Happy Anniversary!

To my favorite Mom and Pop: Hope you took a little time to gaze into one another's eyes today and reflect upon your many years together. I love you! ~ Julie

Snowshoeing

As a reward for all the hard work we put in shoveling mounds and mounds of snow off the driveway on Saturday, yesterday we decided to enjoy the snow. So the kids and I went to the Arboretum for rented snowshoes and romped in the snow. We had a lot of fun and Chris and Sami had a snow mist fight. Sami called it that because the snow was so light and powdery that they couldn't pack snowballs and it looked like they were throwing mist at each other. Sami enjoyed it so much she wants us to buy snowshoes so we can go snowshoeing other places than the arboretum.

Woo-woo!

A quick pic of Gavin playing with his train puzzle. Thanks, Papa!

We hope that Santa made it to all your homes without crashing. It's pouring rain right now and our WHITE CHRISTMAS is melting. We enjoyed seeing Dave and family yesterday if only for a brief while. We also had a nice telephone visit with Julie. Today we'll be heading to North Aurora with Gram and her new caregiver Irena. It will be wonderful to be together with the rest of our family.

BLESSINGS TO ALL

LOVE
NANA & PAPA

Eeeww!

For some reason I thought the incision would be an inch or two long but apparently I underestimated....

Feeling a bit better today and looking forward to taking a shower!

Good Luck, Julie!

We are wanting to send best wishes to Julie, who is going to have her clavicle repaired this morning. You'll be in our thoughts and prayers for a successful procedure and rapid recovery.

Food Bank Benefit Concert

I've been spending my Sunday evenings for the last couple of months rehearsing Christmas music with an interfaith choir. Our performance tonight was a benefit for our local food bank - admission was a can of food. It was held in the Logan Tabernacle which is a neat old building with a grand pipe organ. Brandon was brave and brought Gavin to hear us sing. They made it through our first few songs, but unfortunately Gavin turned into Gavzilla and they had to make their exit before our Hallelujah Chorus finale. Here's a little footage (you'll never be able to pick me out of the chorus, but I'm in the very upper left corner next to a tall woman with white hair). The folks down in front in the white shirts are the Westminster Bell Choir, who were a marvelous addition to a couple of our songs, and performed a couple of impressive numbers on their own. I'm also including a couple of pictures of Gavin in the sweater that Mom & Pop's friend Linda Brooke knitted for him for his birthday.

Sophia Ann

(From Mom) Rob called this morning and left a message that Sophia Ann was born about 4:15 this morning (Dec. 8). They left home at a quarter to 3, so she arrived in only 90 minutes. Mom and baby are doing well, but I have no further info about size or anything. They fit on my wall calendar perfectly, right between Chris on the 7th and Rob on the 9th.

Happy ninth birthday to Chris! Pop and I are thinking about you and what a fine young man you have become. Enjoy your week without school - I hope you have some fun things to do. See you Saturday!

Love, Nana and Pop

30 Days with a Grateful Heart

I recently got reacquainted with our cousin (or niece, as the case my be) Jote on Facebook. We don't really chat or anything, but we've been able to see pictures of and learn about each others' lives. I absolutely love to read her blog. She just started a daily posting called "30 Days with a Grateful Heart". If you have the time, I highly recommend checking it out. If you don't have the time, here's a quick update on Jote: She lives in Austin with her husband Matt. They have two kids - Liam and Fiona - and they own their own 'architectural millwork' business. Her kids are beautiful and her perspective on life is, too.