New Years and a Dream of a lifetime

Happy New Year, so long 2021 glad you are done! 2022 lets see what we can do!

The neighbors planned a progressive dinner party until Covid reared once again its ugly head and we had to cancel. However, being the optimists that we are we still had a New Years Eve Bonfire Happy Hour and hung out with each other which of course was a blast.

Meanwhile (back at the ranch) Billy was painting up a storm and remodeling his room, which was what he wanted for Christmas? Also unbeknown to us Billy has a key to the Dojang and since the owners have Covid he has been running the joint and teaching classes...

A new family tradition is emerging with the Kims coming over at the holidays for a full on Korean food and love fest, it is all on Korean! Full blood and 1/2 blood.

On New Years Day Tom and Jimmy packed up all the winter gear we own and headed to Appleton to pick up Tater and Chance, Jimmy's best friend from school and his dad whom we love dearly even though they are die hard Packer Fans, really! They are both huge football fans, Chance is a star wide receiver on Jimmy's team and they have never been to Lambeau let a lone a NFL game! So Tom and Jimmy picked them up in Appleton and headed over to Green Bay where Sue was gracious enough to let us all stay at her condo in downtown Green Bay. Tom and Jimmy found Tater and Chance frozen in a snowbank outside of the BW"S wrestled them into the car blasted the heat and as soon as they warmed up they began a running dialogue about their being freezing that lasted for 3 days!

Saturday afternoon we drove around Green Bay showing them the sites, and ended up at Mecca, Lambeau Field Pro Shop. Tater and Chance were on FaceTime calls with their family buying everything from cheese head hats to infant Packer cheerleader outfits, Jimmy and Tom were taking Benadryl to help with the hives..

Saturday night was dinner at the sports pub near Sues followed by binge watching the new season of Kobra Kai...

Sunday was the Day of Days started with breakfast at Al's Diner followed be a  tour of Curly Lambeau's house, City Stadium, the original home of the Packers, the Packers homes that line Lombard street and then the pregame. Sammy's pizza at Sues, a nap, then doing all the clothes they could muster. The crew arrived at Lambeau around 4:40 and wandered among the faithful and thirsty for several hours. They took a brief stop at the Tailgate Village which is a phenomenal place at Lambeau. They have live bands, full bar, reveal food vendors and you can watch the game in real time without needing a ticket its brilliant!

GAME TIME!

It was fun to see Chance and Tater having a great time and enjoying the experience that is Lambeau Field, the Vikings were awful and the game was not that great but the Fans were at fever pitch the atmosphere was pure and classic Lambeau with the Packers winning the game. The Knox boys kept saying "we wanted the whole Lambeau experience" and they got it!

Monday was more misery for Tom and Jimmy taking Tater and Chance to the Packer Hall Of Fame, a 3 hour tour of why the Packers are the greatest team in the history of Football, Blah, F-ing Blah.

The tour was fun, the trip onto the field was epic for Tater and Chance rounding out visiting the Hall of Fame was icing on the cake.

Jimmy and Tom were honored to be with Tater and Chance as they watched their football team win home field advantage and be able to say the Super Bowl goes through Green Bay. 

Next Year a trip to US Bank Stadium to watch the Vikings and Packer play indoors will be another incredible journey!

Social distanced happy hour on New Years Eve

More to come.....

Billys room, love how he organized his trophy by height

Working hard, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the gift of $ to make this happen!

Serious MN New Years Eve crew - it was 10 degrees

Getting packed for Lambeau

Al's! Has the best chocolate chip pancakes

Go Pack Go!

We snuck in a game at US Bank the week before the Lambeau debacle. The Vikings bombed this one too

Met up with Mogush (fraternity brother) 

Desk is looking almost ready for serious study

Posing

Lambeau's house

fire and snow

Tailgate village!

These appetizers were SO good. 

Dorks

Billy got a job at Tracy's and is going to do some taekwondo clinics

Beans beans the magical fruit!  Our newest culinary adventure 

The Kims and Korean....

Hall of Fame!

 Last weekend we headed to Wausau to see Jim get inducted into the Wausau East hall of fame for his 1960 basketball team. 

Its a total Hoisers story ....They beat Waukesha and were the under dogs. They went into the tournament 9-9 and Waukesha went in undefeated. But, as my dad tells it, the 9 - 9 record didn't really show how good they were. Their regular season was only 8 games so their coach sought out the 10 hardest teams he could find and scheduled games with them.  It was the 1st high school game to ever be televised and there were 11,000 people in attendance (which dad said would have freaked them out if they knew) and there weren't any divisions or classes so, it truly was small school vs big school and all about talent.

He said the thing the team was most proud of was that they didnt have any "star" players. They played like a team, all the time, and everyone contributed.  The teams still talks very often and they were thrilled that dad represented them. LOTs of email and text kudos to him from his friends.

Tracy and Tammy went online and ordered Lumberjack gear and a connection at Tracy's work, who lives in Wausau, pick up the gear and delivered to the hotel. It was fun to show up totally geared up.

Since we were in Wisconsin, we also made the most of it. Fish fry, Sam's Pizza, tour of Tracy's childhood haunts (grandparents house, school, her house, parks, etc), old fashions and catching up with Bunny's best friend  Barb and her daughter Shelia. Jim also invited his high school girl friend to attend the ceremony and Jean was really fun to get to know. A lot like Bunny, sporty, smart and really engaged.  Jim definitely has a "type" and very good taste.

Carl and crew were pheasant hunting in Berlin on Saturday, total coincidence and so Tom made the 90 min trip to hunt with them for the day. Not a lot of pheasants, but alway fun to see Carl and then Tom didnt have to do the childhood tour of Wausau.  

It was a really fun, throwback weekend. Fun to be together and really fun to see Jim in his element, shaking hands and kissing babies.

Love to all!

Cuties

The "real" story behind Sam's -Hibbing, Duluth and Wausau

The boys!

The team and cheer team

A bit out of order but...the back of a photo Barb shared of Tracy/crew - see below

We picked up Tammy from the airport, she's adorable. 

YUM!

He loved his shirt! 

The program

He finally had a good excuse to wear his 60th birthday present:)

THE trophy was our centerpiece! 

Part of the slide show

The food was really yummy - The Mint, a 50+ year tradition

Jim during his speech

At 1/2 time - Wausau East lost and frankly, weren't very good 

Getting officially inducted with the Athletic Director 

Tracy's crew 

Joey basketball team played in honor of people fighting cancer, Joey honored Sue and the fact that she kicked breast cancers butt.

Another slide 

So cute

Slide show

Getting ready for the inductees

Lots of throw back photos

Dinner was really more like 2nd lunch....

Go Jacks!!

Merry Christmas 🎄

What an amazing holiday weekend!  We were blessed with the kids all being home, COVID free and amazing food and friends. Not mention, LOTS of football and Christmas movies.

A few highlights.... 

Movies - Die Hard, Elf, Four Christmas's, Home Alone 2, Grinch ...

Food - Smoked Seafood Chowder, Appies, 7 layer salad, prime rib, Bill's famous pasta sauce with sausage, 3 HUGE loaves of challah bread, banana bread, coffee cake, home made cookies

Football - Packers win, Vikings do not

Kids - Jimmy played in all the Christmas Eve services, Kay hung out and watched movies with us, Billy started a job at Tracy's work in the Rec department and also helping with maintenance

The kids got everything they ever wanted thanks to the generosity of Grandma and Grandpa. In fact, Kay was SO in love with her new Nike Air high tops that it almost brought Tracy to tears.  She was so grateful and kept saying "Mom, these are amazing!!!"  Tom gave Tracy a TON of winter gear that all led up to a dog sled/yurt weekend in late January. I can not wait!!  Tracy gave Tom all RV related items with a heavy emphasis on cassette tapes - Journey, Springsteen, Lyle, Jimmy Buffet, Mary C - we cant wait to put on the road trip sound track for our next camping trip.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, stays healthy, took care of yourselves, got sleep and know you are loved.

T.T.J.K.B.

Watching the Packers win and Rogers make history!

Grandma and Grandpa were able to spend the holidays with Julie and the boys in Costa Rica, VERY jealous and love that Maria and Ced are such a lovely couple

Smoked seafood for chowder. BEYOND delicious

Stocking!!

 Lots of treats, Kuks, caramels, gum...all the kids favorites

Our friend Jonathan always has the best decorations

Tom won the ugly sweater contest 

Tom got coffee and chocolate peanut butter cookies

"Someone" got at the treats left for Santa and was caught trying to hide it in his dog bed

Homemade pumpkin bread and Coffee cake gifts from Jim and Jen and Bill. SO delicious and what a treat!

Everything is better with bacon (chicken and pheasant) 

Heavy appetizers for Christmas Eve, Tracy's favorite meal

Vikings/Rams game, they played like crap but it was fun that they were able to go to the game together

Our annual family selfie 

Love our tree