Here's To Life!

Christmas Dinner Our Frost Christmas celebrations were a little different this year - not our traditional smorgasbord on Christmas eve and opening presents after dinner and then going to Rock Island to be with Paul's family on Christmas Day.  Instead we had a delightful two days at home enjoying the time off and being together when we could.  John and Sasha invited Paul and I for breakfast in Chinatown on Christmas eve day for dim sum.  Sasha was great at ordering for us all with some help from the rest of us.  There was plenty of food and it was good.  Lots of people out eating meals as families.  Since John and Sasha went to her family's house for dinner on Christmas Eve this was a good way to see them.  Kristin and Jason came late afternoon.  I went to the family worship service at church and then Paul and I and Kristin and Jason went to Papaspiros (a Greek restaurant in Oak Park) for dinner.  It was rather crowded when we got there but...

Christmas 2012 Christmas Blessings to All! It has been a year of blessings for the Frost family.  As I write this letter, we have returned from a great weekend in NYC where we were the guests of Seafarers and International House, a ministry of the ELCA.  They honored my father who was the director there from 1984 to 1993, naming their newly remodeled second floor the Rev. J. Gordon Swanson Center.  Joy and Dan, John, Lee and Harry, Paul and Kristin as well as my mother were there for the festivities.  We had a chance to do some sightseeing and Christmas shopping too.  This was our second trip to NYC this year as Paul and I had also been in February where we had another Swanson family reunion with my siblings and my mother. Our big change this year was the selling of our house in Oak Park.  With both kids gone it was time to downsize.  We put our house on the market June 8th and were fortunate to have a contract August 18th. After that it was a ...

Less than a week until Christmas.  Two days left of school.  Trying to write my Christmas letter with something different and witty to say.  Paul is not home from work yet and it is after 11 o'clock.  My Apple TV is updating and it seems to be taking a long time - not sure how long it should be.  Wrapped some packages tonight, will finish doing that over the weekend.  I have made three different kinds of cookies - I still need to make bonbons and then I could be done - we shall see.

We had an enjoyable weekend in New York City this December.  We were there as guests of Seafarers and International House on the occasion of their naming the newly renovated 2nd floor in honor of my father.  It was a chance to see my mother and brother, John and his family as well as my sister, Joy and her husband, Dan.  Kristin was able to go with us.  We did a little sightseeing - went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree.   We were guests of the director and his wife our first night there - had a chance to see the apartment where my parents lived while my dad was the director there from 1984 to 1993.  We joined the Board for dinner on Monday night and before the board meeting there was a short service in the Chapel of Seafarers and then we all processed up to the 2nd floor.  It was quite a nice event and we were glad that we could be there for the occasion.

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Paul and I began our holiday on Wednesday with breakfast at a nearby diner and in the afternoon we saw the new James Bond movie Skyfall .  Great scenery and great movie.  On Thursday, we all - Paul and I, John and Sasha, Kristin and Jason - traveled to Rock Island and had Thanksgiving dinner with Paul's brother and family, and his mom.  Weather was good, food was good, company was good.   Both Logan and Jacob have girlfriends, so we were a nice size group. The kids stayed overnight and came home on Friday - Paul and I stayed until Saturday.  Before they left, we all enjoyed breakfast together.  We did a little shopping in the afternoon.  We came home by way of Bishop Hill, a place we used to go to the day after Thanksgiving for many years when the kids were growing up but haven't been for awhile.  The first time both of us went to Bishop Hill was when we were in college and there wasn't much there excep...

Our house sale was completed a month ago.  We spent the two weeks prior to the sale packing, moving, cleaning, and working.  It was very stressful, but the end result was worth it.  Everything seemed to move very fast.  We had to find a place to live, and then continue the process of getting rid of things and organizing for the move.  Apartment shopping was interesting and we found a townhouse in Oak Park which has been very comfortable so far.  The nice thing about the townhouse is that it is big enough to hold all of the furniture we wanted to keep and has storage plus a two car garage (and we only have one car) - two bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a family room on the third floor.  We are pretty well settled, most boxes unpacked and feeling at home here.  I have been walking to work almost every day.  It's kind of nice having an attached garage.  This seems like home for the year.   It wasn't too hard to leave our house.  I th...

Have been meaning to write - but that often seems not to be the priority of the day.  There is lots going on and lots to think about and keep on track.  Posting on a blog that not many look gets pushed to the bottom of the list too often. So, on Saturday, August 18th, on our way home from Cape Cod, we finally got an offer on our house.  The offer was from a couple in Oak Park who had expressed interest in the house all summer but needed to sell their house first before they felt comfortable making an offer on ours.  After a couple of days of negotiating, the contract was signed.  We arrived home from vacation knowing that we had a lot of work ahead of us getting ready to leave the house that we have been in for almost 16 years.  We have been packing again, sorting through things and getting rid of stuff.  We have been pushing the kids to come and get what they want.  We also needed to find a place to live.

Had a good week on Cape Cod, visiting my mother.  This was the first time that Paul and I went together, without the kids, and it was kind of nice.  We did a some walking trails and a bike trail, went to the National Seashore and ate fish.  It was a relaxing week.  We even enjoyed the drive.

We are empty nesters again!  John and Sasha closed on their house a week ago Friday and the moving van came to get their belongings from our garage and the piano from our living room yesterday.  In the meantime, they got the water working on Monday (it wasn't turned on and they didn't have water heaters), I helped John on Tuesday, bringing boxes over, wiping down cabinets and unpacking dishes.  John painted his living room and some of the upstairs and Sasha spent a few days in San Antonio with her grandmother who fell ill. Had a nice lunch with Laurie and Nancy on Wednesday at Hemingway's Bistro in Oak Park.  Good to get a chance to catch up with each other.  Hard to believe we've known each other for over 35 years. Paul and I spent a quiet Saturday cleaning and getting ready for a showing of our house this afternoon and an open house Sunday.  Hopefully, we will get an offer soon.  Tomorrow, we are going to Germanfest in Milwaukee with Kristin and ...

Paul's mother fell and broke her hip on Friday, July 6th so we traveled to Rock Island for the weekend. She had surgery on Saturday - they put two rods around the hip joint to strengthen it.  It seemed to go well.  They had her sitting in a chair on Sunday morning when we got to the hospital.  She was still in pain and a bit groggy.  Prayers that her recovery goes well. On another note, our realtor is holding an open house this Sunday - hopefully there will be some traffic. We have had the house on the market for just about a month - have had a few showings.  John and Sasha hope to close soon on their place.

Well, the house has been on the market for just about 3 weeks.  Some showings, some interest, but not much.  The market has kind of hit a flat point so here we sit.  In the meantime, John and Sasha are still waiting to close on their place but had to be out of their apartment June 30th.  So they have come to stay here along with their two dogs.  The empty nest lasted all of two weeks.  Thankfully we have the room for them to stay with us.  And hopefully, their closing will happen soon.

Since I work in the public schools, summer begins when school is out.  The last day of school this school year was June 1st - so summer has officially begun!  In fact, two weeks of the summer have already passed. Where does the time go?  The first week I spent getting my house ready to go on the market.  Kristin moved out June 2nd taking much of her stuff with her.  After she left however, I straightened up and organized the 3rd floor so that it looked neater.  Also continued to put away clutter from the first and second floors.  A cleaning crew came in one afternoon and now the house looks pretty good.  The tough part is going to be to keep it that way.  We had the brokers' tour this week and even a couple of showings.  So, the process has begun.

Enjoyed a great anniversary/Mother's Day celebration dinner last Saturday evening.  John and Sasha, Kristin and Jason took us to Maggiano's Restaurant in Naperville.  Paul and I have been married for 33 great years!  

Cleaning out the clutter has begun.  Plus removing personal belongings and extra pieces of furniture.  We are putting the house on the market - hopefully early to mid May and have to get it ready.  We went to UHaul to buy boxes.  So, today the CDs and DVDs got packed away as well as some cookbooks.  The boxes of stuff to get rid of grows and the garage is beginning to look like a storage unit.  Wall pictures have been moved and personal pictures need to be put away.  Furniture will need to be rearranged.  I think we're going to be busy for the next few weeks.

We had a great time in New York City the first weekend of February.  Paul and I stayed with Joy and Dan in their apartment.  Mom stayed with John and Lee.  We had a chance to talk, take pictures (for Mom) which I really appreciated as well.  Joy, Paul and I took a little tour of Jersey City on Friday afternoon and had a chance to see our old houses, Dickinson High School and St. John's Lutheran Church.  Saturday morning, we visited the 911 Memorial which is very nicely done.  Had lunch and then Paul and I walked back to Joy's place - about 2 miles, doing some street shopping along the way.  We all went out to dinner Saturday night - which was nice.  Sunday, Joy, Mom and I went to Ascension Episcopal Church which had great music with their worship.  Paul and I, Mom, Lee, and Ellen went to see Jersey Boys in the afternoon - we got half price tickets.  We enjoyed the show immensely.  We watched the Super Bowl at a Korean restaurant ...

We celebrated all four February birthdays - Paul, Kristin, Sasha, and Jason - at Benihana's last Sunday evening.  Great chance to all be together.  It's not a bad picture - if only we could have taken one without the glare.

It has been over 2 months since I have blogged - and so much has happened!  Why haven't I written sooner?  Well, I won't share everything now - I'll leave some to write another day - and it won't be as long as two months, I promise (mostly a promise to myself). The biggest happening in the family is that John got engaged to his girlfriend, Sasha, right before Christmas!  We are thrilled and happy with this news - she is a lovely young woman!  They are currently living together in the Pilsen area of Chicago where she is teaching school.  John started school this fall at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy and is still working at the restaurant, Mercat on the weekends.  They are planning a June 2013 wedding.