Christmas Holiday!

-
Merry Christmas!  We had a quiet holiday at home this year - with some fun family events thrown in.   Christmas eve - I went to the family worship on my own - and helped out with the kids and the program.  It was a fun worship service and the kids did a good job with their singing and setting up the Christmas story.  We had take out for dinner - Paul, Kristin and me - a first for this family.  Paul and I went to the late service - the choir sang - and stayed afterwards for a little gluhwein and cookies.  Christmas morning we slept in and enjoyed just being at home.  John and Sasha came over in the early afternoon - we opened gifts and had our meatballs and rice pudding along with ham and mashed potatoes in the early afternoon.   Went to the movies altogether and saw "Into the Woods" which we enjoyed.  Came home afterwards for cookies and more fun.

Unfortunately, Kristin had to work the day after Christmas but Paul did not.  Paul and I went to Chinatown with John and Sasha and enjoyed dim sum and wandering into stores and taking photos.

It was a bright sunny day and felt good to walk around.

We all went to Rock Island on Saturday - driving 3 separate cars.  The kids stayed with Marilyn, Paul and I stayed in a motel.  We got their mid-afternoon and had some nice conversation and opened presents.  We went to TGIFriday's for an early dinner.  I think Marilyn appreciated getting out of the house for a bit and eating there - it is one of her favorite restaurants.  Kristin and Scott decided to go to a hockey game in the evening - the rest of us came back to the house, put a fire in the fireplace and watched tv until Paul and I went to the motel.  Had breakfast together at Marilyn's - I had brought some breakfast things - and finished up our visit.  John, Sasha, Paul and I stopped at Whitey's on the way out of town.  Paul and I also decided to do a little cemetery visiting before leaving - seeing if we could find family graves at Memorial Park and Fairmount Cemetery.  Found what we we looking for and then headed back to Elmwood Park.

Popular posts from this blog

-
 Christmas 2023 A great day with family! Celebrated at John and Sasha's house in Oak Park.  John, Sasha and Xochitl along with Kristin and Scott, Anna, Jim and Luke plus Paul and I and Mom. Photo Highlights here .
Read more

Spring Has Sprung! The Time to Travel has Begun!

-
Spring has sprung! And the time to travel has begun.  Retirement is great because we have time to do the things we want to do, including traveling as the weather warms up. Of course we are traveling safely, wearing masks and not making contact with too many people. This March we drove out to the Cape to visit my mother. I have been going to the Cape in March for a number of years, though I never made it last year. Paul was able to go with me this time. The weather was decent - at least no rain - so we tried to spend some time outdoors. When I go to the Cape I always want to "find the water" and eat fish and chips. This time we found the water at Dowses Beach, the National Seashore, Plymouth Harbor and the Sandwich boardwalk. We had fish and chips from Bobby Byrne's Restaurant and Seafood Sam's.  Finding the Water We had a nice visit - drove out to Provincetown one day, stopping to see the water in various places. We drove to Plymouth to visit the harbor, see Plymouth ...
Read more

Home Improvement - Part 2

-
Kristin has been staying here for the past few days - and while she has been here she has been working on painting the 3rd floor.  The bathroom is now slate blue instead of green.  And she is working on John's old room painting in there as well - a rather pleasant shade of lilac - not sure exactly what the paint shade is - but it looks good so far.  There is lots of wall space to cover so it has been taking time.
Read more