A Green Christmas

It was a green Christmas, but I predict a long and snowy winter. I also predict that tomorrow will be the first day of 2020. Playing it safe.

Emily's 6th grade holiday choir recital was at the beginning of December and both sets of grandparents came to watch. If you look closely you can see that Emily even dressed up in her best UNI hoodie:

Rose goes to youth group where they do whatever is going on here:

We decorated for Christmas:

My paternal grandpa, Burdette Nodland, passed away on December 15th. He lived to be 96 years old and led a life full of good memories. It was great to see so many people at the visitation, some of them I hadn't seen in a long time. The funeral service was followed by a military honors ceremony at the graveside.

Here are a few of the photos from his life that I thought were interesting. In this first photo, my grandpa is on the right, standing next to his older brother Archie:

I'm not sure who the guy with the overcoat is (maybe Archie?), but my grandpa is the stylish guy on the right:

Below is a photo from when he served in the Navy aboard the USS Catron in WWII where he was a gunner and a baker. He's the guy standing on the right:

Archie on the left and my grandpa on the right:

This picture of my grandparents was taken in the late 50s. My dad is in the middle:

Rose took our picture after we came home from the funeral. Aren't we spiffy:

The Sunday before Christmas we were at the Conrad's with Sue and the Behans. Then for the Nodland Christmas this year my siblings and their families made the trek up to Iowa so that we could all be together for the first time in 4 years. It was a blast to see everyone and it was our first time meeting Ashlen. Willow and Ashlen are both super cute kids. Since the house where my parents are staying right now is so small, we spent most of our time at their church:

We celebrated Abby's and Willow's birthdays, too, since both birthdays are right after Christmas:

Finally, our own family Christmas at home:

Lily does not care about your merry Christmas.

Excited to see what 2020 holds for us!

November 2019

November was a fun month, as it should be. We went some places and did some stuff and even took pictures of some of it. 

The first week of November I spent in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The fall colors were at their peak while I was out there and I wish I could've taken more pictures because it is difficult to take a bad picture out there. Driving through New Hampshire:

It's just a Marriott, but this hotel always looks picturesque:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Lily hates affection so, so much:

Check out this awesome November sunset:

What do you do when it's freezing cold outside?? Go to Orange Leaf!

For our 18th anniversary Cynthia and I stayed in a Mad Men-style mid-century house in DSM with all of the period-appropriate furnishings:

I like all the milled wood paneling and this nifty light fixture:

It even had a working fireplace:

This was in the kitchen, I don't know how it got there...

We visited the State Historical Museum of Iowa and discovered that there were SHARKS in Iowa at one time. That's crazy to think about. Seems a little more tame these days with cows roaming about.

The capitol is still there, why wouldn't it be? The East Village neighborhood has completely transformed and the rundown machine shops, old apartments, and boarded-up buildings have been replaced with shops and restaurants. That area is barely even recognizable now. Gentrification!

Even though we lived in DSM for over five years, we never checked out the governor's mansion, so we took a tour of Terrace Hill while we were visiting. It has an interesting history and the guy who built it in the 1860s was a con artist who ended up losing the house. Eventually the house became the governor's mansion after changing hands a couple of times.

The first and second floors of the house are exactly the way they were when the house was built. The governor's family lives on the third floor which has been completely remodeled and is apparently very contemporary. The house overall was well cared for and never needed to be restored. Many of the pieces of furniture are original from when the Hubbell's lived there.

This stain glass window was replaced at one point because the second owner (the Hubbell family) didn't like the original window that had an inscription on it. No record exists of what that inscription said.

Kim Reynold's office. Since she wasn't in her office during our visit (she had just returned from Japan the night before and was presumably sleeping) we got to poke our heads in and look around. What I would give for the chance to leave some thumbtacks on her chair... (shakes fist)

Good times!

We visited all of our old stomping grounds (except Gray's Lake because we ran out of time), visited Peace Tree, and stopped in at the Drake Diner, too. The food is always good:

I found this in a box of vintage postcards from the 1930s at the Brass Armadillo:

Game night! With all the stuff going on in the evenings we don't get to play games together very often. Emily will destroy you at Connect 4 and Rose pulls the red pegs out of her ships in Battleship, so... might not want to play against either of them. I'm good at Mad Gab because mumbling is kinda my thing. And Cynthia will beat anyone at trivia.

This Is Iowa

When It's October

When it's October you get outside and make the most of it before that cold north wind hits. This year we didn't even make it to November before it snowed. But we made the most of it while we could and went for bike rides and spent time outdoors. 

Hanging out in the sunroom:

We went to the Conrad family reunion in Independence:

Emily and her friends in the Franklin cafeteria. They were all so little and now they're in middle school! They're starting to look like real people:

My parents are planning a move down south; soon we won't be able to visit them as often. Celebrating my mom's birthday:

The vivid colors of the sunset outside my parent's house that evening:

Breakfast for supper! Our Wednesday evening routine before Rose goes to youth group. She's not really licking the spatula, is she? Gross:

Date night at Lion Bridge:

Taking our family pictures against the backdrop of the fall colors:

Getting into the Halloween spirit:

It's squash soup, but when cooked in an iron pot it looks like a witches' brew:

Carving our pumpkins:

How'd they turn out? Emily's:

Rose's:

Cynthia's:

Mine:

The shadows cast by the streetlight create an eerie effect:

Who would've expected snow on the ground before Halloween? It snowed twice right at the end of the month and it wasn't melting, either:

There's something almost magical about the first snow, before everyone is sick to death of it:

And of course nobody in Iowa knows what to do when they drive in snow even though it snows every winter. I saw a driver run a red and hit a minivan ahead of me when I was taking Rose and Laura to school. Coming back through the intersection was a mess:

It was a dark and snowy night when we crept into the streets to haunt the neighborhoods... and so coooooold.

We're Little Red Riding Hood and a murderin' lumberjack:

And Carrie. THEY'RE ALL GOING TO LAUGH AT YOU:

Rose went with her friends (after a close call with the murderin' lumberjack):

And Emily went with her crew:

Emily and Cora were a creepy doll and a ventriloquist puppet:

After our circuit on Grande we went back to our old neighborhood and Roxi didn't disappoint:

The annual burning of the pumpkins! Such skillful carving, such fiery destruction! And so we celebrated another passing of October.