We got a little bit more snow today...............

 but not nearly enough for what we need for the trails to be "sled ready"!!!  We will have to see how much more we get over the next few weeks - first race is here on the first weekend of January!!!!  Right now we have about 3 inches and that's not nearly enough to hook down on a sled!!!  We did go 27 miles today on new snow and went on many trails we don't usually use so it was fun!!

These are the wolf tracks the next day after we saw them crossing the trail in front of us!!!

Beautiful embroidered towel that I received from my sister-in-law, Donna, for Christmas!!!  She can do amazing things on the machine that my brother got her as a present!!!!

Our early family Christmas -----

On the Narnia trail there were 2 guys camped out in a huge green tent up from Indianapolis to trap for the week last week - they were very friendly and having a great time - we stopped to talk to them a couple of times when we were training dogs on the trail - they showed us the pine marten they had caught but I didn't have the camera with me - we saw a pine marten in our lean-to last year - it stayed around for a couple of days- I guess they are pretty aggressive...............

Nice picture of the team training with he trainer!

Randy decorating the "Narnia Christmas tree" - we had to run over it once with the 4 wheeler and the team and the next day we cut it out of the trail with the chain saw - the top of the tree was so nice Randy decided to "plant" it and then I bought a start to put on top - then we got really carried away and put red pine cones and a snowflake decoration on it!!!  We haven't told anyone we did it and are waiting to see if anyone mentions it!!!!

You've heard of people playing "elf on the shelf" at Christmas - well this is our version------"Gome in the Home"!!!!!!  I told Randy I was going to start and before I could he hid it from me in the bathroom!!!  now we are taking turns hiding it until Christmas  - plus on Randy's there is a treat in his lap when he finds him!!!!

George and Ansel thinking they can beat Grandpa at arm wrestling!!!!

Annabelle with the best green mustache you will ever see!!!

The beautiful cupcake wreath that Dee made us for the party!!!

family picture missing Elaina and Annabell who were in the bathroom!!!

We went to eat our take-home cupcakes in the truck and found someone had put a Ninja turtle in one of them!!!

Snakeskin pants from Mitzi and Keyon for Christmas - not real...................

Classic present from Nate!!!!  the light fixture that the father wins and displays i the front of the home in the movie "Christmas Story"!!!!!

Showing off my "Aurea Manicure" from Saturday nite!!!

Got off to a good start on Saturday to travel downstate for our annual DeKuiper family Christmas party!!!  Left at 10:30 and that wasn't bad considering we had gotten up at 9, had to load the truck, load the 5 puppies into the crates in the back of the truck and get ourselves ready and eat breakfast!!!

Roads were good once we got into Newberry and away from most of the snow - stopped first to Dee's our neighbor downstate, and dropped off the 5 8 month old pups for her to take care of for the rest of the winter - even though they are running excellent, we don't want to take a chance in running them in a race too early and hurting their bodies or their heads racing them - and that is just 5 less dogs we will have to drop 5+ times a day when we are traveling!

Nent stop - the Perf Marquette Lodge in Baldwin!  We found out on the way south that the other DeKuiper family was also going to be staying at the lodge Saturday nite as a surprise for us and that they arrived before we did!!!  Went to dinner with Moe and Lydia and after they went to Mass were joined by the DeKuiper family (absent Aeja as she in in college in Wyoming!!)  And that's where the arm wrestling event took place!!

Back to the lodge and had a wonderful time playing games and doing nails in the common room - wonderful Christmas decor and very rustic with tons of mounts of fish and game!!!

Good sleep and up in the morning to church for Mass - got out and my brother and his wife were there (had been in Mass but we didn't know it) so we visited until the folks from church cleared out the dining room area from coffee and donuts so we could decorate for out party - did that went and got pizza and pretty soon all 27 of us were there and had a blast!!!! Lots of fun presents, played Christmas bingo and lots of hugs and kisses!!!

Left just past the time we had scheduled ourselves (fed dogs before we left Saturday and then when we got home Sunday nite - 4.5 hour drive one way...) and were home just before 9!!!  Couldn't have asked for things to go better and it was wonderful to see everyone after being gone for 2 months up to the UP!!

Today we trained and are being plagued with some injuries on a few of the dogs which is really bothering Randy- you purposely plan your training in slow increments in the best conditions you can but inevitably, things happen and now we have a couple that will have to get some some "extra special" attention!

The really big news is that while we were training today, Randy saw something ahead of us on the trail crossing and thought it was a dear.......but then realized it was a wolf!!!  Then we saw another one staying in the trail that looked to be about 90 pounds and then another one crossed the trail!!!  We knew there were some wolves around us but had not seen them (we have it on good authority from a local that there are about 3 wolves in out area but that south of us closer to Newberry there is a pack of 20 to 30!!!!)  So tomorrow I am going to take a picture of the track that we say from the last one of the three!!!

Went to Jan's tonite for dinner for homemade beef stew!!  Delicious!!  She's getting a cold from being south by Ann Arbor with her family Christmas - so hopefully none of ours or Jan will share the germs with us!!!

It's looking a bit more like December now..............

training one of the 2 teams of 10 going through the entrance to "Narnia" because it looks kind of enchanted!

One of the pups we will be taking down to Dee to watch for the rest of the winter - they are only almost 8 months old but as big as full grown dogs!!!  this one is marble

The dog yard up in the UP

Our very handsome and strong runner Cool - he is a son of Yeti out of Streeper Kennels

Doesn't Watson have the most beautiful blue eyes??!!  He and one girl that we got in Quebec that is a daughter of a dog we gave our friends Mario and Suzanne (Greg) are the only 2 we have with the blue eyes

This year's Christmas tree - we have had it for a month already but just put it up on december 4th

the last week or so has been pretty busy - going to Escanaba to get more dog meat, dinner at Jan's for chicken and dumplings, to town a couple of times to get a new tire for the trailer because Randy discovered it was flat!!!  (and it was a brand new tire 2 months ago!!) getting the snow machine we just purchased up and running, writing Christmas cards, lots of wrapping and getting ready to come downstate to see family for a Christmas gathering on December 11th and also bringing the 5 pup that are 8 months old but all as big as adults!

We had a foot of snow when Mitzi and her family were here for 2 days so we were able to do a lot of the dog=related activities they were looking forward to (one dog sled runs, runs for a mile behind the snow machine and Mitzi for a 4 dog team 4 miler and got to watch Grandpa training dogs 2 days!!).  Then we lost the snow but now are getting it back very slowly............way less snow here than we have seen in the previous 4 years we have stayed up here!!

The dogs are going around 26 miles currently and we want to get them up over 30 in the next couple of weeks to be ready for the first race the first weekend of January up here - but if we don't get a lot more snow that is even in question!

There may be a storm this weekend to drive through so we will just have to say prayers that it doesn't stop us from getting see family this weekend!  More later..............