Thursday, December 25, 2025

Holiday Season 2025 - Christmas Eve Day 1

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Stopped by Lunds this morning to do our Christmas grocery shopping. Busy-ish there but not too bad. 

Christmas Eve cigar while Dale was at the gym. 



While Dale was still at the gym I hauled the Christmas tree up from the basement. It needed fluffing. 

Success!!

Holiday Season 2025 - Errands, Sylvester, Cigars

 Tuesday, December 23, 2025

Dale took me to Stogies on Grand in St. Paul so I could pick up cigars. We also stopped by the grocery store to pick up dinner makings and then Cork Dork so I could pick up some gin. 

Dale folded up the blankets we had available to Calvin. He set them on a chair in the living room so I could take them back upstairs for storage. Of course Sylvester couldn't resist and he slept there most of the rest of the day.
I tried to snap a picture of him sleeping in a sunbeam but he sensed I was there and popped his head up. 

Lit up a Camacho around 3pm.

Had some gin to go with it. 


Holiday Season 2025 - The Solstice and Cigar Time

Monday, December 22, 2025

Took Calvin to the Mall of America this morning for more shopping. He found a few more things for his collections. He wanted to go to Wendy's for lunch so we picked Mom up around 11:30 and took him there. Afterward we took in to the Mall of America for more shopping and to kill a little time before his flight. Cigar after dropping Calvin at the airport. Photo taken about 5:00 pm. Sun had set about 4:40. Shortest day of the year. Looking forward to longer days. I've heard by the end of January we'll have gained about two extra hours a day. Happy solstice.

Holiday Season 2025 - The Solstice and Calvin

Sunday, December 21, 2025 

Calvin's here with us this weekend. 

He's here on a layover after a trip he took to Japan with his friend Joaquin. On Friday night we met him at the Mall of America. He and Joaquin took the train there after their flight got in. We met them and Joaquin's aunt and uncle at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company. What nice people. Mom was also with us and had a great time. Today Calvin went to church with Mom at Nativity and we met them at Pittsburgh Blue in the Galleria for lunch afterward. Calvin wanted to go downtown and walk around so we took him to Dayton's to see the holiday market there. We entererd the Crystal Court in the IDS Center and took the skyway over. 



The holiday market was nice. After we checked it out we walked Nicollet Mall.


We took pictures with the Mary Tyler Moore statue. 

Chilly outside. 

But it was sunny.

And fun to walk around. 

It was also fun to look in the Dayton's store windows. 

Calvin also wanted to stop at Target to look for some classic toys he's collecting that he can't get in Germany. He found a few. 

I haven't been on the Mall in quite a while.

I used to be there all the time in my younger days. 

It was good to be out and about and it brought back lots of different memories. 

Dale made chili for dinner and we had Mom over. 

Calvin wanted to have tea after dinner. 

He brought back some little tea cakes from Japan that he wanted to share with us. 

He recommended that we eat them with green tea. We didn't have that but we had some spearmint flavored black tea that worked pretty well. The trick was to take little nibbles of the cakes and then have a sip of tea. It was quite satisfying and delicious. 

Before we took mom home we took pictures. 

It's been wonderful having him here to stay with us - an early Christmas gift. 



Sunday, December 21, 2025

Fourth Sunday of Advent

 Sunday, December 21, 2025

Getting closer.
Calvin's here for the weekend. He went to church with Mom at Nativity. 

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Holiday Season 2025 - More Santas, Cigars, and Music

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Found another box with Santas in it. I knew I was missing a few when I set them out earlier. 



So I added them to the display. 

Another cigar. Lit up around 1:30. Probably almost twenty degrees warmer this morning. The temperature has been dropping gradually throughout the day. I could really feel the difference by the time I was finished with my cigar. 


More holiday music after I went back inside to warm up. Dale helped me. The soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas turns 60 years old this year. I find it comforting to listen to. I've been hearing it my whole life. 



Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Holiday Season 2025 - Whamageddon

 Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Got Whammed today while I was scrolling Instagram and saw this post.