Lunch With Al and Betty

Al and Betty arrived in Holland yesterday, Friday.
MJ, Jill and L, Em and M and I took them
and Mom and Dad out for lunch at the
Beechwood Inn on Saturday. Our drive over
was slowed by some fairly dense fog.

L and Jill make a point.

Young M got an itchy butt, and ended up
exploring under the table.

M exiting the cellar. Please note, he didn't touch
the ABC gum and that MJ was wearing shorts.

Good ears!

Gregg's just cleaning up from an unexpected trip out on the roof of the porch tonight! Good news is it's 40 degrees out; bad news is the ice is backed up on the roof and now melting, and water found its way into the house.

Gregg was in the living room and heard a dripping sound. Thought it was the clock, thought is was the TV, investigated more and found a little puddle on the floor under the front window; water dripping in through the wall above.

An hour later, he's removed the windows in the upstairs bedroom and climbed out on the roof!! YIKES!!! He cleared 1/2 of the porch roof of snow and chipped a big hunk of ice off the roof. A generous application of ice melt, windows replaced; blood pressure approaching normal.....

Just goes to show, it pays to pay attention, even to little noises.

photos courtesy of the net

December 24th at Rs

Its hard work being little santa; some of those
presents are really hard to find under the tree.

Checking out the beautiful, hand-made family
tree from Em and Jill.


Bill claims he was NOT taking pain meds........hmm.

L watching older cousins make tunes on the piano.

Must have been a Beatles tune!

M is wearing what is left of a raccon cap that

Gregg bought for Bill in 1975 or so.

Hot course of our smorgasbord.

Cold course.

Pics From The Last Few Days

Sunday birthday dinner; taco and pepperoni
pizzas, focaccia and pig in blankets, all homemade.

M and Grandpa reading Grandpa's early
birthday card, very nice...

M and L in tube after dinner. Effervescent kid
tea.

Prep for smorgasbord, live pate.

Free range pork ribs, pate, creme caramel.

Gifts for a family that some of us adopted this Christmas.

M opening some of his presents a day early..
lots of fun.

M's first digital camera; we haven't
seen any pictures yet though.

Dessert; lemon meringue and apple pies.

Cold Comfort

The forecast: Snow and cold! We're out of places to put snow! But the comfort of good smells and hot food coming from the kitchen, warm, clean bedding to climb into at the end of the day, supportive, loving family!! The best comfort these cold, cold days.

Traveling has been a challenge and no doubt will continue to be in the week ahead. Wishing safe travels to everyone venturing out; safe fun for the outdoor enthusiasts, and safe shoveling one and all.

the Zen of Shovel

Its simple, basic features; the blade is flexible and gives without breaking; it always gets the job done and its always ready; when the going gets heavy, it takes smaller loads, but never quits. Desirable qualities of Gregg's favorite shovel pictured above resting in the snow after several hours of moving snow out of the drive. Consider that these are also admirable characteristics of the human spirit! It helps too that a shovel of distinctly different traits rests beside it; the "lifter". Couldn't get the job done well without either one.

We did tag team the shoveling today after the snow tapered off mid afternoon. We also helped push the hapless drivers who attempted to drive UP the street and each time got stuck at the intersection near our house. We don't expect to see a plow until maybe tomorrow.

Doesn't look like we'll be grilling any time soon...

And finally, here's a little vid Gregg took while driving home from Greenville. Yes, he got all the way to work before the call came that school was closed.

Early Celebration

Beth and Mom checking out the gift of "Make way for
Ducklings" which brought many fond memories of
reading to little ones there; thanks for giving ALL
of US the love of reading, Mom.
The many hours you and Dad spent reading to us,
taking us to the library and encouraging us to
"write" books of our own, instilled a love of reading
which has now been passed to another generation
of little bookworms!
Thanks, Dave and Patty for hosting the B-crew.
Your wood floors are well polished from the three
sets of crawlers we had cruising around.
Looking forward to the phone call soon announcing
the newest baby's arrival....finally, she'll have a name!

St. Lucia Day

The aroma of cardamon buns baking last night was too much!

I admit to sampling ahead of this morning's traditional swedish

celebration. Happy St. Lucia Day! I have very slowly added a

few new St. Lucia figurines to my collection over the last 20 years.

These are not easy to find and all the more treasured because of it.

They especially bring to mind the early 80's when the girls would

dress as St. Lucia and bring coffee and rolls to Gregg or me

(whoever was the lucky one to sleep in that morning). When Linnea

wakes up from her morning nap, I'll look for some old photos.

Linnea was up early this morning but is still too little to serve the

coffee. I should have let her "help" by pushing the button on the

machine, which she loves to do! She thought the Lucia rolls were

yummy!

Wild Life

Jill noticed this handsome guy in our
backyard this afternoon.
We occasionally have had other birds
of prey and a turkey or two in our very
urban yard since we have lived here.

Seems this young squirrel may have been

the object of the hawk's attention.

Bon Appetit!

Check....check.....

Quilt is done; check.

Tree is trimmed and presents wrapped; check - check.....

Still working on cards and maybe a pillow to go along with the

quilt, which I made from old uniforms the guys at work had

discarded. The quilt will be a door prize at our holiday party

on Wednesday. Most of the tree decorations are from our

collection of swedish themed straw ornaments.

The tree is a semi-pre-lit tree. When strings of lights refused

to light, Gregg risked mental health by helping J and

me remove all the factory installed lights. Time consuming,

messy, finger-cramping though frugal effort to "save" the tree

we've had for about 6 years. Somewhere in the basement

chaos is another, table-top tree which, if I can find it,

will use to display the Santa ornaments. Looking forward

to some handmade ornaments

from grandkids...hint...hint...hint....

A Second Thanksgiving Celebration and a Video

Onion rings fried and ready to top a green
bean casserole.



Cranberry, orange, port wine relish.

M and Diego checking out "things" on
his parents iTouch.

A fresh 14# turkey ready to eat.

Pausing before we dig in. Jilly made the

casserole. Everything was very tasty. Janet

was able to join us.

M helping with dishes. He really is quite

a good helper with many different chores.


L is moving around pretty quickly and we are sure

that she will be walking on her own very soon.

M gets his first look at our new kitchen; DJ L;

let me out of here; winsome L.

"Roger and Me"

According to one of America's premier film critics,

Mr. Roger Ebert, we are Chicagoans. Not that there would

be anything wrong with that, but just to set the record straight,

we are only frequent visitors to Chicago. Roger used a photo in

this Chicago Sun-Times article in which he references this post

from our blog. Morning show interviews, late night show spots

here we come; 5 minutes of fame. Pretty funny and gave us

quite a laugh tonight.

Thanks to IamSusie for bringing this article to our attention.

It brought back happy memories of our trip to Chicago last winter

on a BITTERLY cold weekend with almost no snow at all, and the

very unexpected bonus of watching a film being made on the streets

of Humbolt Park. I feel bad that we don't live in Chicago if only

to validate the lovely sentiments in Mr. Ebert's web post about

the unaffected depiction of a REAL Chi-town neighborhood --

and much to our chagrin; what he thinks must be a "real Chicago blog".

Believe me, we are as real as it gets too and the similarities in

our many distinctly working class neighborhoods here share the

same bone shaking cold from Lake Michigan as well, but from a

neighborly distance of 150 miles or so.

Black Friday

Dateline: Friday, 5am. Mission: sale shopping at WalMart, Kohls, Joannes and ToyRUs. Diagnosis: CRAZY!!

Four hours of traffic, crowds, waiting in long lines, but happily, some really good sales and the items we were looking for. Em, Jill and I have survived Black Friday and lived to tell about it. Photo above was a particularly good score late in the AM by Jill. And as you can see below, by the immediate assembly, it was never wrapped and did not make it under the tree (which has not been put up yet).

At the end of the day, M and his folks came over to put another good housekeeping seal of approval on the kitchen and to donate some "food" items from M's birthday stash. I took a little time to make some progress on the quilt as you can see by the stack of triangles below. I hope to get the rest of the top assembled today.

Thanksgiving '08

On Wednesday evening the Lopez' joined us
for dinner, we had pizza and calzone.

Today, M had lots of fun playing with Soren......

..and A.

L loved seeing everyone.

Final prep just before eating.

Our buffet table. Bill and Tam did a great job,

everything was wonderful.

L liked the steam from the boiling potatoes,

just like Thomas' smoke stack.