Ah Minnesoooooota! What a beautiful, serene, picturesque, frozen landscape. The next few days were spent with Bridgett's family in New Ulm and college friends in Mankato, MN. Rolling into New Ulm the first night, Bridgett and Steve stopped at Bridgett's sister's house only to be greeted by the incredible hulk. Carson, the younger nephew had gotten some "hulk hands" as a gift and was more than eager to show Uncle Steve how they worked by punching him in the head and other unfortunate areas. Cade, the older nephew wanted Uncle Steve to spend every second watching him play his Nintendo DS. Eventually the kids got preoccupied and Uncle Steve rocked out to some Guitar Hero with Bridgett's sister Mel. Steve was happy to make a fool of himself on vocals while Mel jammed on the guitar. Good times were had by some more than others.
In Mankato, Bridgett and Steve spent almost a whole day with Bridgett's best friend from college - Marissa. While Bridgett and Marissa chatted about life in Minnesota versus life in New Mexico, careers, children, and just about everything else, Steve watched Marissa's two young children and began to think about his own incoming child. He wondered if his would be as smart as these two, if his would be as polite, or creative, or ... a boy or girl. (Steve would only have to wait a few months to find out the answer to the gender question). They watched "Go, Diego, Go!" and Steve thought "oh man, this is what I have to look forward to - a little hispanic kid running around with animals and singing annoying songs on my TV....and my kid wanting to watch it a million times." After some good ol' Minnesota chili (the real stuff, hearty and delicious with just a hint of spiciness - not the dangerously hot stuff that gives you crippling digestive problems they call chili in NM), Bridgett and Steve met up with their friend Nick at a pub where Steve used to work. Nick had made it safely back to Minnesota from his honeymoon in Colorado (see part 3) and the Coronas along with Nick and his new wife sat and enjoyed each others' company.
Christmas Eve came and in true Midwestern Christian fashion - the church was packed to standing room only. Steve wondered "why can't every Sunday be like this? Everyone so happy to see each other, the love and fellowship thick in the air...that would be nice." After warming up on the inside, the Coronas returned to grandma Dar's house and warmed up with blankets in the living room while watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" - a family tradition. That wacky Clark Griswold.
The temperature over the week had stayed a nice balmy -8 or so and had coated Grandma's driveway with ice. So, being the ever-helpful one, Steve volunteered to clear the ice out of the driveway when it warmed all the way up to 40 degrees one day. With ice chopper in hand, he began hacking away and grandma Dar - always doing more than she should - followed behind with shovel to clear the broken-up ice chunks. As they got to the driveway apron where it empties into the street, the ice was at least 4-6 inches thick. Steve really had to lean into the chopper to loosen anything up here and before he realized it, he was scraping the cement and shooting sparks off. He figured "maybe the sparks will help melt the ice" - Steve is kind of stupid that way sometimes. So, he continued to thrust his chopper along the concrete, under the ice until the entire thing was cleared off. Both of them were stubborn to the point that they were determined to clear the driveway completely - even if it meant giving themselves sore shoulders, backs, legs, and everything else. Of course, the next day it rained lightly and then froze over the driveway, undoing all their hard work.
(To be Continued in part 6)
