Christmas 2012: Day 4 & 5

Ah...finally Christmas Eve had arrived. We started out our morning by searching the web for a present for Dave and Anne (better late than never). Shortly, thereafter, Dave took us to see the Shrine. The Shrine has fifteen stations of the Passion of Christ and it took us about an hour to walk it. The weather was a bit on the chilly side due to the wind.

After touring the Shrine, we went to the mall, where we sucked down a warm mocha and ate a soft, salty, warm pretzel. We did a little more Christmas shopping and then headed back to the house to chill before meeting the Bafias for dinner.

The Bafia's are friends of the Vaughns and they were gracious enough to invite us all over for Christmas Eve dinner. Joe is Polish, and it is their custom to serve a traditional Polish meal on Christmas Eve. We ate potato and sauerkraut perogies, fish, green beans, macaroni & cheese and a few other items I can't recall. They also had served some yummy cookies and peppermint bark, too! (Yes, I did indulged!)

After spending a couple hours with the Bafia's, we headed back to the house to open up Christmas gifts. Steve and I received this nice piece from the Vaughns:

The night was cut short as we had to get up early to leave for the airport. The time we spent with the family was wonderful. It had been four years since we had seen everyone, so it was definitely time to get together.

I really appreciated having Dad Vaughn there with us as I can't remember ever a time when we all were together for Christmas. On several occasions, when my eyes gazed upon him, I couldn't help but see a grandpa who was enjoying every minute with his sons and grandchildren. The big grin on his face really said it all! It truly blessed my soul!

Christmas Day was spent driving to O'Hare International Airport, sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours, and finally arriving home (after picking up Levi) a little after 6pm. We praise the Lord for giving us good travel and safety. He protected us from all the weather patterns that threatened to hit the area prior to our arrival and after our departure. I praise God that he takes care of even the smallest details in our lives. Another blessing was Dad Vaughn was able to fly in and out of Chicago, on standby - during the Christmas holiday without any serious delays. Truly we have been blessed this Christmas season.

Christmas Trip 2012: Day 3

Day three was the most relaxing of all the days. Our day started out by attending church, then we watched the Bears beat Arizona, ate some yummy pizza for dinner and finished the evening by watching some classical Christmas movies.

The Vaughn's also own a few animals of their own. They have two cats and two dogs. This is Big Lou.

Big Lou loves to come sit on your lap, knead and purr as loud as possible. When he gets comfortable enough, he starts to lick you. Unbeknownst to me, as the cat was licking my sweater (at least that is what I thought he was doing), I looked down to see that he was instead eating my hair! Yes folks, he ate a two inch section of my hair! To his credit, I think he would make a fine hair dresser, as my layers seem to blend effortlessly. :)

This is a picture of Wheezly. Wheezly loves to take baths. Every morning when we let him in the room he would dash into the bathroom and get in the tub and stick his head under the slowly dripping faucet. One thing is for sure, he is a very clean cat and has the longest legs I have ever seen.

Bowzer is Tony's childhood dog and what a sweet dog he is. He loves attention and there is never enough to give him. When it is time for him to go to bed he just meanders down the hall and snuggles into his bean bag. Adorable!

The last animal they have is Cocoa. Cocoa is a poodle mix and is still full of much energy and mischief. Cocoa loves attention as much as Bowzer, if not more. But Cocoa needs therapy. The dog has a chocolate fetish (hmmm... maybe that is why his name is Cocoa?). Cocoa is not partial to whose chocolate he will eat or what brand it may be. While we were there he managed (with his other partners in crime) to swipe some of dad's chocolates off the coffee table and get this...dug a Christmas gift out of our luggage, dragged it to the stairs and worked the chocolate out of the bag, the wrapper and then demolished the chocolate.

Here is a picture of him when he patiently waits for his momma to return home. He loves his momma!

One thing is for sure, these animals are FULL of PERSONALITY!!

One more day to share...stay tuned.

Christmas Trip 2012: Day 2

We finally arrived in Lowell a couple hours later. It didn't take us long to get settled in for the night so we could catch up on some zzzzzzzz's.

Saturday morning we went to a candy factor called Albanese; what an amazing place!It was filled with every kind of candy imaginable and people, too! A few pics were snapped: a decorated tree, some of the family, part of the chocolate fountain and Steve and I with Rudolph.

Dave wanted to take us to the Shrine of Christ's Passion, but we decided to push that tour off to another day. While nearby, he showed us a modern day Nebuchadnezzar instead. This statue is known as the Lady of the New Millennium. Apparently, her new home will be located at the Shrine. It is huge people! She stands 34 feet tall.

Afterwards we headed home for dinner. Shayna made a wonderful meal and surprised me with a birthday cake. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me. The singing was good, but the cake was even better! Thanks Shayna girl!

The rest of the evening we just chilled out and enjoying each others company.

To be continued...yet again....

Christmas Trip 2012: Day 1

This year Steve and I decided it was time for us to go and visit our family from the Midwest. Our trip was short, but we sure did pack a lot into the few days that we did have.

Since we got in so late, we opted to stay at the Double Tree Hotel for the night. This is the foyer of the hotel. Before we headed up to our room the desk clerk gave each of us a warm chocolate chip cookie (not pictured)...yummy!

This room was plenty big for three, as Steve's dad joined us for our Christmas adventure. Dad got the sofa bed and we took the king.

Friday morning we knew our day would be busy as we planned on picking up my sister, visiting two high school friends, and then heading to Indiana to spend the holiday with Steve's brother and family. With dad in tow, we left the rental car place and headed for the burbs.

We picked up my sister and drove into Hampshire to meet Steve's old high school friend, Valerie and family. I met Valerie back in 1980 for a brief time, in the mall parking lot with Steve. Valerie is very energetic and her children are sweet and talented too! The boys were gracious and played the violin and piano for us. They did a great job!

Our next stop was in Hebron where we met up with Kim and her family. I've known Kim since the 8th grade and the last time I had seen her was during our 20th high school reunion, nearly a decade ago. She has an absolutely adorable family,a beautiful home and knows how to bake some delicious cookies!

We finally dropped Teri off at her house and while there we got to see our nephew Chuck. It had been quite sometime since we had seen him and he is looking pretty good as well.

Our final destination for the evening was Lowell, Indiana where we planned to spend the holiday with Steve's brother Dave and his family.

To be continued...

LBF 2012

Tonight was our Ladies Bible Fellowship, and as always, December is full of fun! This evening we got to hear from the Word of God, do a fun craft and have our annual cookie/candy exchange.

The Fellowship Hall was decked out in snow and snowflakes, and go figure, the devotion tonight was on snow! Did you know that snow is actually mentioned in God's Word many times over? Definitely worth the time to do a more in depth word study!

After the devotion and sharing praises and prayer request the ladies began to diligenty work on the craft at hand - making a snowman or in my case, a snow-woman. This craft was done many, many years back. I was so glad to get to the opportunity to do the craft again because my first snowman has been without a helpmeet for way to long!

So, I set my mind to making him a mate. As you can see below, the two have successfully been united. Let me just mention, that this snow-woman was way more difficult to work with than the snowman...just saying! :)

Taking a break from my ever growing stressful project, I managed to get over to the kitchen and fill a plate full of many yummy treats. All the cookies and candy looked wonderful, but it was these Christmas mice that caught my attention. Aren't they just the cutest things? I can't wait to try one!

The ladies in charge of the decorating, the crafting and bringing items to snack on did a SUPER-FANTASTIC-MARVELOUS job. Thanks for all the hard work. The evening was a lot of fun!