It's a good day in the NFC Central as everyone is a winner.

It was fortunate that the Vikings played away this week. Had they not, we would have had to forego the trip to California to see the wedding, I'm sure.

The Vikings were sure to loose this week. They played away, and at the Giants. They suck on the road of late, and never mind that the Giants are playing better than the Vikings in general, they tend to beat the Vikings when it hurts the most.

While the Vikings didn't score an offensive touchdown, they did score three touchdowns, making an NFL first. They're the first team in the history of the NFL to return each an interception, punt, and kick-off. I'm amazed that this trifecta hadn't happened before. The only things missing were a fumble recovered for a touchdown, oh, and an offensive pass or run.

As it happens, the Bears, Lions, and Packers all won, too, so the Vikings didn't improve themselves, but at least they didn't loose ground, either.

We started watching the game at a pub, concerned that the hotel room might not be comfortable enough for our small gathering. Grandma had offered her place, but her television is out of focus (Christmas gift idea?) and we were concerned that the focus might not be on the game. The pub offered an unexpected, although certainly reasonable atmosphere as they showed many different games on the tube. When visiting most sports bars here during a Vikings game, of course, all of the tubes are set to the one. Perhaps some of the periphery tubes have other games, but certainly the main game is Vikings. They had the sound turned on for another contest, and we were relegated to a television over the front window of the pub, where we looked over the heads of all who entered, and waited for them to decide where to sit before moving out of our way.

During this mass viewing we were able to take in the Bears and Lions games on the next two, and larger screens. The Bears were evidently playing in a tornado, as two of the kicks we saw went crazy off to the side; one looking like it glanced off a piece of glass (or something else transparent) half way to the goal. The other was amazingly held short by the wind, recovered by the defenders, and returned for a touchdown, after he seemed to pause to take a knee.

We dashed to the hotel at half-time to watch the rest of the Vikings game, with sound.

After the rousing victory, we headed over to dad's house to hang with the family, and eat some authentic Italian pasta. The step mom (yeah, they're my half-brother and sister, but that doesn't matter unless one of our mothers wins the lottery and the other half-family is left out...right?) is New York Italian, and she made some baked macaroni and sausage. Yum. Two gut-packing servings later, and I was ready for a nap on the sofa as we watched the Packers win, too.

A little disappointing, but understandable, was the absence of the groom. His family departed from two different airports, each an hour drive away, so he spent the day on the road playing taxi with relatives that didn't want to try to drive in California. We waited longest of all to spend a few minutes with him; the wife and girl child hadn't met him before the wedding, and I like the guy. He called, beckoning my sister to the car, and she excused them and they rocketed off.

We chatted with dad curbside for a while and returned to the hotel for a good sleep before flying home.