Friday, December 20, 2019

JANUARY 2020 

Our family saw  FROZEN II over Thanksgiving break and I loved it for several reasons.  Being a Scandinavian and a Minnesotan I love winter and all it’s traits.  How exciting it would be to be Elsa with her magic powers to create snow and Ice anywhere, anytime.  With the wave of a hand Elsa creates ice castles and snowmen, skating ponds and sparkling forests.  If her good friend, a snowman named Olaf, is melting, she creates a mini snow storm around him bringing him back to good health.  In this movie Elsa, her sister, Anna, and friends Olaf, Sven the reindeer, and Kristoff, conquer the forces of nature and learn to love the ways of the northern people.  They love winter!
I, too, love many things about winter.  It’s here to stay for awhile so I want to enjoy it!  Snow and frost are beautiful as they sparkle on the trees, rock, rivers and houses.   My older grandsons gather snow from all around the yard (some years they have to make their own snow) to build a huge snow fort.  When it’s done several adult size people can fit inside.  The younger grandsons build snowmen and play chasing games through the snowy bushes in the neighborhood.  Our whole family loves downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and sledding together.  A walk on a quiet bike trail through snow covered trees is a great way to relax for awhile.  A cup of hot chocolate by the fireplace or an outdoor fire pit is a great way to end a walk.  The Bartz family, living just north of Salem, builds an enormous snow sculpture every winter that attracts thousands of visitors.  An ice castle will be built near Long Lake this year and many will visit there.  It has been in Stillwater in years past.  I visited it there and loved it!
There are many ways to enjoy winter.  Ice fishing is one very Minnesota choice.  I’m not a fisherman any time of the year but my one good fishing story happened when I was ice fishing as a young girl.  My cousin and I were given permission to use an icehouse on Lake Darling where her parents owned a resort.  We put our line in the water through a hole in the floor which I remember being in the corner of the icehouse floor.  Then we proceeded to do what girls usually do, hang out talking, laughing, maybe we had a snack, I don’t remember for sure.  At any rate, we were not checking our line.  Suddenly there was a splash and a huge (at least by our definition) northern came up the hole in the floor!  We screamed and didn’t have a clue what to do.  The fish flopped around and eventually got stuck between the ice and the floor of the icehouse.  Our screams attracted help and eventually the fish somehow got pulled out of the icehouse and was, at last, laying on the ice outside.  Even though we  really had nothing to do with actually catching this fish, I remember feeling very proud of “the big one” we caught that day!
It’s the beginning of a new year and I’m excited about the winter and all that follows it.

“Do you want to build a snowman?”