Chicago

We headed to Chicago December 15 to enjoy the holiday lights. Grandma and Grandpa Angst and Aunt Missy, Uncle Tom and Cousin Blake all came too! We took an early morning train instead of driving...which we will not likely do again as it took twice as long as driving!

We enjoyed the a quick tour of the outdoor German Christmas market, viewed the windows at Macy's, had lunch in Macy's in the Walnut Room that hosts a 44-foot Christmas tree, and then headed over to Navy Pier where the kids had a blast in the Christmas Wonderland. Lily and Blake each had a bracelet that let them go on all of the rides that were age appropriate for them. Lily loved the inflatable pyramid. She was by the far the smallest, but climbed right in and climbed right to the top as her anxious parents watched on. I ended up going in an pulling her off the top, as there was no way down but to fall off! She also climbed to the top of a huge slide and went right down by herself! This slide was at least 5-times bigger than any other slide she had ever done!

After all the fun, we went to Gino's for their famous deep dish pizza. The snow was really coming down which made for a beautiful walk!

The next morning, Missy, Tom and Blake headed out and we did some shopping before heading back home to a driveway covered in 10+ inches of snow. Corey promptly went out and bought a snow blower and spend the rest of the night blowing our driveway! [December 14-15, 2007]

Great Mall of America

We were home for just the night before Lily and I had to hit the road again for one of my business trips. It was only for the night, but we flew out of Chicago, with Lindsay too of course. Lily was a trooper, raring to go find "al-planes". So while I was in my meeting, Lily and Lindsay covered the entire Great Mall of America and the aquarium in side to boot! Lily met me at the airport later in the wearing a big sticker that read, "I pet a shark today" : ) [December 11 - 12, 2007]

Delaware, Pennsylvania and Ohio - Oh My!

December 7 - 9th we were back in Wilmington. We enjoyed the Annual Christmas Progressive with our Wilmington friends, stayed one night at the Blanton's, then spent Saturday with the Altman's enjoying Longwood Garden's and the new Children's Garden.

Lily and Will continue to be great buds, as you can see!

One of the funniest moments of the garden's was Lily dipping her fingers into the fountains like it was holy water from church, and preceding to bless not only herself, but Will too : )

Lily's daddy showed her how put her fingers in the fountain. Lily thought this was sooooo cool. When a reserved, banker-type looking toddler arrived at the fountain, Lily attempted to help him get his sleeves up and into the water too : )

Corey and I then went to the Bio-Imaging Christmas party and Lily hung out with Will (and his parents for supervision). She had a blast!!! As you can tell, Mike and Tammy are a pro already with handling 2 little ones!

The next morning we exchanged Christmas presents and dressed Lily and Will in matching monkey clothes yet again! As teenagers, monkey clothes will be harder to come by, but we will find something cute and matchy, and I'm sure they will love it. Ha!

On the 9th, Lily and I dropped Corey off at the airport and then spent a couple of hours at the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum. It was very cool. We look forward to another visit there someday soon! Lily's favorite was the farm where she could pick vegetables and feed the animals (all pretend of course), and the miniature grocery store where she could work the register, push a miniature cart, and select vegetables, stocked items, as well as bakery goods!

The rest of our trip home did not go too smoothly. We faced a cancelled flight when we arrived in Cleveland, leaving Lily and pregnant me with a few over-stuffed and heavy bags for the night! We were both exhausted! We struggled to a cab, hopped over to a Mariott, walked to Denny's for 'breakfast dinner', then laid in bed watching a movie. My little buddy crashed within minutes!The next day we encountered some very thoughtful people who helped us manage gate changes with luggage plus breakfast, and kind people in South Bend who tried to help us get to our car across the icy parking lot. There are very many wonderful people out there!!! [December 7 - 10, 2007]

19 Months and First Big Snow!

December 5, Lily had about 10 inches of fluffy white snow to celebrate being 19 months...so she also had her first sleigh ride.

Decorating the Tree

We decorated the tree throughout the week. As you can see, Lily was a big help with hanging lights and cleaning up fallen needles. The end results was a beautiful tree!

Cutting Down the Christmas Tree

December 2 we set out to cut down our own Christmas tree. It ended up being a rainy day with thunder and lightning! It did not deter us and we found a beautiful little white pine, and better yet, we didn't even need to use the saw! We simply tagged the tree, and the tree farm workers came out and sawed it down. All we had to do was relax in the cozy barn, sipping cocoa : ) [December 2, 2005]

Thanksgiving 2006

Thanksgiving turned out just a bit different than planned. Everyone was scheduled to come to South Bend and we had enough food to feed a small army. However we awoke Thanksgiving morning to news that Norm (Grandpa Angst) was having sever stomach pain. He went to the ER and we headed to MI with bins full of food! Thankfully Grandpa Angst turned out to have pancreatitis and nothing more serious. Unfortunately we can't figure out what caused it, so we are all praying that it was just a fluke thing, never ever to be repeated.


We cooked a turkey for Grandma Pfromm and Grandpa Dave Thanksgiving night. Below you can see photos of Lily enjoying her pumpkin pie and whipped cream (emphasis on the whipped cream).

The next day, we cooked another turkey and 2 racks of lamb and Grandma and Grandpa Angst's house. Everyone, except for Norm, was there. We visited him in the hospital later that night. He was sorely missed, but as you can see, the cousins still had a ball.