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.

Happy Thanksgiving, 2014!

We again spent Thanksgiving in northeastern Wisconsin this year, visiting both my parents and Karen's dad.  A significant topic of discussion up here has been the snow.  There has been a disconcerting amount of snow up here this year so far this year.  It is pretty, though.

Tornado Anniversary

Today is the first anniversary of the tornado outbreak that ravaged, among many other places, central Illinois.  Much has been said and will continue to be said of this event, including in this blog (e.g. http://pixofthedayandstuff.blogspot.com/2013_11_01_archive.html), so I will simply note that many people are successfully getting things back together.  This picture is from our weekend trip north, where we drove by a property near I-39 where the house has not yet been rebuilt.

Ben's Confirmation

This weekend we visited Verona, WI, for the confirmation of a godson.  It was a nice visit, but they have been getting more snow than we have in Peoria.  (We have gotten maybe a half-inch this week - last night they got an inch or two.)  It is all pretty, but still too early for my tastes.

November Visit

We enjoyed Karen's dad's visit this weekend.  Among other events, we went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library on Sunday.