It's December!

I can't even believe that it's December already. Where did the year go? Ugh!

We had such a great weekend up in Elbow Lake for Thanksgiving. We decided not to leave until Thanksgiving Day due to the weather and traffic. We made it to my grandparents house just in time for the big Thanksgiving feast, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, beans, salads, marshmallow bread, cranberries..you name it. It was delicious, as it always is. As us kids grow bigger and expand our families, Grandpa and Grandma's house gets smaller and smaller, but that's half the fun, squeezing together to get a fourth of a corner of the table. Hey, family togetherness is what it's all about, right?

My cousin Tony surprised us by being at Thanksgiving. None of us were expecting him, so it was nice that he was there. He seemed like his old self, which made the day that much more fun. We all discussed our new annual tradition, "Cousins Weekend" at the cabin. I was happy that Tony was just as in to it as I was, to help me excite the others. Trying to find a weekend that will work for us all to be there is nearly impossible, but I'm determined to make it work. Wish me luck!
We stayed for dinner, too, but hurried home to free Chip from his kennel. He had been either stuck in the car or in his kennel all day, so he was eager to stretch his legs and run.

When the rest of the world was up early Friday morning waiting in lines, dodging crowds, pushing and shoving their way to the best sales, we were all laying in our nice warm cozy beds. After working retail, I would rather spend more money than shop Black Friday.

After Courtney was done working, we took Grandpa Dick to Fergus to eat at his favorite Chinese restaurant, Hunan's, for his 90th Birthday. It was delicious and as always I ate way too much.
When we got home - the drama began. People often describe me as dramatic, however, I don't agree. Drama follows me, it's not like I look for it, it's just there. Anyways, so we get home and notice that there is a car parked in front of our neighbors house, with the lights off and everything, but it's running. Awhile later Adam takes Chip for a walk and notices it's still there, and still running. We try to calculate how long it's been running and figured it had to be around 2 hours or so. So, my dad calls his neighbor and let's him know, just incase it was a visitor of their's that had forgotten to shut their car off. The neighbor said he'd been wondering the same thing. The car didn't belong to him. So, my dad decides to call the police. We wait and wait and finally they arrive and of course, we're all outside gawking. Tiny, Dad and Adam scoped out the car, to make sure nobody was in it. We talked to the cop and explained what we'd seen, ect. He ran the plates and turns out it's someone that Tiny knew from high school. He was even a 'friend' of his on Facebook. Weird! Anyways, no great story - turns out the kid was at some church decorating for Christmas and forgot to shut his car off. *LOL

Adam scared us with his magic card trick and made Courtney cry. HOW DOES HE DO IT??
Saturday was Grandpa's actual Birthday. We made a cake and brought the party over to his apartment that afternoon. The girls and I had made him a Birthday sign and crown and Adam made him some jerky. We stayed and decorated his apartment for Christmas. The girls put up the tree and Adam and Tiny put up the lights. It looked very cute and festive. And the best part, Grandpa was Happy! He seemed to have had a really great day. It was so nice to be there to celebrate with him.

Saturday night was a whole other world of drama. My mom had been mentioning to us for quite some time that she has felt that there is a ghost in the church. She keeps it pretty hush hush because of the tricks your mind can play on you when you're alone in a huge building by yourself. Since she is the church secretary, she goes over there often, at odd hours of the day and night to do her work. I won't go into the crazy things that have happened to her and others at the church, but I'll tell ya what happened Saturday night.

What prompted us to want to go over to the church was that my Mom, Dad, brother Geoff and AJ were over there about a month ago and said they actually 'talked' to a ghost. The ghost would answer by making the cloth move on the alter. This, of course, intrigued Tiny, Adam and I to go over there. First, Adam and Tiny went over there by themselves (this was 'at night' of course) and went in and sat in the front pew in the pitch dark. They said they started asking the ghost questions or to give them a sign that they were there. They didn't see or hear anything. So, they came home. They mentioned that it was really cold in the church, so Mom and I went over there to check to see if the furnace was working. While we were there, we walked around and tried to 'talk' to the ghost again. We walked up in the choir loft and downstairs. We thought we heard the same shuffling footsteps, but it wasn't an obvious sign. So, we went home. Later, my Mom took Adam and Tiny over there. They walked all over the church and didn't hear or see anything. Adam would be LYING if he said he wasn't scared, though. Then after they came back, my Mom took my Dad and I over there. We stood in the front of the church for awhile, then walked to the entry way and then sat in one of the back pews for awhile. My mom and I thought we heard footsteps again, but weren't sure. My Mom tried talking to the ghost again..asking to give us a sign like turning on a light (yes, it's happened) or opening a door or making a noise or something. We heard and saw nothing. My Mom proceeded to ask questions and in a way try to make the ghost mad..hey, we wanted a sign, ok! Nothing happened, though, so we left. And YES, this has a crazy ending.

The next morning, Sunday, some people when over to set up for mass and called my Mom about 8 am saying they thought someone had broke into the church. ALL THE DOORS WERE OPEN..ALL THE CLOSETS WERE OPEN AND ALL THE CUPBOARDS WERE OPEN! Not wanting to sound crazy and tell them about the ghost, my Mom went over there and they ended up calling the police. There was a suggestion box attached to the wall by the mailboxes that had been ripped down and broken into. There was about $30-60 in there that was stolen. So, not only was it creepy that we were in there and shortly after the church was robbed...but, the next day when the guy went in to fix the locks, he called my Mom and said that he thought someone was messing with us, because the locks weren't actually broken. (So, the doors that had been locked, were now open, but still in the locked position, with no damage to the wall or the door at all.) Another thing that was noticed by the police was that there were squeal marks in the parking lot.

Our theory : Someone broke into the church, stole the money and was scared out by the ghost opening all the doors and making noise that they hurried out and squealed out of the parking lot. I'm not saying it was a ghost....but I'm just saying...CREEPY! SO THEN...to top it all off....
My Mom goes over to the church yesterday (Tuesday) for adoration. She is supposed to sit in the church and pray for a certain amount of time and then my Grandma comes in and prays, and then someone else comes in..ect. So, when my Mom got there she goes to the front of the church and stands at the alter. She talks out loud and asks the ghost if it's there to move the alter cloth. Sure enough the alter cloth moved. Since it was so windy outside my mom said she needed a bigger sign. She said " I need you to do something with the lights while I'm here for adoration." So, she walks away and does some work in a side room off the main part of the church. Then, needed to go to the basement to cut some paper in half using the cutting board. As she walked downstairs the lights in the kitchen were on. Umm..weird! So, she said,"Ok, do it again, give me another sign, make some noise". Nothing happened while she was there, but when she got home she got a phone call from my Grandma who said that when she was sitting in the church praying, she heard this loud crash and couldn't figure out where it came from. All my Mom said was, "Hmmm, interesting".

NOW EXPLAIN THAT??

Makes ya wonder!

I have to admit it was a bit awkward feeling walking into the church for mass on Sunday. I just felt like something crazy was going to happen while we were all there. But, nothing out of the ordinary that we noticed.

We left for home right after church. We didn't know what kind of traffic we were going to hit and Adam wanted to make it home to see the Vikings game. I bathed the girls when we got home and then their friend Maddie came over to play. Adam watched the game and I put all our stuff away. I hate unpacking.

It turned out to be such a great weekend with my family. As always, it's hard to leave, but great to be back home.