Happy New Year

Happy New Year

By Allan Olson

By all accounts, the New Year’s weekend was the quietest we’ve had in our home in many years. We had no guests – just ourselves to put up with. We spent the weekend lounging around, playing games and watching movies with the kids. There were a couple of recent releases on our movie list – Ice Age 3 and the latest Madagascar – and both provided laughs for all ages.

One evening I took out a deck of cards, and Alivia and I played a match game. Mom joined in partway through, and still managed to beat us both. The next afternoon, a persistent Alivia goaded me into challenging her to one more game and I was soundly defeated again. Out of a possible 26 pairs, she got 20! Apparently I need to work on my memory skills a bit.

We also took some time to hide a geocache right in the Cass Lake area, with the plan of releasing it on New Year’s Day – except someone (that would be me) missed a number when writing down the coordinates, so the release had to be postponed a few days until I was back in town to log the correct coordinates.

On the night before New Year’s Eve (would that be New Year’s Eve eve?) we got the opportunity to have a close-up look at a deer as it was crashing into the front our van about five miles from home. The loud “Smack!” woke up everyone in the car, and caused them to wonder what the heck was going on.

“What was that?” Nikolai pondered from the back.

“Just a deer,” I replied, and we continued down the road for home.

In the yard, I discovered it was quite a chore to crawl across the front seat to get out on the passenger side. Thankfully, a nearby body shop was able to fix the driver’s door enough so it is useable until we have it into the shop for body work.

We spent most of Saturday doing more cleaning and purging in the house. It was time to get rid of some clutter. Our children spent the day cleaning their bedrooms. Once mom and I finished our own tasks and got around to helping them, the process was completed. We removed items causing clutter in their rooms, transferring them to the garage until we can figure out just what we are tossing permanently. Some things are just hard to part with . . .

Year in Review 2012

As with most years, 2012 went by in a blur. We all had birthdays (obviously), which means the kids are getting older (the parents, too). The children are getting to be more and more self-sufficient, too, which is good and bad. Our oldest will reach the double digits next month; it’s hard to believe that time has flown by that fast! The teenage years are approaching quickly.

The kids started their second year at the Cass Lake-Bena School, and our youngest one joins them four days a week in pre-school. “Home is boring,” Alivia says now. “School is fun.” Hopefully, she will always view it so.

The twins, Abigail and Marcus, are quickly becoming “big kids” in their actions, manners and independence. They are definitely polar opposites, and it’s often hard to remember that they actually are the same age because they seldom have the same likes.

In May of 2012 mom introduced us to this new hobby of ours, “Geocaching.” She said it was only meant to be an occasional thing to do with the kids – that was the plan, until she got me doing it. I could do it every weekend and more, at least during the warmer time of the year. To date, we have found 216 caches and hidden three.

The summer included a first-ever family reunion for my generation on the Olson side of the family. It was a lot of fun (and work), and we hope to pull off another one in two-three years. The family reunion took the place of our annual camping trip, so this year we are planning a visit to the Badlands of South Dakota.

Now we are ready to tackle 2013. Nearly two weeks into it, we’re are hoping for another fun year. One resolution is to perhaps do a little more fishing.

Remember to watch out for school buses on the roads; they are carrying a precious cargo – our children. Also please exercise caution when venturing out on the lakes. Thanks for reading, and have a great and safe weekend. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com/.