Christmas in Minnesota...

I arrived in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening, after flying through Atlanta. No delays and no snow storm (as I had heard) when I landed in Minneapolis.

Wednesday I went to Nerstrand to pick up our ham and wrapped a few gifts I brought with me from Florida. We went to 5 pm church, then came home for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner--complete with ham and roadhouse potatoes. We opened our gifts and had a nice evening.

Thursday morning David and I made the food to take to his sister, Dawn's house for Christmas Day with his family. We had another great meal and a nice afternoon, before people took off for the afternoon movie. I headed home and began packing some of the Christmas decorations.

Friday I met Lorie and Barb for breakfast at the Tavern. Brooke and I ran a few errands during the afternoon before we met Marilyn and Jason Phelps for dinner at the golf club.

Saturday morning I met Dot for breakfast at the Quarterback Club, before heading to the Cities for a quick errand at Best Buy. Saturday night, our family met the Petersons at Buffalo Wild Wings in Apple Valley. It had been way too long since we had dinner with Don and Jane--always fun to catch up with them and the kids.

Sunday I finished packing a few things before the girls took me to the airport. My return flight out of Minneapolis was delayed, so I went stand-by on another flight to Detroit, so I wouldn't miss my connecting flight to West Palm. We landed at 12:15 so by the time I got home and to bed...it was well after 1:30 a.m. Eventhough it was a short night, it will be a quiet few days at work...so should be good for getting lots of year-end work wrapped up.

Looking forward to Brooke's arrival tonight!

~Le Ann

Last weekend before Christmas...

This was my last weekend in West Palm Beach before heading to Minnesota on Tuesday for Christmas. Friday night I went out to Juno Beach for a walk on the beach before dark...it was a perfect night. Then I went to Kathy's house to eat pizza and watch a movie...a great way to end the week.

Saturday I played golf at PGA National on the Champ course with seven colleagues from work. We played at 7:50 and were done before noon--always nice to have the pace of play move along on a Saturday morning. In the afternoon, we went for a walk along the beach then out to lunch. It was a "Chamber of Commerce" day--with perfect weather, sunshine and no rain!

Sunday Kathy and I met for breakfast at the Juno Beach Cafe then went for our walk along the beach. Sunday afternoon, Drew and I met at the driving range then went out and played golf on the Champ course...there was no one out golfing so we cruised right along and played as many holes as we could.

I have one suitcase packed with gifts and need to get ready to brace the cold weather in Minnesota!

~Le Ann

St. Augustine, Florida

I spent this weekend in St. Augustine, Florida--about three hours north of where I live in West Palm Beach. On Friday night, I took the tour of the Christmas lights around the city on a little train that included singing Christmas carols and wearing three-dimensional glasses...it was cool and a bit hokey riding around the town singing and wearing 3-D glasses--but still quite festive.

Saturday I visited the World Golf Hall of Fame. There was a special exhibit honoring Bob Hope and his contribution to golf...it was pretty amazing to see more than 400 artifacts, 300 images, a special audio tour and videos shown on monitors throughout the display celebrating Hope's career in entertainment, his relationships with U.S. Presidents, his devotion to the men and women of the military and his love of golf. A second exhibit is a tribute to Jack Nicklaus--celebrating the stories of The Golden Bear's benchmark career in golf and his successful career and life off the course. My favorite part of the tour was the locker room--special lockers with keep sakes from each member of the Hall of Fame. The World Golf Hall of Fame includes an IMAX Theater--which because of Christmas was showing The Polar Express...a great movie to see in IMAX!

Saturday night we had dinner out on the water--another cool evening but since there was a boat parade, it was a fun night to be out on the town.

Sunday was a three hour drive back to West Palm Beach and getting ready for another week at work. I can't believe Christmas is just ten days away!

~Le Ann

PGA Holiday Party

This has been a crazy busy week at work--we had the PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit in Port St. Lucie from Dec. 3-7...complete with a Play Golf America Day on Wednesday and the PGA/USA Today Hotline on Thursday.

Thursday night David flew in for a long weekend in West Palm Beach. Saturday afternoon we went to the Breakers and walked around downtown West Palm Beach. Saturday night we had our PGA Holiday party at PGA National...a fun evening of good food with good friends.

Sunday morning David and I met Kathy for breakfast at the Juno Beach Cafe then walked along the beach. David and I drove around a bit in the afternoon--checking out neighborhoods in Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens.

Sunday night we had dinner and I got ready for another week at work--while David got ready to return to cold Minnesota on Monday. It's been fun to have him here for the weekend and to show him around the area.

~Le Ann