Celebrating Susan, Part II

The restaurants in downtown Bismarck, ND, have been raking in the profits lately, thanks to the Mobergs. Read on for the details.

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One of Susan's birthday gifts from me last month was a date night in downtown Bismarck, which she redeemed on February 7. We started with a delicious seafood meal at Pirogue Grille. Then we stopped by Blarney Stone for a cocktail before going next door to Dakota Stage to see a play: Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson -- Apt 2B, a version of Sherlock Holmes with contemporary women as the pair of sleuths. Afterward we went to Shakers on 3rd for a post-show martini.

We spent this weekend, too, in downtown Bismarck to celebrate Valentine's Day.

A couple weeks ago, we read about a Valentine's Day weekend special at The Fire Pit and couldn't resist--so I got us reservations for last night.

• 1st course: steak-and-lobster pizza to share
• 2nd course: Louisiana gumbo for Susan and a chop salad for me
• 3rd course: surf and turf (lobster tail and steak) and a Cajun stuffed smoked salmon (we shared both)
• 4th course: Louisiana bread pudding and a chocolate cookie brownie, both drizzled with bourbon caramel sauce (we shared both)

Today is the 35th anniversary of our first date! I worked at the Ground Round in Grand Forks during college, so that's where I took Susan out for supper on that first date. In honor of that, we ate dinner today at the Ground Round in Bismarck. The menu has changed a lot since 1991, but the Long Island teas are still tasty.

Before learning of the Valentine special at The Fire Pit, I had already made reservations for us for tonight at Anima Cucina. They were offering a special four-course meal with a wine pairing for each course.

• 1st course: a Spanish tapas plate (fried artichoke, Serrano ham, and Manchego cream on bread crisps) with a Spanish sparkling wine
• 2nd course: a salad served with a German semi-sparkling wine
• 3rd course: (1) lobster tail and balanzoni, a pasta stuffed with mascarpone in a saffron butter sauce (wine = a Californian chenin blanc); and (2) prime rib rolled in Italian herbs with horseradish cream and garlic mashed potatoes (wine = a Tuscan chianti) ... and we shared both
• 4th course: chocolate ganache tart with strawberry jam and a cocoa shortbread crust (wine = an Italian sweet red)

And because we enjoyed Shakers on 3rd so much last weekend, we returned there tonight to end our Valentine evening downtown.

We have a couple more treats on the agenda for this weekend: tomorrow afternoon we will attend a performance of the play Our Town by the Capitol Shakespeare troupe followed by supper at La Cantina in Mandan, ND. Then we'd better stop galivanting around the BisMan restaurants for a while and actually cook our own food again!

Celebrating Susan

Susan's birthday was on Monday, and the celebration started then and continued today as we hosted visitors who came to our home bearing birthday treats for her. Read on for the details.

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Susan had to work on her birthday, so the festivities had to wait until the evening. We went out for supper at Los Cabos but had dessert at home: Susan's requested birthday cake was actually brownies, which Abigail baked and served with vanilla ice cream.

I had flowers delivered to Susan at work so she'd have a bit of birthday cheer during the day. Her colleagues treated her well, too, with more flowers, a German chocolate cake, and other treats.

Susan opened her birthday gifts in the evening. The girls gave her gift certificates for nail salon and spa outings for some pampering. On her Christmas wish list, Susan had requested games that we could play as a family, so I got her a couple of those and a scented, weighted wrap that you heat up and then drape across your neck and shoulders to relieve tension. I also gave her this "birthday date night" experience, and we have already scheduled it for next month.

Fast-forward to today, when my sister Sandy and our dad came to Dickinson to spend the day with us. As a birthday treat, Sandy made lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, which we had mid-afternoon with coffee. We also had a mini spa day with everyone choosing from our collection of sheet masks for a little facial in the afternoon--and even Dad participated. We ate tater tot hotdish for dinner and lasagne for supper ... and more cupcakes for dessert.

Before Sandy and Dad headed back home, we had a video call with our Tennessee daughters. In this screenshot from our call, that's Sandy and Abigail (in our basement); Hillary and her dog, Dodger (in TN); I and Dad (in our dining room); Susan (in our bedroom); and Suzanna, her fiancé, Jacob, and their dog, Zoey (in TN).

Dad and I. Don't we look youthful and rejuvenated from our spa day?

Christmas in Tennessee

Happy New Year (almost)! Not only are we nearly at the end of the year, but we also are nearly at the end of our two weeks of Christmas festivities with our daughters. Tomorrow Susan, Abigail, and I will fly back to North Dakota and get ready to resume our daily routines. Here is what we have been doing the last couple weeks in Tennessee with our kids.

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Sat., Dec. 20 -- Susan, Abigail, and I flew from Bismarck, ND, to Nashville, TN, where Suzanna, Jacob, and Hillary met us at the airport and drove us back to Murfreesboro, where they live. We got to meet Hillary's new puppy, Dodger, whom she brought to the airport! And he was a very good boy, napping in my lap on the drive home.

Sun., Dec. 21 -- After a day of running errands and playing with pets and relaxing, we made a supper out of our favorite dips (for chips, veggies, etc.) and had a family movie night, watching A Very Jonas Christmas Movie. It was pretty funny ... and it starred the Jonas Brothers, whom the Moberg sisters had just seen in concert in October!

Mon., Dec. 22 -- Instead of buying one another a bunch of things for Christmas, we decided to give each other experiences. Each person chose a day to sponsor an experience for the family. This was Susan's day, and her experience was a family game night. She made us homemade pizza for supper, and we played Catch Phrase, Farkle, and Wicked Christmas at the dining room table while snacking.

Tue., Dec. 23 -- This was my day, and my experience was a night out downtown. We started with cocktails and live music at High Society, then had a delicious meal at The Alley on Main (pictured here), then walked around the Public Square to see the shops' Christmas-y window displays and enjoy the temperate weather, and then had dessert from Andy's Frozen Custard on the way home.

Wed., Dec. 24 -- After the Christmas Eve service at Advent Lutheran Church, we gathered at Hillary's home to make our traditional Scandinavian Christmas Eve meal. Well, it's tradition for us to make a Scandinavian meal on Christmas Eve, but we don't usually eat the same foods every year, other than to start the meal with a shot of ice-cold akevitt ("Skol!"). This year we made halibut, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, beets, lingonberry cocktails, and dessert parfaits made from Icelandic skyr. Then we gathered in the living room for gift opening. (Yes, although we mainly gave each other experiences for Christmas, we did also draw names for a gift exchange so we'd have something to unwrap for Christmas.)

Thu., Dec. 25 -- Susan's sister, Cassie, and her family (husband, Nick, and kids, Davis and Marly) live in Murfreesboro, too, and invited us over to their place for Christmas. We lounged outdoors on their patio in the afternoon because it was 62° ... quite a difference from a Christmas Day in ND! Supper was prime rib, twice-baked potatoes, creamed spinach, baked corn, and blueberry cobbler for dessert--delicious. Pictured (left to right) are Davis, Nick, and Cassie next to Jacob, Suzanna, Abigail, Susan, me, Hillary (holding Dodger), Marly, and Nick's mom, Kutzy.

Fri., Dec. 26 -- Friday is "date night" in our family, and that usually means going out for Mexican food and margaritas ... so that's what we did this night. We had delicious food and great service at Las Trojas Cantina. Then Susan and I relocated from Suzanna's house to Hillary's to spend the weekend at her place.

Sat., Dec. 27 -- We got back to our experiences today, and this was Abigail's day. Her experience was an afternoon in Nashville, starting with an outdoor igloo reservation at Game Terminal, a "super arcade" and bar. We had cocktails and food delivered to us in our igloo out on the patio area (where they have games like shuffleboard, cornhole, and ping pong) and then went indoors to play a variety of arcade games, like Space Invaders, Q*bert, Frogger, and Dig Dug.

Then we went downtown and visited a couple Christmas pop-up bars for seasonal cocktails and views of the Nashville skyline. It was so bizarre to be sitting outdoors on December 27 without a coat on a rooftop bar's patio with the neighboring skyscrapers in the background!

Sun., Dec. 28 -- This was Suzanna's day, and her experience was an at-home variation of Liquor Lab, a place for mixology classes that she has taken before in Nashville. Before we all arrived in TN, she had each of us tell her the ingredients for a Christmas cocktail that we would make for everybody else. Suzanna had everything ready for us on this day, and we took turns making small versions of our chosen drink for the others (e.g., pictured is Suzanna's cocktail: a peppermint white Russian). We sampled and snacked while playing card games throughout the afternoon and evening.

Mon., Dec. 29 -- This was Hillary's day, and her experience was taking us to see the Dancing Lights of Christmas, a drive-through holiday light and music show in nearby Lebanon, TN. On the fairgrounds they have an enormous setup of Christmas lights, all of which move in sync to the holiday songs playing on their radio station. After driving through the light show, we stopped at Santa's village, where there was a petting zoo, several carnival rides for kids, and backdrops suitable for Christmas photos ... like this one!

Tue., Dec. 30 -- This was Jacob's day, and his experience was providing a feast of Polish food from his own family's traditions. Pictured are pierogi with a half-dozen different fillings, two kinds of sausage, potato pancakes, stuffed cabbage rolls, sauerkraut with caraway, beet salad, and two kinds of dill pickles. It was absolutely delicious.

This was also ... Suzanna's birthday! We went out for lunch and pedicures in the afternoon; and after the Polish feast, dessert was Suzanna's birthday cake, which Susan made and topped with homemade chocolate fudge frosting using my mom's recipe.

Wed., Dec. 31 -- Our New Year's Eve frivolity included a trip to Arrington Vineyards, about a half-hour west of Murfreesboro. There we met some of Suzanna's friends from work to sample wine flights while playing trivia together. When we got back to Suzanna's, we made our usual surf-and-turf NYE meal. Jacob grilled filet mignon and made garlic mashed potatoes to go with our lobster tail, carrots, wedge salad, shrimp cocktail, and stuffed mushrooms.

Now we're watching country music stars perform on Nashville's televised NYE countdown and pouring the champagne so we'll be ready when the clock strikes midnight. Tomorrow we'll have brunch in Nashville (at SweetMilk) before heading to the airport for hugs and tears and the return flights to wintery ND.