Kristine 16 and Gotcha Day 5

Pretty wintery lately - many schools were closed due to cold for a couple days and we have been getting snow events. Kristine had her 16th birthday last Friday and got her driver's license.  My parents visited this weekend and helped cheer the Green Bay Packers to a controversial victory over the Dallas Cowboys.  Today was the 5th anniversary of Katie's Gotcha Day, with Katie and I recreating a picture from 5 years ago.

 

Christmas Break Ends

Over the last couple days we have been preparing for winter weather, doing things like taking down Christmas decorations, shifting woodpiles, and adding a TV antenna cable in the attic. Today Kris, Katie, and I went bowling at Bass Pro Shop in East Peoria and had fun. This morning we got 0.7 inch of snow.  It looks bright in the moonlight, reminiscent of The Night Before Christmas line about the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow giving the luster of midday to objects below.

Pix of the Year 2014

My wife and daughters sifted through the nearly 1200 pictures that I accumulated this year and these were the ten pictures that they selected. Enjoy, and have a blessed 2015!

Christmas Trip to WI, 2014

After Christmas, we traveled to Wisconsin to visit our families.  We have seen various people and various movies, revisited old memories and made some new ones. We got a few inches of wet, sticky snow in the Mountain area a few days ago, followed by a cold snap.  The result has been a winter wonderland effect - it is still sticking to the trees, and in some locations near water there has been some really cool feather-like frost flowers (with "feathers" about an inch long - a more sophisticated description is given here on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_flower_%28sea_ice%29).

Merry Christmas 2014!

The final approach to Christmas seemed a little crazier than usual, with Karen dealing with her preschool class for the first time in this season (part of the time without an important helper) and with 3 of the 4 of getting sick a few days ago.  Thankfully, that has all mostly passed on time for this snow-less, mild-enough-for-the-forsythias-to-blossom Christmas.  Some highlights in the last couple days: bowling with Katie a couple days ago, Kristine doing an awesome job singing at Mass last night, opening presents this morning (with a surprise pillow in the washing machine), saying "hi" to my brother online, and eating and gaming with the family.  Have a Blessed Christmas everyone!

December Warm Spell Continues

Regular Bradley classes have come to an end for the semester, and now we are in final exam mode. Looks like we are in for a green/brown Christmas this year - we joke that it is because I was given a used snowblower and bought a new snow shovel and have lots of firewood thanks to that walnut tree we cut down.  Yesterday we Christmas shopped around town.  Today I did some nature therapy: fossil hunting and hiking in the woods (I wore blaze orange in case there were deer hunters in the woods).  At one location I found some iron fasteners from an old mine.  Many of the fossils I found in the shale were wet and fell apart easily.  I found a waterfall I had not seen before - one of the biggest I have seen in our neighborhood.  Tonight, Katie and I went for a walk to deliver cookies to the neighbors and look at Christmas lights - note the streamers of fog in the picture.

 

Katie activities

800th blog post. Last week Katie's Girl Scout troop saw a glassblowing demonstration at Draper Glass.  Katie also presented her science fair poster and did very well.  On Saturday, she, Karen, and Kris, saw a production of The Sound of Music in Peoria.  Last shot is of her helping to make cookies yesterday.  Our Christmas decorations are mostly up.