The Twelve Days of Christmas

The twelve days of Christmas have come and gone and here we are settled down in Bertha for our long winters nap in Florida .

We started out in Green Bay on the day before Christmas Eve with Papa's Pizza in tow to feed the hungry foreigners who miss our Chicago way of doing things with Pizza.

We were fortunate to be spending the holidays in Green Bay where it was white with snow. It seems as though Chicago has been declared a no snow zone. We all enjoyed a few hours on the sledding hill near their home.

Christmas Eve began with Mass to celebrate the true meaning of the season, the arrival of baby Jesus.

The family was joined later by some close friends in Green Bay increasing the joy brewing in the household. We were honored by a visit from Santa and his entourage of  wife and elves. Everyone had enough nice marks to receive a present. Even Bob and Don.

 

 

 After the guests left, the children opened gifts from all of us. Our latest hockey player, Ella, loved her girlie hockey stick which I made sure to fill with lots of goals, and Jack gave us a fashion show in his new snuggie.

Of course, the big surprises were on Christmas morning when the children awoke to see what Santa left under the tree during the night. Elise received the biggest dollhouse I have ever seen. I can only imagine what it took for Santa to assemble it. It had to be that large to accommodate Barbie and Ken. 

The best part of the time however, was the individual.  time I was able to spend with each of the children. Spinning with Robbie, eating grapes with Jacob, cooking with Ella, playing angry birds with Jack and playing air hockey with Elise to name just a few.

We returned home the day after Christmas to get ready to head south but not until we celebrated a little more. I had a holiday meal for my favorite nurses from Mt. Sinai and another one for my brother Jim and niece Lindsay. We celebrated New Year's Eve in style with champagne and dancing with our friends at Grand Haven, and headed out the day after New Year's for Atlanta and one more Christmas with Mike and his family.

 

 

More presents. Ollie loved his Buzz Lightyear toy as did Drew, but the best gifts of all were a coffee table book Don bought him about the stars and planets, and the old walkie talkies we gave him out of the camper. Those were "the best presents ever". The stuffed animal I gave him which was collecting dust at home also seemed to out play Buzz. After we stored up a lot of the giggles and hugs to keep us warm for the rest of the winter, we hopped into the bus and are now ready for our annual exile to Florida.

 

 

Memory

Today, I am a guest author on Jean’s blog. I am Jean’s husband Don. I have been very fortunate over the years to be able to travel to so many places in this country. We love to travel. My love of travels began early in life. My first large trip was in 1964, a road trip out west, in a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair, through South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. By the way, there were no Interstate Highways beyond Iowa City, Iowa, just two lane roads with lots of small towns. Yes, I travelled parts of route 66.


We just recently completed what we called our friendship tour through the Southeast. One of our stops, near Ashville, North Carolina, was Chimney Rock State Park. This park is where the latest movie "Last of the Mohicans" was filmed with Daniel Day-Lewis. We entered the park after crossing a very narrow bridge over a gentle river in the tiny tourist town of Chimney Rock. The entrance road is narrow winding road climbing steadily in elevation until we reached the parking lot. As we exited the car and walked across the parking lot and looked up we could see a winding set of about 450 stairs leading up to the top of Chimney Rock, Jean, mentioned, “We were here before.” I answered, “no way,” and we began our slow climb to the top. On top, we marveled at the view overlooking the Great Smoky mountains with their late fall muted colors on the left. On the right, Lake Lure below. The lake meanders in and around the mountain valleys below. Again, Jean stated, “we were here before.” Again, I emphatically repeated “no way, we have not been here.”



Chimney Rock

After, enjoying the gorgeous views from the top, we descended, this time by elevator to the parking lot. There was a side trail about a mile long that would take us up to “Hickory Nut Falls.” When we reached the waterfall, again, Jean repeated “we have been here before. This is where Bob and Roger Sieben, were stung by a swarm of wasps”. This time our conversation became a little more heated with comments about my memory. This time I began to argue, “no way, I would certainly remember this beautiful park”. I did remember a wasp incident, but it was surely somewhere else. Ha, Ha.

 
As I sat at our computer one recent December evening, looking over and organizing our photos from the recent trip, I looked back and viewed some old photos when our kids were ages 7 to 10 from 1982. Guess what, we were at Chimney Rock in 1982, when we were on our way out to the Worlds Fair to Knoxville, TN. Note the photos below, on right is our most recent photo, and on the left the photo from 1982. The bottom of the page photo is by the Hickory Nut falls in 1982, with me and the kids.



1982



Nov 9, 2012







Well, to make a long story short, I am wrong again. I guess, the reason why I always enjoy where we go, I believe it is the first time. In my defense, I have been to a lot of overlooks in my years of travels, and lots of Chimney Rocks. If you are ever near Ashville, be sure to visit Chimney Rock. The view is spectacular.


 

Don, Bob, Don, & Mike Hickory Nut Falls 1982



Don Chilson


 

Happy Advent

This isn't meant to be a plug for the real meaning of Christmas, but it's okay if that's what you get from it. It is also a week late in coming due the the procrastinating nature of the author.

On black Friday we were in McDonald's when Don overheard a conversation at the counter of a man talking about a presentation of Handl's Messiah at a neighboring parish coming up on December 2. This happens to be our favorite holiday music. So he looked into it and got some tickets for the performance which was scheduled for the first Sunday of advent.

The music was performed by the Metropolitan Chicago Symphany Orchestra and the St. Raphael Parish Choir in the church itself. It was absolutely amazing. The acoustics were as fine as anywhere, and the music could well have been sent from heaven above. All for the small price of $10. After a brief intermission, the second act was a short concert of traditional Christmas carols both religious and secular. The orchestral arrangements were updated to sound current without loosing their traditional flavor. Of course, then came the children involved in a light procession singing Silent Night making it seem just right. We left there feeling now it is time to let the holiday spirit begin.

There are no pictures today, because my musings are all about the sounds that warm my heart.

Beautiful music which though created by man can only be inspired by God.

Little boys singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, little pizza"

A little girl writing a story about the turkey who tried his best to survive Thanksgiving.

A 4 year old explaining the nature of Zombies and insisting it is all true because it is in the movies

Playing " Let's steal things from Pa"

Quiet conversation with the oldest of the bunch.

The unending joy and giggles of all the grandchildren.

These are the real sounds of Advent. I can wait lose myself in these while I wait for the special joy that is Christmas to arrive.

The Friendship Tour

As much as we love Bertha, sometimes we take to the road in our car and actually accommodate ourselves in a few hotel rooms or by taking advantage of the hospitality of family and friends. We recently took just such a road trip which led us South to Georgia, northeast to Virginia and home again. The sole purpose of this trip was to visit friends and family along those routes. We touched base with people in 5 different states and 6 different cities. All along the way we were greeted warmly and  enthusiastically.

We first planned this trip as always over a long week-end between Illini football games to spend some time with our children and grandchildren in Atlanta. Thank you Illini for being so utterly and definably awful this season (the worst EVER!!!!). They were so bad we chucked our season tickets and decided to make a road trip of this visit and do a few things we have had on our list for awhile.

I was reticent to phone the people we planned to visit as some of them we hadn't seen for a lot of years ( I mean a real lot).  I was so pleasantly surprised when they all said happily to come along and all were actually excited to have us visit. Each one had at some time over the past several years offered an open invitation as people always do. Our philosophy to any invitation is that you better mean it because we rarely refuse one.

One of my all time dearest friends whom I have seen very very infrequently since our children were very small once said that the test of a real friendship like ours is that we may go  for years without seeing each other, but when we do we are able to take up exactly where we left off as though the years had never passed. Well I believe we found this to be true along our way and I learned a valuable lesson. Friendship is a precious thing and it doesn't necessarily diminish
merely because of the absence of contact due to our busy lives.

Of course, we did take the opportunity to visit a few new places along the way. Our first old friend, Anna, lives in Louisville Ky. so before we left town we spent a memorable morning at Churchill Downs. After soaking up the history of this place, I have a new appreciation of that once a year event the Kentucky Derby. I picked up a few recipes of traditional Derby food at their museum and am telling my friends to save the date next May for a Derby party.

In Nashville we met up with friends who had been our neighbors for many years before job opportunities took them elsewhere. We spent the evening with them over dinner catching up on how our families have grown and changed over the years apart.

We spent a happy week-end in Atlanta where Don celebrated his 70th birthday in high style. We were treated to a very elegant meal by Elizabeth at the Sun Dial Restaurant, which revolves at the top of the Westin Hotel in Downtown Atlanta. We were lucky to arrive while the sun was still shining and leave after dark which gave us splendid views of the city with and without lights. It was such fun to get dressed up to go out. Our current life styles are such that we just don't take the opportunity to do so. When Ollie saw his mom in this lovely little black dress he asked her "Why are you wearing your bathing suit?" Mike definitely has to take this girl out more often.

Of course the other highlight of the days spent in Atlanta was bonding with two of the sweetest boys on the face of the earth. Drew's current favorite games are "My ---- is better than yours", Where did the ball go?, and Let's sneak things from Pa. Ollie is so happy go lucky he just likes being around everyone.



The boys practiced their scary faces while waiting for their lunch to arrive



Believe it or not this is Ollie's scary face

 

After leaving Atlanta, we headed for Ashville to drop in on the Vanderbilts for a brief visit. Unfortunately they weren't in residence that week but we were treated to a tour of their luxurious estate, Biltmore and spent a few days enjoying the hospitality of some new friends that we met in Florida who live in Mars Hill.

On the way to Charlotte, home of our niece Amy and her lovely family, we stopped to climb Chimney Rock State Park. It felt great to get out and do something so physical after so much sitting.

Last stop but certainly not the least was Western Virginia, home of sister Carol and her husband Jim. We were given an added treat when our Nephew made an appearance for Sunday dinner with his little family.  We had a nice visit, attended a Glass Harp Concert, had more than a few laughs and I received some quilting lessons before the long but satisfying ride home.



This is one happy Grandma



The Splendor of Fall

There is no doubt about it. We Midwesterners love our fall colors. Road trips, bike trips, just tooling around the neighborhood brings about a sense of pride in the beauty around us as if we had anything to do with its creation. Similar to the way my mother used to brag about her Florida weather as if she were responsible for it in some way.

Last Saturday with nothing else on our agenda we decided to take a road trip to Starved Rock State Park and soak up a bit of the ambiance of fall and have a nice lunch at the lodge. We forgot to take into account the fact that since we are retired we should reserve such outings for the week-days. Everyone in Illinois seems to have had the same thoughts. 

We couldn't get into the restaurant for lunch so we dined al fresco! This may have been the first time outside of a campground that I ate my lunch wearing gloves. It was a sunny, even though brisk day though so the experience was not without its merit considering the view.

We never realized that there are a total of 18 canyons in this park. In a 3 mile loop I believe we saw less that half of them. During the rainy times there are supposedly water falls filling these chasms, but there is a different kind of thrill being able to walk right into them.

We worked off our lunch with a long hike through the woods and along the river enjoying the colors but also enjoying the many families and friends doing the same. The atmosphere was congenial and friendly. Even the dogs encountered along the trail were well behaved although I have always failed to understand why so many people having dogs with very short legs think this kind of activity is a treat for them. There are plenty of steep climb and stairs along these trails. Further up into the woods the crowds thinned quite a bit as the climb is not for the faint hearted.

Starved Rock for which this park is named

This day brought back great memories about our first ever camping trip with our pop-up and our three little boys. Our then neighbor and good friends, the Siebens were seasoned campers and they decided they should teach us everything we needed to know about camping. This was about 34 years ago. This place has changed (actually been changed) a lot since then. It was the Siebens custom to go mushroom hunting with some of their family the first week-end in April each year in the woods around Starved Rock. The campground at that time was a barren field with no running water and pit toilets, the old fashioned stinky kind. Northern Illinois tends to be colder in April than in October and it hit freezing that night. I slept with a cloth diaper around my head for warmth. The next morning we hiked up the rock on a dirt path, not the metal steps and boardwalks which became necessary to stem the erosion. There was no guard rail at the top of the cliff and, of course boys, both big and small had to brave the very edge while mom shuddred in fear for their lives. Then we hit the woods, off trail, looking for edible mushrooms and Don got lost. We can still hear his voice calling through the trees, "Oh Elaine".

Obviously neither of us was daunted by this experience. We went out the day after we returned home and bought heavier sleeping bags and a small space heater both of which served us well in the years to come. It was also the first of many camping trips shared with these wonderful people in our lives.

What a Great Birthday; Episode Two

My birthday was last Tuesday. It was a beautiful sunny day so I chose to spend it on the golf course. My gift was a Talylor Made Burner 5 Wood and I just had to try it out. Well my other birthday present to myself was the best game of golf, not only for this year, but forever. We followed it up by a great dinner and, of course the real best part of the day was the phone calls from the children, and all of the wonderful wishes posted on my facebook wall.

We postponed the annual Chicago Lakefront bike ride until the next day to give us a day to rest up after our Door County trip. As is our custom we were joined by our friends Nancy and Phil. Last year we noted that people were riding on Northerly Island as we viewed it from the back of McCormick Place, so our priority this year was to explore the island which none of us has been to since it was known as Mieg's Field. We were not disappointed. What a beautiful place former Mayor Daley has engineered. Another amazing space making Chicago one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

After we left the island we proceeded around the Planitarium to join up with the Lakefront Trail only to be impeded by a security guard who would not allow us to pass as a crew was filming and I guess they didn't want the world to know that people actually ride bikes in the city. It turns out they were filming American Idol tryouts. We volunteered to sing but he was h
aving none of it so we took a bizarre detour and headed north. We stopped at Navy Pier for our annual birthday lunch at Harry Caray's and proceeded a ways north until we decided it was time to turn around to beat the rush hour traffic home.

The wild flowers on the island were just amazing

What a Great Birthmonth or the Prebirthdays

As I always tell my granddaughters, Girls don't have birthdays they have birth months. And mine began this year promptly on Sept. 1st with a long week-end in Minnestoa with our Minnesota Twins and their parents. The first day there, Don assembled their newly purchased burley with the help of the boys and we promptly went for a short ride on the McGuire Sisters bike trail. It was a warm week-end for September so we spent a few hours at the beach and, of course, our annual boat ride to Lord Fletcher's for lunch. In between there was lots of time to just play silly games with two 2 year old and have great conversation with Bob and Gretchen. We also ate our way through Minnesota State Fair wher the boys were only interested in seeing the animals.

 

 

 

The real celebrations began the week of my actual birthday. We had planned our annual trek to Door County with the best friends in the world for the week-end before. Of course we had to take the opportunity to visit the Green Bay Chilsons on the way up. Now, if you live in Chicago and have ever had pizza in any of the places our children live you would easily understand why the first thing they all want to do when they come home is dine on Papa's Pizza. I never understand why good Italian sausage and seasoning cannot be understood outside Chicago.

So the opportunity presented itself for us to treat them to a few pizzas for dinner. When we walked into their kitchen, our son Don was standing alone in the kitchen with a dumb look on his face. I suddenly noticed balloons and streamers hanging at the same time the children popped out of hiding shouting Happy Birthday. After our favorite dinner we had a beautiful double chocolate birthday cake complete with candles,singing, and presents. I was also presented with a lovely crown.

We have been enjoying yearly trips to Door County more years than we can remember. We always manage to find something different there. This year, we stopped at Pottawatomie State Park on the way up to the north end of the Peninsula for a short hike. The trail was lovely and the autumn colors were just beginning to pop out.

We arrived in Rawley's Bay on time to play a few games of pinochle and have a relaxing dinner in the Lodge Restaurant. This year we chose to economize on gas and stay at the lodge rather than drive Bertha up. It was strange figuring out how to pack for a motel stay and also eating all our meals in restaurants. I thought that the one thing I would miss the most would be the campfires, however as the evenings were cold and windy, this was the perfect trip to defer camping for the luxuries of inside living. Thus we managed to eat our way through Door County which happens to have very fine food at every turn.

We spent Saturday exploring the peninsula literally from top to bottom, Starting at the Cana Lighthouse and Caves Point and ending at a winery. That evening we had our annual fine dining experience at the English Inn compliments of our monthly Pinochle dues. The meal was gourmet from the unique clam chowder to the wonderful chocolate covered Grasshopper for dessert. (That's a drink, not a bug).

Sunday was reserved for our bike ride through Peninsula State Park. Our plan was to find a picnic table to play a few hands of cards on Nicolet Bay, but it was so cold and blustery, that we couldn't find a decent place to play so we thought to find a bar to sit and play in until dinner time. Well we decided to take the road back this time instead of the trail and lo and behold someone had built an indoor shelter right on the edge of the water just for us.

Then came birthday celebration no. 2. We were treated to a wonderful dinner by our friends Ed and Judy complete with Cherry bread pudding, more candles and more singing. After dinner we went on a Door County Ghost Trolley Tour, which as ghost tours go was one of the best.

Before heading home on Monday, we golfed at the Peninsula State Park. None of us did very well as it was again gold and blustery and besides having to work around multiple layers of clothing, the bods were a little stiff from the weather. OMG! I sound just like my mother.