Holidays...ugh is all I have to say...ugh because the weather in St. Louis is the worst holiday weather EVER! It's November 23rd and 60 degrees outside! I want there to be snow on the ground, fires in the place, my cheeks frozen just walking the ten steps from the car to my front door. I want to have to grumble as I get up every morning 10 minutes earlier just to defrost my car. Tanya, who hails from South Dakota, and I were lamenting about this last night as we tried to get into the Christmas spirit. Impossible without the cold!

However, I do like the holidays. Thanksgiving is especially fun with my family. We always eat a big meal (called dinner where I'm from) mid-day. Play cards, during which my grandpa ALWAYS gets accused of cheating. Anyone who is brave enough to be on his team also gets multiple fingers pointed at them. That is usually me. Then we eat turkey sandwiches and ruffles potato chips, and lay around for a while! Of course, we manage to watch a little football, especially if the Huskers are playing. (however they haven't been good enough to get a Turkey day spot for a long time!)

The Friday after t-day is fun as we put our Christmas tree up, celebrate my upcoming birthday, and watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (a tradition started in the recent years by me) The birthday celebration is always an interesting one as my grandpa is usually in charge of the cake. We have this ongoing fight in our family...when making angel food cake, the men prefer to have pink frosting on it. The women prefer it plan. WHAT DO YOU THINK? One year, Grandpa asked me what kind of cake I wanted. I told him nothing with pink frosting. He made a cake, frosted it with chocolate frosting, but put a pink face with tears running down it's cheek on the top of it! I couldn't believe it! Ornery ole man, he is! Last year was a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (my favorite) and a pink blob of frosting right in the middle. Yes, Blob is the correct description.

So my prayer as I travel to small town Missouri is for colder weather (perhaps some snow), and a non-pink birthday cake. Oh, and maybe a Husker victory on Friday.