Welcome 2017!

We hosted New Year's Eve for some friends, and it was a great incentive to get the new sink and toilet into the powder room, reorganize the living room to better store William's Legos, and generally get the construction materials and tools that had been lingering around put away! 

William still had one more week off school. . . .so we signed him up for daily swimming lessons during the lunch hour.   He got that Bears stocking cap as a sign up gift.  After briefly using it as a Christmas tree topper on his new-to-him tree (a neighbor gave it to us on 1/2 when she was clearing it out of her house), he wore it all day every day for the next week!

Our other project during break was a set of mealworms that William's class had studied.  Each kid was allowed to have four.  William's four are named Will Jr., Liam, Karl and Charlie.   A few weeks in, we discovered a fifth one buried in the oats!  He was given the name Bart.   They move from larvae (worm) stage to pupae to darkling beetles.   Our neighbors each have them at various stages, including beetle.  We're still waiting for the larvae to transform.   I was tempted to throw them out since I'm the only one feeding them (they get apple slices for water and a bedding of oatmeal), but agreed to keep them at William's request.   I'm sure there will be future posts on these. .. . 

 

Christmas Break

Since I had finished my traditional "Christmas" work project on Friday the 23rd, we had most of the week between Christmas and New Year at home together to hang out.   As a family Christmas gift, we booked two nights at the Kalahari Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells.  I actually took very few pictures that weekend which was just fine.  We enjoyed spending quality time together playing 10+ rounds of miniature golf and all the other fun stuff at the indoor theme park.  We also spent each evening at the waterpark riding the slides.  And we all enjoyed sleeping in; we even had to set an alarm for 10 a.m. to make sure we made it to the free breakfast buffet before it closed!

 

 

 

Christmas

Since it was just the three of us for Christmas this year we tried some new things!  On Christmas Eve we went to Chicago for the Joffrey Ballet's Nutcracker.  It was so much fun!  It was also the first day William had showered and changed clothes since they got out of school on the 22nd!   I had been to a Joffrey performance once before, but this was the guys' first time.  I loved all the details at theatre:  there were cushions for the kids to put on their chairs to elevate their view, and there we cookies and juice at the concessions (and "Poinsetta" cocktails and wine).  The show was beautiful.   It was a reinterpretation that set the tale in World's Fair era Chicago. 

When we got home, William was allowed to open one gift, and we opened the present he made for us in school.  With our construction changes, I decided to move my Christmas card display from the fireplace mantle to over the bay window.   I love getting picture cards from family and friends.   We ended up with cards from friends in 9 or 10 different states this year. 

Christmas morning William was so excited to discover that  Santa left little sets of Legos IN the tree!  After a Lego-free Christmas 2015, neither Mommy or Daddy nor Santa made that mistake this year!  Our house added around 3,000 Legos over the course of 24 hours. 

December Festivities

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we worked hard to get into the Christmas spirit!

After the floors got done, I was quick to get the Christmas tree up!   We did an artificial one again this year, so it was easy.  This year I was able to expand my "ear" ornaments and am now up to six.   Next year I'm considering an all-Disney themed tree, so I still have more shopping to do/vacations to plan!

 

John got the outdoor lights up earlier - taking advantage of the decent weather in November before our first snow storm hit the first weekend in December. . ..and the second snow storm hit the second weekend in December!   Our neighbor added more items to his growing display.  Those giant candy canes were a beacon to lead me home each evening!

 

The second snowy weekend, we enjoyed some sledding with William's friend, Zac, and then worked on a snowman for our front yard!  I only got a picture of Zac sledding, since I was doing video of William before my battery died.   Zac has a "Flat C.J." (ala Flat Stanley) of his 20-year old brother who is in the army, so I got a picture of the two of them on their run.   I also took a few runs down the sledding hill.  I'm still trying to talk the guys into a trip to one of the Wisconsin area ski resorts to go snow tubing.  I tried skiing once 20 years ago and that is probably sufficient.

 

The snow makes everything look beautiful, but the bitterly cold temperatures that followed made for a miserable commute.  I took photos along the Chicago River two days in a row to show how the snow was frozen against the railing.  In the second photo, I was trying to capture the swirling steam vapors rolling over the river.  The underground trains were blowing the air out over the freezing river.

Other fun activities to round out December included a Rogue One viewing the weekend it came out; making Christmas cookies; and a Cub Scout pack get together for games and snacks.

New Floors

When we moved into our house 7 1/2 years ago everything looked perfectly, generically lovely, which was perfect with a 3 week old baby in tow!    Now that we've lived in it awhile, it's time to do updates.  Our first project was to update the kitchen cabinets and counters.  This fall we tore down the half wall dividing our kitchen and family room and had dark wood floors installed throughout the entire first floor.  This spring we will have the fireplace brick paneled over, walls repainted and new baseboards installed.   A work in progress, but we love the new floors!

 Step one:  kitchen cabinets

 

Step two: remove wall, tile and carpeting

 

Step three:  wood floors installed

Step four:  put furniture back and enjoy