It's Christmas time in Minnesota! First stop on the way to Bemidji is the Brown home, to see Andria...
... Jeff... And the new baby!
(Officially the sweetest Memphis baby in all of Minnesota.)
Meredith Harper Cline is barely three and a half months old in these pictures...
And curious as ever.
Kid's got quite a grip.
After a quick visit to meet the kiddo, I'm off for Bemidji!
Bemidji, Minnesota. Home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.
And, y'know, my Folks.
On our way to the house we pass by Bemidji's wintertime "suburb."
The Icehouses on Lake Bemidji.
Guys sit in these boxes in sub-zero temperatures to catch fish. And drink beer.
The Dome Home! My folks live in a geodeisic dome.
It's Christmas time, so Mom, Dad and I head out to fulfill the holiday tradition...
Hunting down a suitable Christmas tree!
It's a tiny one this year - Easy to maneuver into the house!
One year we got a tree so tall that it hit the two-story roof of the dome.
We had to cut four feet off the bottom to make it fit.
The branches stuck so far out into the room that we barely had room to sit!
Kali and Dad enjoy the Christmas lights in the dark.
Our little tree looks pretty nice.
Time for presents!
Mom gets a seasonal sweater!
Dad gets some baseball cards!
The cat gets to play in the boxes!
The big score... Dad gets a program from the World's Fair in New York City - the one he went to years ago!
We get to split the venison. Venison meat is a common gift in the cold north woods.
Christmas Morning I go for a walk around the Dome Home.
The snow is only a few inches deep.
The Dome Home is far away from anybody.
Dad splits wood in the summer to burn in the winter.
A birdhouse. Mom's garden is in the background.
Snowcapped logs line the driveway.
This is the brush pile where Mom says the Bear lives.
This is the Bear's mailbox. He gets postcards every once in a while.
Dad clears a cross-country ski trail out through the woods.
At the bottom of the hill is our view of the Mississippi River.
The Dome Home is just a fraction of a mile south of the river's northernmost point.
The beavers went crazy a couple years back and tried to dam the Mississippi. The Department of Natural Resources doesn't take kindly to that.
Bunny tracks in the snow.
Down in the river, ice was forming.
In the summer we canoe this river.
We haul the canoe down the hill and put in right here.
Our canoe ride lasts about an hour as we drift lazily south.
We barely even have to paddle.
I used to go fishing in this river.
The fish didn't seem to notice...
...Which was fine with me.
The river runs cool and crystal clear up here.
We're so far north that no factories dump in it yet.
Next we headed to Indiana for a Batesville Family Christmas.
Indianapolis was done up in lights and seasonal festiveness.
The Smith Family gathers after Christmas every year for a big family Christmas, and we were looking forward to it...
This is my ONLY picture of the big family Christmas in Batesville, Indiana. The extended family all piles into Grandma's house.
On our way back to Minnesota, Mom and I have tea at a real Japanese Tea house.
Okay, ALMOST a real Japanese Tea House.
It was in Wisconsin...
It's my birthday!
We're driving through one of my favorite tourist heavens...
Wisconsin Dells!
For my birthday, my folks are taking me wherever I want to go, and I say ROBOT WORLD!
Tommy Bartlett built Robot World to capitalize on Wisconsin Dells' tourists.
It's a massive experience where you get shot into space!
You get to meet some wa-a-acky robots and try not to blow up the "space station."
Tommy Bartlett was a very shrewd businessman.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, he rushed in and bought an unlaunched hunk of space station MIR before the Russians could learn what money was.
Now it's a walk-through tourist display at Tommy Bartlett's Robot World and Exploratorium!
Suckers. We got the better end of THAT deal.
It's a very happy birthday in Wisconsin Dells!
My folks drop me off in Minneapolis where I see some of my oldest and best friends! Aaron, Michelle, Jess and Tor!
Dayum! Aaron just proposed to Michelle with this bigass rock.
She's pretty happy he got around to that...
Aaron and Michelle have decorated the family pets for the holidays.
They are HUGE Star Wars collectors.
Tor and Aaron are into Warhammer 40k.
They paint up these cool metal miniatures for fun, and have wars with them.
They both have whole armies of these little guys, ready to kick butt.
Happy New Year from Minnesota!