Snow, snow and more snow

  Saturday morning we woke up to maybe three inches of snow. I cleared out the driveway so we could head out to the Hill Christmas Party.  There are so many of us now that it's too big for somebody's house so we held it at the Romeoville Recreation Center where both Debbie and Marissa work. We had a great time and it was good to see everybody. It was the first time anybody had met Scarlett and my niece's new baby, Gabriel.

Santa came and of course that was lots of fun for all the little kids

 

We had pizza and a Christmas cake.

Debbie arranged everything and it all worked out great.

We came home and I cleared the driveway again before Carol and Jerry picked us up for dinner. We went to the Sunflower Bistro in La Grange and had a wonderful dinner and a nice visit.  We came back to our house for desert and coffee.

This morning we had another 5 or 6 inches of snow so I cleared that out so we could go for our Sunday School Class brunch this morning.  I took the annual class picture in the sanctuary.

A wild day

It started off normal enough.  We went to Sunday School and came home to wait for Dan and Amy to drop off the boys for the afternoon.  They were having an open house.  They came and brought lunch then they left to do some shopping.  Both boys took naps.  Dan and Amy came back and we visited a while.  They were getting ready to leave when the phone rang.  It was Lori, pretty rattled, saying something about Keir was on his way to the hospital and she needed help going over to the sledding hill next to the La Grange Park library to get Lindsey.  Dan and I jumped in the car and raced over there.  Dan spotted the ambulance down at the bottom of the hill so I drove down there and parked right next to it.  Dan jumped out and ran towards the paramedics who were coming down the hill with a stretcher.  As I headed toward the group (slowly because it was so slippery) Dan headed off into the big baseball field. The 4 paramedics came to where I was with Keir on the stretcher.  I could see blood all over him but didn't get a chance to talk to him - they headed for the ambulance and I stopped one of them and said I was his father-in-law.  He told me that Lori was looking for me and wanted me to take the kids so she could go to the hospital. He pointed toward the field and I saw Lori and Dan carrying the kids towards the Jewel parking lot.  He told me that Keir seemed all right and was conscious and talking so I ran to catch up with Dan and Lori.

We put the kids in Lori's car so Dan could take them back to our house while I followed the ambulance to the hospital with Lori.  When we got back to the ambulance they told us Lori could ride with them so I drove home.  They took Keir to La Grange Hospital, stitched him up and ran a cat scan and x-rayed his neck.  Those tests didn't show any problems but he had suffered a concussion and they wanted to have a neurologist look at him so they transferred him to Hinsdale hospital.  Keir's parents were heading in from Crystal Lake.  When they arrived I picked up Lori so she could go home and pick up some stuff for the girls and some stuff for herself to stay overnight at Hinsdale Hospital.  They got Keir over there and put him in the Neuro ICU so they could monitor him overnight.   He was talking okay last night and beginning to remember things and said he was feeling better. He has a big gash on his forehead that took 11 stitches to close.  The only thing we know is what the cop told me - Lindsey's sled started going crooked and was heading for a tree so Keir started running after her, slipped and fell.  Another father that was there called the paramedics.  Keir doesn't remember any of this so we don't know much more than that.

The neurologist saw him this morning. They ran another cat scan and gave him a clean bill of health.  Lori brought him home this afternoon and then picked up the girls from our house when they woke up from their naps.

It's too cold here

Average high temperature for this time of year is 38 and we're working with high's in the 20's.  Got some more snow Thursday night.  Kyle and Lindsey seem to love snow - the advantage of being three years old.

 

Kyle and Braden stayed overnight with us Thursday night so Dan and Amy could go to Dan's Christmas party at the Sofitel.  Kyle wanted to play in the snow but that's a little tough with Braden not walking so Jill figured she would go over to Lori's so Lindsey and Kyle could go out.  They had a ball and never did seem to get cold.

Today we did some shopping at Costco - it was pretty crowded.  Tonight we're going to our annual bridge group Christmas dinner.  We're taking this with us. Amy, Lori and Jill made all of these.

The season is upon us.

Winter finally arrived

It started snowing last night and snowed off and on till about 2:00 today.

We've ordered a ton of stuff online as we do every year so don't have a lot of shopping left to do.  Jill has been making lots of cookies too.

And you know those $50 poinsettias that you wish you could have but just hate the price?  Well, they have 'em for 15 bucks at Costco.

We just love the Christmas season.

Christmas decorations

We got the outside stuff up last weekend so today was the day to put up the tree and all the other decorations. Lori and Lindsey came over to help us.  It was a great time.  Lindsey loved going through all of our ornaments and helping us hang lots of them. After Lori and Lindsey left we spend most of the rest of the day putting up all the other decorations.  The house looks great and we're in the holiday mood.

Jill's Birthday

We had a heck of a good time.  I took the day off (Friday) and we headed downtown to the Fairmont Hotel.  We had a suite with a lake view on the 27th floor.

After we checked in a little after noon we headed up Michigan Avenue for some lunch and shopping.

It was pretty darn cold and windy. Bought a bottle of wine at Trader Joe's and headed back to the Fairmont. After a while we headed for Macy's for dinner under the Christmas Tree in the Walnut Room.  The Walnut Room opened in 1907.  We've been eating under the tree since the early 70's.

It was a lot of fun.  We had a great meal, sang Happy Birthday to Jill and I know she loved being with the whole family.

Went back to the Fairmont and ordered a milk bath from the bath sommelier.

 

 

 

 

In the morning we ordered breakfast in the room. 

After a while we headed back over to Macy's to see the decorations and the windows.

Had lunch at a sushi place in our hotel and decided we'd better get going with the winter storm starting up.  We should have left earlier - it took us over an hour and half to get home.  The roads were awful. We only live 18 miles from downtown so that averages out to about 12 miles an hour.

All in all it was a great little get away birthday for Jill.