Welcome 2013! Happy New Year!

Hi, I can't tell you what a wonderful week I've had. Must be the best surprise I ever had.  Thank you to my family for making it happen.
Sunday Tom and Karen picked me up at about 2 p.m. to go to the cabin. We got there in plenty time to watch the Viking game, with Jim and Ann, Annie and Doug, and all the grand kids   After the game and the celebration of it....the kids went down to the ice and played on it a lot.  They worked at shoveling off the ice so they could skate on it yesterday.
I made chicken and dumplings after eating a ton of snack food during the game.  It went over well, and it was my contribution to the mounds of food we had.
I played cribbage with Jim and Ann, and first Jimbo skunked both Ann and me, and then Ann skunked Jimbo and me.  That was enough of that for the night.  We headed for bed around 12:30 a.m., and it was a great day.
Yesterday we all got up late, and kind of vegged around most of the morning.  Finally at about 2 p.m. we had lunch, a large batch of sloppy joes Tom made.  The grandma Schoenecker recipe, with baked beans.  Her way of making them go farther....or stretching the recipe.  We ate those all afternoon, along with another bunch of snacks of all kinds.
The kids spent all afternoon on the ice, and the guys built a fire in the grate on the deck....they all came up smelling like smoke.  The kids wrote their names in the snow, and even Happy New Year in the snow on the  ice. Presley said it was the best week she ever had.  I think that was my sentiment too!
Around 6:45 Bill, Kim, Katie and Tom arrived, and we could have supper.  Jimbo was in charge of that, and we had beef stroganoff.  Wow was it good.  I hadn't had that for a long time. We laughed and visited all evening, as well as playng some more cribbage  We continued to eat snacks, a new bunch was supplied by Kim.  I finally beat Bill and then Tom in two handed cribbage and was feeling pretty good.  Then after celebrating the New Year, Jimbo, Tom, Ann and I played a game of criss-cross which is sort-of-a four handed version of cribbage....at least you score it like cribbage.  We played girls against the boys, and Ann and I ended up losing.  Oh Well.

The new year celebration was fun, as usual the whole gang except me, went down to the ice about 10 minutes before midnight, and got the camera's and tripods set up and ready for the ball to drop, using their cell phones to keep track of the time. Here's the picture they took at midnight! Note Jack and I are missing.

When they got back to the cabin, we poured sparkling grape juice for the grandkids, and champagne for all but me and Tom.  I think he was drinking coffee, and I had Killebrew Creme Soda....yum, yum.  The party continued and I think the grandkids went down and watched Pitch Perfect for the 10th time or more in two days.  What great fun.
This morning again we all were slow at getting up, but I had promised to make Grupfins (a Hungarian form of fried bread dough).  So I took out 3 bags of frozen Texas rolls from the fridge and placed them on cookie sheets to raise at about 6:30 a.m., and then went back to bed to wait till 7 a.m. to take my pills, which I over slept for and took at about 7:45 and went back to sleep till 9 a.m. I thought, but ended up being 9:30, when Bill had just gotten up as well.  He put the coffee on, and I started getting things ready for frying the dough.  I also turned the oven on and placed a package of turkey bacon on another cookie sheet to get cooked, and warm up the kitchen. I also poured two bottles of oil into a large frying pan, and had to wait quite a while for it to get hot enough.  Several of the kids, and adults had never had them before, and didn't have the foggiest idea what they were or how they would taste.
They all loved them, and Kennedy and Tommy both came to watch how I did it, and Kennedy even made a couple herself, so she can help Karen make them again tomorrow.  I am so happy we have another of grandma Schoenecker's recipe's being passed down to another generation or two. After breakfast, I had a whole pan of rolls raised and ready to be baked, so we did.  Everyone took some home with them.
We packed and cleaned and left as soon as we could.  Doug, Nicole and Allie left first as the girls had to be back for hockey. Then I think the Bill Kiecker's left as they were having Kim's family over for dinner, and then Tom and family as they had to drive back to Naperville.  Annie, Matthew, Jimbo, Ann and I all left at about the same time. I spent the rest of the day resting! What a wonderful Surprise Week! I couldn't ask for more!  Love and Prayers, m