Mon 12 Dec

Had a very nice trip to Minneapolis this weekend. Arrived in time for Holy Day mass at Lumen Christi with the parochial school students. Walked extensively at Mall of America without buying much. Didn't find the cookie sheets for Taylor at Macy's, so drove toward Galleria but stopped at Home Goods on France Ave en route and found everything on our list for Michael and Taylor in good quality and reasonable prices. Decided to leave Galleria for Friday and just went on to Broder's for dinner. Were able to get a table right away, not too much on top of the neighboring diners, and had a wonderful meal as always. Hit Trader Joe's on the way back to the hotel. Friday morning we did IKEA, arriving just as they opened, then did the Galleria and lunch at the Good Earth. We got to Kurt and Barb's around 3:00 so we'd have a little time before Kurt left to play in his bonspiel. Barb rode with us and graciously narrated as we watched his team win. Kurt stayed to fraternize with his teammates, so we went home with Barb and had some of Kurt's homemade turkey barley soup with toast, and tried a piece of the almond cake we had brought them. Saturday Kurt had a couple of games so he went on his own. We breakfasted on Barb's oatmeal and fruit salad, then drove out to the NordicWare factory outlet store and went crazy buying kitchen stuff for ourselves and for gifts. Barb wanted to walk through a Costco as they are considering a membership, so we went to the one in St Louis Park. We bought a 4 foot prelighted Christmas tree and made the impulsive decision not to put up a big tree this year. We stopped for lunch at a Lebanese deli and had delicious light lunch. On return to Barb's, we went for a nice long neighborhood walk, then drove over to check out the newly-opened Lunds/Byerlys near their house. Kurt's second game was going to be streamed so we watched the last few ends on TV in the living room (while Bob caught a nap). We walked to Lumen Christi for Mass, then Kurt had returned so we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant near their curling club. Barb dozed off on the couch while we visited a short while after returning, then all hit the hay fairly early. Kurt again had a morning match in his bonspiel on Sunday so we said goodbye to him before he left. Barb felt she was coming down with a cold. (She tested negative for Co-vid to be careful). We had cereal and toast with good fresh bread from the French patisserie, then visited awhile longer before taking our leave. We stopped at a big Target on the way out, then lunched at the Finnish Bistro before hitting the Woodbury Costco for gas (and a few other things) on our way home. Food: 8:00 am Pulla cinnamon roll, 103 g blackberries, coffee