Brothers Back Together Again

Dan is the 3rd of 5 brothers. Dan's  youngest brother came home from his mission to Melbourne, Australia this August and all the brothers were gathered for Christmas for the 1st time in a long time.  All served foreign mission to and in order of age: Craig went to Spain, Chad to England, Dan to Japan, Kevin to Hong Kong and Casey to Australia. 

Dan's brothers and all the grandchildren

The Colyar Family

Winter Wonderland

We are spending the Christmas holidays in Utah and didn't expect the snow to be worse than it was is Minnesota but it was. That 1st morning we had to dig out Dan's parents house so visitors could park. Even with our best efforts at least 5 cars had to be helped out and pushed before they could go on their merry way.

We were fortunate enough to meet with some friends, Joie and Adam Madison. (See Madison blog) They are currently having their adventures in San Francisco and adventures they are having.

Adam and Iris (my sister) helping Dan out. Shouldn't Iris be driving and Dan pushing?

Monty (Dan's Dad) and Dan plowing 

Getting my winter exercise

Nativity Display

In our stake they have a wonderful tradition of gathering nativity sets from members, setting them up and inviting the community. It takes quite a bit of organization. They collected over 400 nativity sets, also know as cresh displays, trees, extension cords, lights, and table cloths. Nativity sets come from all over the world. It was so neat to see the birth of Christ portrayed in different ways. Members volunteer in greeting guests, taking coats and informing guests about displays. They also invited school and other church groups to participate and share their musical talents. The logistics must be quite a challenge. For all the work it was featured in the paper. It was great publicity for the church.

Dan and I attended on Sunday and it was a packed house. "Missionary" Jessica invited 2 co-workers to attend. I wanted to invite more but I was worried about the exact guidelines for that sort of stuff knowing that our "Secret Santa" is called "Secret Snowflake" because of sensitivities at work. Next year I will build on what I did this year. I also want to try to get a unique set so I could loan it to the cause.

Dan really liked this one. It looks like its from Japan.

I thought of Kristi when I saw this one. Looks like Klinkits to me.

From Mongolia

Thanksgiving

My parents were able to fly from Florida to visit us in Minnesota for Thankgiving. In retrospect we should have visited them to get away from the cold but it was nice to show them around Minneapolis. My parents had a nice flight on the Monday before Thanksgiving and when I saw them I couldn't help but run to them and hug the life out of them.  It hadn't been too long since I've seen my mom, our Hawaii trip was only 3 months ago, but it's been since February since I've seen my Dad.  It was great to spend some time together.

My mom was excited to visit the Mall of America. With over 500 stores we broke it up over 2 days. On the 1st day we did the amusement park. That was a blast. By the 3-4 ride I was spent, I'm getting old. We also headed down to Owatanna, south of Minneapolis, to visit some snowbird couple friends of my parents that make Deltona their home during the harsh Minnesota winter.

In Owattana w/ Darlene and Dale

The boys needed a massage chair break from all the walking at the Mall of America.

The Wii experience made a stop at Mall of America and I had to show my parents what it was all about. My dad played doubles tennis w/ Dan and I. I challenged my mom to the joust and she ended up beating me. Dan then challenged her and she still beat him. A guy was standing by and he also challenged her and she still beat him.  It was pretty hilarious.

My mom kicking butt at the joust

Dad and Dan playing tennis

Roller coaster Dan

Dan volunteered to sit with this little boy since he was too short to go unchaperoned. Who's having more fun?

My mom being scared out of her mind. She closed her eyes through 95% of the ride.

Dan's beautiful brined turkey. It was so tender and delicious.

Enjoying Thanksgiving feast with my parents Harry and Zaida.

Are we officially Minnesotans now?

Jessica has been harping on me to post this, so even though it has been a while since it happened I changed the oil in our car "buddy" and got him some new 10,000 lakes Minnesota license plates. Looks pretty good I think.

Vineland Trip

Last week I attended Thermal Process School in Vineland NJ.  The most convenient airport to fly into is Philadelphia and then we take a car to NJ.  I had to drag 2 of my coworkers, they didn't seem like the planning type, so I set in motion some events so we could get into Philly early and visit the city. I had been to Philly once before with my manager but I barely got him to stop for a Philly before we headed to the plant. Since I was the "lead" on this trip I took it upon myself to do some fun things before going to the plant.

Since the 1st "National Treasure" included scenes from Independence Hall I wanted to take a tour and it being the day of elections I thought it was appropriate to visit where the declaration was signed. In my research I also found that Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef extraordinaire, had a restaurant not even 3 blocks from there so I had to go visit.

 

Independence Hall. Towards the end of National Treasure Nicolas Cage's character climbs up to the bell tower and goes across the roof to retrieve Benjamin Franklin's glasses from a brick that is on the chimney. (upper right hand)

Where the declaration was signed!

The day was soggy wet and a bit cold

At Morimoto's the food was delicious. So delicious in fact that I had 2 desserts. Yeah, I know a bit excessive especially since we had appetizers and then a big meal but you only live once right!?!? Let me also explain that in our company there's a fair amount of business drinking, and we are not talking "Shirley Temples". I kinda feel left out as far as employees spending $$$ on their dining experience. I decided that my dining experience is deserts so I ordered 2. It wasn't the 1st time I did it and it won't be the last and since the "General" pays for everything I say "why the heck not".

The man himself, Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef

The decor was amazing. The glow changes to other colors blue, shown above, purple, green, etc. We had been sitting for 20min or so till we noticed. We were seated in the middle right.

Our appetizers. Also my point, my coworker is having a beer tasting w/ his meal.

My meal-Seafood 'Toban Yaki": King crab, shrimp, scallops, New Zealand mussels, shanghai greens oyster mushrooms w/ citrus butter.

1st dessert - Chocolate Pot de creme - Chocolate custard, caramelized banana, whipped cream. Doesn't that sound amazing, now you can see why I couldn't just choose one.

2nd dessert- Yuzu meringue tart. This one was my favorite. The meringue was sinful and the yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) was refreshing.

 

Progresso Plant in Vineland, NJ

Can you believe how cheap the gas was in Vineland NJ a week ago. Now its even less. I thought I would never see it be less than $3 let alone less that $2. They tell me that the gas here doesn't have as many taxes on it. Dan and I are pleasantly surprised that the gas in Minneapolis is also a lot less than the national average. Currently the cheapest gas here is $1.87 and the national average is $2.18

On the way back from the airpot we visited Philly's Chinatown. I had peking duck for the 1st time and it was yummy! I wished that Kevin could have been there to translate. There was all this great food but didn't really know what it was. 

Gates of Philadelphia's Chinatown

Ducks and Chickens

Crazy huge cabbage or sofa pillow!

You might be thinking...now was this a vacation or a business trip. I'll assure you it was both but the "General" is amazing when it comes to travel. So we did have plenty of fun but we did plenty of learning as well.

Progresso Spirit Event

Last week our group played hooky and visited an orchard, that's big around here. It was an opportunity to know my co-workers a little bit better. The orchard provided lunch and we had all-things apple: brats and hamburgers soaked in apple cider, onion/apple relish, 2 types of apple pie, potato-apple salad, and apple cider. Delicious.

Chuga-Chuga-Choo-Choo

I'm a farm girl now

Last week I did my first formulations and ran them in the pilot plant. I was a bit nervous and I didn't do everything a 100% but good enough to have my cans judge by my team and for them to be deemed worthy to be judge by the bigger Progresso team.  Unfortunately I will be in NJ when the larger team meets. Hopefully no one will think its awful.  So everybody cross their fingers and hope that they pass. If so my formulation will be the new formulation used on 100 of thousands of cans. How exciting!