A winter spa break!

Well, maybe not a real spa, but where we were was at least as good. We spent the past week at Aunt Lonnie's house, Cortney's Godmother, in Harbor Springs, and what a relaxing week it was. We shopped with aunt Lonnie for baby things in the quaint shops in Petoskey; were joined by Curtis and Patty the next day and had lunch at our favorite Petoskey sub bar, The Noggin Room; Were joined by Cortney's parents the next day and drove up to Mackinaw City for fantastic fried perch at the Keyhole bar, and picked up fudge and caramel corn while we were there; opened champagne and lots of hilarious gifts on New Year's Eve; rang in the New Year with Dick Clark wannabees; built a snowman (Curtis and Jon); enjoyed burgers at Bar Harbor in Harbor Springs; and drove to Bay Harbor for window shopping and ice cream; and spent plenty of "down time" reading, napping, and playing video games. Speaking of New Year's Eve - they added a leap second this year, did anyone notice? We're still trying to get acclimated... oh wait, maybe that's just the frustration of having to return to work, chores, and other duties after a week in a winter paradise.  Yeah, I guess that's it.

 Thank you again and again to Aunt Lonnie and to Cortney's mom and dad for a wonderful place to stay, for wonderful meals over and over, and for great company.

 Happy New Year to all!

Tradition!

Christmas Eve found us at our traditional holiday haunt - Kerrytown in Ann Arbor - buying food for the evening's dinner and snacking on breakfast, lunch, and seafood at the Korean lunch counter there. Possibly an odd tradition, but a solid one just the same. Then, after finishing our wrapping, we carted presents and ourselves over to the Hiller's for good company and great food.  Traditionally, dinner included cabbage rolls, oyster stew, and whipped cream (zebra) cake. After singing in the beautiful candlelight communion service at eleven at our church, we went home to bed - for a few hours.

Since we're still children at heart, Christmas still starts at the crack of dawn in our world. This year that had us driving, dogs and all, to Cortney's parents' house before seven in the morning in a fog so thick we could not see the bridges we were driving under on the expressway. What we won't do for Santa Clause. After stockings (complete with oranges and our ages in loose change), and following a great breakfast casserole, we opened gifts and listened to Christmas music. And who wouldn't look forward to the Christmas afternoon nap, curled up on the floor, surrounded by wrapping paper, bows, and empty boxes and draped over your new all metal fire engine. Oh wait, that's out of "A Christmas Story." But we did nap before the traditional dinner of tenderloin and yorkshire pudding.  Traditions, traditions. At home again, we lit a fire and watched Rudolph and Frosty while the dogs collapsed in exhaustion.

And, since we could never have too much Christmas, we continued the next day with gifts and dinner with the other half of the family. We had a wonderful dinner and relaxed around the table, opening gifts and sharing stories and opinions about movies.

So what next?  We're going to Disney World! Or Harbor Springs, whichever is colder, and we know the answer to that one!  We look forward to being there by tomorrow evening for much needed rest and relaxation.

Yes, it really is almost 4am...

Why are we up and alert at four in the morning?  We blame it on Steve (and we mean that in the nicest way possible).  We were all prepared to pick Steve up at the airport at 11:30 on Friday (today, yesterday, whatever...), and were very excited to see him, but then he called Cortney at work this afternoon to let her know that his plane has been inexplicably delayed by over an hour.  So poor Steve was stuck in his layover in the Denver airport while we were stuck trying to figure out what woud keep us up and running until we could pick him up at 12:45 am.  So we went out for dinner with Kristin and Matt, as had been originally planned, and then had them over so that Matt could beat us all at Mario Party 7.  Curtis joined the party at 11:30, which was when Cortney checked the flight information online, only to find out that the flight had been delayed again for mechanical difficulties and would arrive at 1:58am.  So at 1:40 off we went to the airport but, after getting Steve and waiting for luggage, we were all on our second (or third?) winds and we were all hungry (Cortney is eating for two...), so we hit an all-night Koney Island and then a Denny's, both of which were too full and too smokey.  Instead we hit the local Kroger and stocked up on eggs, bacon, cheese, hashbrowns and OJ and made our own breakfast at home (Jon is a fantastic cook).  So yes, it really is almost four in the morning and, yes, we are all still awake, but we are, finally, on our way to bed, including the safely arrived Steve.

Let it snow, let it snow...

Thanksgiving dinner has come and gone making it time to celebrate Christmas in our household!  Actually, we cheated because we started last night.  We couldn't help ourselves.  It was snowing and cold and it looked like the holidays!  Since we had put the lights up several weeks ago while it was still warm they were all ready to go and there was nothing to keep us from turning the timers on, so we did, and we don't regret it.  We actually got several inches of snow through yesterday and today.  Last night we kicked off our holidays with Christmas music, a movie and a fire.  And what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving morning than with pancakes and Ghostbusters.  We made sure that we each got on the treadmill this morning, too, so that we would be able to eat more at dinner, and it was a good thing.  We did dinner at Cortney's parents' house with all the usual trimmings.  Her dad did the turkey on the smoker (really there is no better way!), and there was stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry salad, waldorf salad, squash, wine, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and various coffees.  New and different this year was the addition of Patty, Curtis' fiance, and her family.  We had a wonderful time sharing the holiday with them, and the excellent desserts they brought, too.  Patty's father evidently has a sweet-tooth from which all the rest of us benefited.  In addition to the pies we had Death by Chocolate cake and riced pudding.  They also brought a traditional Peruvian drink called Chicha (I think) that is made by boiling purple corn to extract the joice, and then adding sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and apple pieces.  The drink has a relaxing and calming affect, yet is non-alcoholic.  We enjoyed it, and we had a wonderful time learning more about their traditions and their family.  Now, again, we are relaxing off the effects of a tryptophan dinner with a fire and a movie. 

Happy snow, happy holidays! 

To the West Coast in a day!

Today we decided to take a day trip to the west coast.  The west coast of Michigan, that is.   Jon's sister is going to Calvin College in Grand Rapids and since we missed seeing her for her 21st birthday at the end of October, we decided to head out her way and take her out to dinner to celebrate belatedly!  Cortney's parents graciously agreed to watch the dogs for us for the evening, and we set off immediately after church.  Since we rarely get out of town without the dogs, we decided to make the most of the afternoon.  Our friend Sue, Steve's mom, also lives in Grand Rapids, so when we got there we stopped to visit her as well.  She took us out for snacks and we had a nice visit with her.  Afterwards we managed to locate Ann's apartment (in the dark, even).  Ann and Tyson recommended eating at Brann's, a local character kind of a place with great American foods.  We had a wonderful time getting caught up with both of them at dinner, and the food was delicious.  Unfortunately, there was no room for dessert.  No matter, though.  Ann had baked a wonderful batch of cookies for us (from scratch), so we were able to enjoy dessert (and stay awake) on our way home.