Earlier this month we got our first visit from Papa and Sue Sue! They stopped to visit on their way to Florida. The kids enjoyed their time playing in the camper van and making stone soup. Ben got a #4 Green Bay Packers jersey from Papa which he calls his "Frett Barve" jersey. We took a trip to Minneapolis for Thanksgiving. It was an excellent visit with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Leah, and cousin Ella. They are top-notch hosts and we had a nice relaxing day wathcing the snow fly and the kids play. The trip there was a trial. Bad weather plus one wrong turn added about three hours to the voyage. The wrong turn, however did lead us directly to a Starbucks, and we had our first Americanos since leaving Washington. 
Nora is oficially walking. She took off this week and is giggling every step of the way. She even managed to walk up the entire flight of stairs. This adds a whole new element to her persuit of whatever Ben is doing. It is exciting to watch them have so much fun together! Lately, a main activity has been helping Kristin in the kitchen. Today it was baking batches of Christmas cookies. Ben unwrapped all the Hershey's kisses and put them in the bowl. Grandma supervised. The kids were told they could have a cookie when Dad came home from work. Boy were they excited to see me!
