Thanksgiving Festivities

We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner at Mom and Dad's place this year. My Grandpa Berger is staying in Lake Benton for several weeks, so we were able to visit him as well. Each of my parents children was able to visit at least part of the the weekend, which it nice, as we rarely ALL get together at the same time.

We enjoyed Theresa's Sugar Free (all though not intended to be) berry pie and Christin's suprisingly tangy Cranberry Compote. The biggest hits of the weekend were Michael's smoked pork loin and Brenda Nectarine's Cranberry-horse radish sauce with cream cheese on crackers! Gotta try it!

After dinner we trekked on over to the playground for KICKBALL! We played adults vs kids which turned out to be about right, although Brenda abandoned ship and joined the kids' team half way through. In the end the game was a success as no one was injured (permanently) and everyone had fun.

Darci was chosen MVP for twice catching a hard-kicked popfly and taking a line-drive to the chest and not missing even a half an inning. Steve had the best day at the plate with two near-homers and once almost making a basket. Cory was nearly ejected for a technical foul when he beaned Dad in the head, but he was properly remorseful and all was forgiven. Brenda Nectarine got the bully award for smacking Skylar in the head when all she was doing was trying to play third base!

More highlights at 10!

Blessed Thanksgiving!

October Fest!

I know, I know. I haven't been keeping up on the blog. I my defense, it has been a very busy couple of weeks. But when aren't we busy? So, no excuses. This is what we've been up to.

As you probably read, we are having a baby! Christin had her first actual appointment earlier this month, and she and baby are doing well. While fatigue is normal for an expecting mom, she feels very tired lately. I ALWAYS feel tired, so I am no help in that department.

I keep joking that maybe we're having twins which is met with a raised eyebrow. I only say it because then it can't be true. If you actually SAY something might happen, then it WON'T happen. It CAN'T happen... ...Can it???

We went down to visit Maggie a few weeks back. Everyone was so excited to see her, and she to see us! The kids played a few exciting games of air hockey... I think Maggie came out the winner. Regardless, they had fun.
We hope to see her again at Christmas time.

In mid October we set out to harvest the remaining items in our garden, tomatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins. We had had only a few nighst of frost so the tomatoes were safe with a blanket for protection. But word on the street was that snow was coming. Sure enough, it did! As we picked the pumpkins the snow began to fall. Undaunted, we paused only to catch a few frozen flakes on our tongues and continued with our harvest. With pumpkins and tomatoes finished, only the potatoes remained. But the sun set too quickly, as it does in the fall, and we had to wait until the next weekeend.

When we finally did dig our potatoes, I was suprised to find that the red ones (Pontiac, I think) were prolific this summer, both in size and number! Many of the potatoes weighed more than a pound each! In addition, some of the plants had as many as 4 to 7 of the titanic tubors per plant!
We also harvested apples from our third tree. While just as plentiful as the first two, I think we waited a bit too long, as many of the apples had bird damage or had already succommed to the cold weather.

Home schooling keeps us going as well. We recently had our first biology class and dissected earth worms!!!

PICTURES TO BE ADDED SOON!

Thanks,
Todd and Family

Meet Bunny

- Bunny, the tiny but noisey black kitten. He was found along with his twin brother in the middle of the highway with no mother cat in sight on the coldest day of the fall. We took them in, but the other kitten did not survive. He follows the kids everywhere (sometimes not by his choice, but theirs!)
Though small in size, he makes up for it is fight! For the first week or two he hissed at everything but the kids. Our black lab is scared of him! (Actually that is more telling about the dog than about Bunny!)