Surprise!!

Being U.S. citizens, we still feel that Thanksgiving is the last weekend of November.  We usually invite a few of our Canadian friends to come celebrate with us eating a filling turkey meal.  That was our plan this year as well until my niece, Holly Oberg, came up with a better idea.  John's brother Larry, wife Kathi and their four grown children, along with the grandchildren, all live in northern MN.  They heard about Cherish's new boyfriend Patrick and wanted to meet him.  So they invited them for Thanksgiving dinner in Chisholm, MN to meet all John's side of the family including his mother who had delayed her trip south for the winter. 

Holly called us one day to see if it were at all possible to come down for the day and surprise Patrick and Cherish as Patrick had been wanting to meet her Dad.  We knew we couldn't ALL leave because there were two house dogs to feed, an outside cat to feed and 26 sled dogs to take care of.  In addition, the generator would need to be monitored and the outside wood stove had to be fed wood.  Since I had already met Patrick and gotten to spend three weeks with Cherish in October, I felt John and Joanna should be the ones to go down for Thanksgiving, leaving Wednesday and coming back Friday.  It would be a fast trip, but well worth it since John rarely gets to leave the place at all.

For the next two weeks, John gave me detailed instructions on how to deal with the generator, having me practice starting and stopping it and reading the gauges.  He taught me how to best load the outdoor woodstove and when to check it.  Joanna gave me a long list of instructions on how to feed her sled dogs day and night and what to do in case of any emergencies or problems.  I was well ready for them to go and allow me to do my jobs.  :)

We were all so excited about the surprise, we could hardly wait for the day to come.  Finally, John and Joanna drove down on Wednesday, taking care of lots of other business on the way, and arrived at  the relative's house that evening.  The next morning, I quickly completed my chores and turned on my computer as they had arranged for me to be on Skype on their computer so I could also watch Cherish and Patrick walk through the door and be surprised.  It was like I was really there.  I kept laughing and crying as I listened to Cherish exclaim over and over how shocked and surprised she was to see her Dad and her sister.  I believe Patrick had a good time too as he spent time with each of the members of Larry's family and John and Joanna.  I just LOVE surprises.