingly frost laden. Then, around Little Falls it all changed to sunshine and blue skies. Stayed that way all day. THIS is what winter is all about here.

After looking in on the lake place and unburdening the mailbox, we drove to my brother's house and spent a few hours with six of my nieces and nephews. I haven't been up here for a while, and brought their Christmas gifts with me. Cassie and Victoria were gone for the day, but the little ones seemed to like their gifts and Cecilia Rose extracted a promise from my sister Barb and I to help her with the princess scrapbooking gift I'd brought her. (I really wanted to, but when I looked at the mess of papers and ribbons and stickers, etc., it went all swirly in my head, the way it does when I look at a recipe, and I realized I don't have the scrapbooking gene either. Luckily, Barb was there to help her out.)

It was fun, their household is probably a lot like ours was when we were growing up. 8 kids, 9 kids, piles of mittens and hats, boots and scarves. You just dug around and found yours or some that seemed to fit closely enough, and out the door you went. As I remember, this basic rule applied to mittens, hats, scarves, sleds, skiis, and whatever, and even boots and coats (but to a lesser degree).

I brought Josh and Luke sleds, the saucer kind, and they asked if I would go out sledding. Heck yeah! They put on a little show, in which they deemed me the judge of "Who did the best fake crash?" After loud applause and some quick deliberating, I determined it to be an equal tie.

I grabbed a sled, Anna and Gianna piled on top of me and off we went. I snagged Josiah in with us on the way down the brief hill and he slid off at the bottom with a big grin.

It was cold. It was snowy. Hey, it's winter! It was fun.