It's Christmas Time in the City

Here it is, five days until Christmas Eve and a few days until we pack up and depart for the Christmas...or excuse me...winter holiday weekend (eyeroll).  I vaguely recall a time where it seemed like Christmas would never come and every day on the paper chain or advent calendar was longer than the one before it.  I believe those days were during a time when I didn't have to do anything to get ready for Christmas besides wrap a few presents whenever I felt like it.  Those days are gone.  We have spent every weekend of December at football games and Justin has been gone a lot for work.  He is also going out of town for work this week.  When I heard this news last week I realized there were things that just wouldn't be happening with our current rate of progress, including sending Christmas cards (they have been here for about a week) and wrapping any and all gifts. Most of them came on Saturday when we were gone because UPS has been delayed for weeks since our double blizzard hit earlier this month so I couldn't wrap them anyway.  There were so many boxes piled in front of our house that my neighbor called with concern and asked if she could put them inside for us and they ended up storing them in their garage.  We don't live in a pedestrian traffic area so she was more worried about the extreme cold than thieves. 

Speaking of extreme cold, we (me and Justin and Ben) tailgated on Friday night when it was -10 degrees outside not including windchill.  We do have a tent and outdoor heaters but still...the drafts still get to your feet.  I didn't get any good pictures from that night except two...

This was one of a series of really bad pictures I took of myself when I was walking in to the dome.  There was a big NDSU logo projected on the side of the building.  Well, I took my glove off to use my phone and (for real) my hand was instantly numb and turned white(er than it already is).  And the wind was hitting me and just as I took the photo they turned off the projector.  Definitely not worth the ten minutes of tingly fingers and capillary refill that I had to experience once I was inside. 

And the other is my mom and my aunt looking all festive. And that's it.  As you most likely know, we lost the game for the first time in six years and there will be no trip to Texas.  It feels weird but I have an underlying relief about not trying to arrange childcare and frantically book overpriced airline tickets for three weeks from now.  Also, we had already purchased a set of eight tickets for the game which we were able to sell online on Saturday night so that is a relief. 

We returned home as early as we could manage yesterday to try to fit in every Christmas prep activity we could.  Justin went to his office to print address labels and I frantically stuffed over 100 Christmas cards into envelopes and I dropped them in a mailbox after a trip to Walmart to buy any and all baking and food prep items I would need for the week. 

Last week, Justin tried to surprise us with a visit to the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, which mainly stops in obscure railroad towns on the line.  It stops and certain towns and a car opens into a stage and they have a little concert and a food drive to go with it. 

That's a stock photo.  Isn't it magical though? I have been wanting to see this for a long time.  Well, guess what.  It was delayed an HOUR AND A HALF!  We were in a small town where we don't know anyone when it was -15 outside with three impatient kids.  Of course, the only option was to leave.  I'm still annoyed by it.  You can't delay something like that an hour and a half.  People stand around outside waiting for it.  So last night we made it up to the kids by visiting our neighborhood crazy Christmas house. 

These people live a few blocks from us.  I don't want to know how much work all this nonsense is.  I'm glad someone feels compelled to do this because I sure don't.  I love to look at it though.  They have a tunnel of lights over the sidewalk, a Ferris wheel (which you can see wasn't operational last night.  I'm sure the blizzards weren't easy on this whole display), a ski lift leading up to the roof, and various other displays.  They even had a Christmas village set up behind a glass case. 

I guess Milo was a bit annoyed by having to stand on his own. 

It was freezing out at this time although when we woke up this morning it was 28 above zero when last night it was -10.  I am always fascinated by the way the weather can change so drastically.  30 degrees would have been nice in that tailgating parking lot on Friday night! 

Here's another picture of the house.  It's a modest ranch.  I don't know where they keep all these decorations.  They must have a storage unit or something.  It was no magical Christmas train but at least it was something.