Fun in the City (Dec 17)

I never did get a chance to upload the photos and blog about a trip that my neighbor/friend and I made to the city back in December.  Here we are - Natalie and I, on the train :-)

I do love this city. Always pretty neat having the river run along the buildings:

We actually came out here for the Christmas market:

And there's actually a Picasso installation right in the middle of it!

Time for some lunch - potato pancakes and a massive pretzel!

After roaming around the market, we decide to walk over to the Macy's:

Such fancy window decorations, which means another photo op :-)

Natalie shows me around the Macy store as well - check out this massive Christmas tree in the Walnut Room.  Woah!!

It's suppose to be quite the tradition here - to eat a fancy meal here.  We'll have to try it one day :-)

Okay, I don't remember the name of the building we walked into now.  But there was definitely some amazing architecture:

I mean, check out this room!!

Pretty railing and floor tiles:

Another angle of the stair railing - so intricate:

I wish I remembered the name of this building.  Like I said before, so much to look at!

Another room - another wow:

I could probably just hang out in this room all day:

More amazing tile work:

Walking back to the train and walking across the street from the Christmas market:

Another very "interesting" sculpture:

A sculpture by Joan Miro named Miro's Chicago:

This is why I love coming into the city - you just never know what you're going to see and find!  Thank you Natalie for taking me out today :-)

Random photos (Dec 2024)

Oh my gosh, never know what these boys will do next.  This is Graham, who has his beanie covering his entire head - and he's got his glasses right where his eyes are.  LOL!!

Charlie copying Bobby, which he has to a T!

Buzzing Charlie's hair and he decides to take over:

This kid is too funny!

We finally try out the Amazon grocery store. What fancy shopping carts!

Everything that goes into the cart gets calculated and you just walk out through a special check-out lane that doesn't require a person - since everything gets paid via your account. Amazing!

And Graham buys himself an old electric typewriter:

He's super excited about it, although it's not quite working 100% correctly. So we'll see what he does with it now!

Plants (Dec 2024)

Decided to buy a few more plants to make them into kokedama:

But after some thought, I decided to decorate them instead with some Christmas decor:

I tried to sell them within the neighborhood, but there were no takers.  Oh well, maybe I will eventually make them into kokedama. Although, one of them dried up quite a bit after being on top of the fireplace without any watering.  Oops!

In the meantime, I decided to split up the fern.  I think it got a little bit root-bound, so this plant is probably happy to be out of it's plastic container!

I think this plant is going to be much happier in 2 new planters:

Bought a new hanger as well:

Happy plant, happy me!! :-)

Almost Christmas photos (Dec 2024)

Just some photos from December that I didn't get to post last year,  And yeah, actually didn't get to bake the pumpkin pie until after Thanksgiving.  So the boys were definitely happy about that!

Okay, I was happy too.  That pumpkin cheesecake pie is super yum!  And I was also able to finally make some shortbread too.  It's amazing what you can do with just 4 ingredients!

Ready to go in the oven!

Yum!!

Love how the lake looks this time of the year with snow:

Or, almost ice:

Definitely iced over for everyone to skate on!

Graham is getting better at ice-skating:

Looking for warmer days to put on those outdoor Christmas lights:

In the meantime, inside - Charlie is busy decorating the tree. I'm glad he's still willing to help!

I love our tree.  It still looks good after all these years :-)

And our wreaths are still hanging on strong - added our little Ikea reindeer decor on it this year:

Our angel still works!

And these crystals are all still intact. They were gifts from a good friend who still lives in California:

And grandma continues to gift Bobby with more pork roll!

Well, it doesn't take long to have to start wrapping up plants.  It's getting cold!!

Those golf towels are coming in handy. Ha ha!  And brrrr, it's 9F outside!

Meanwhile, the boys got to visit the local fire station:

And came home with Bluey in a raffle drawing. It's massive!!

Did I mention it was cold?? Yup, icicles!

More of the lake has frozen over.  Still pretty freaky looking sometimes:

Charlie and his friend getting some ice-hockey in.  I'm guessing his friend just fell over on the side. Ha ha! Too funny:

Pretty neat sky that evening:

These boys are so lucky to be able to experience all the different activities:

I have to say we have been pretty lucky to find this spot where we live now!