see.snow.person

It has been snowing here for the last 2 days. Snowing and snowing and snowing.
So we decided to brave the elements and play a little. At least until our fingers and toes were numb.

She.
I'm trying out my new cozy warm hat! Thanks Jeanette!!

Miles, he likes to lick the snowflakes off of his nose!

For the Florida readers. When you live in snow, it is best to try out a few things like... snowball fights, snow angels, and the making of snow-people. (pc)
As seen here, I am creating a lovely little snow ball bomb to hit mike with!

He.
retaliating

Snow much fun!
haa haa... that pun is for you dad!
Warning!
After playing in snow for hours you could have adverse effects such as:

Going from an otherwise normal looking person to:

Frost-tina
and...

Frosty!

see.mamma.mia.II

When you visit Chicago, you have to go 'downtown!' We took mom on the public transportation (bus) to down town Chicago, for some shopping, sightseeing, and hot chocolate!

mom on the bus!

these are video displays in millennium park.

the ever famous bean!

this was taken as a reflection on the bean. as you can see it was raining.

we took these pictures quickly... as people were rushing by us.
the chicago river.

when it is cold and miserable outside, i have been told that you should visit the many museums in Chicago. The Museum of Science and Industry is really close to our place.
They had a display of Christmas trees around the world. A Christmas tree for many different nations.
The blue tree is for Greece.

This is the America Tree. The biggest and best. It is covered in little White houses.

This building hosts the Field Museum. The museum was having a diamonds exhibit that was amazing! I am not a huge fan of diamonds (except a certain one given to me recently...) but this exhibit had some very impressive diamonds. The largest was over 400 carats!

This is Sue. She is the most complete T-Rex on earth. Over 90% complete!

It was really great having my mom in town.
I miss her!

see.mamma.mia

My mom came to visit this past weekend and we were busy busy. When I told a few people (who are from here) that she was visiting Chicago from Florida... they all said the same thing "why... does she know it is December?"
Well, yes. She knows what month it is. Actually, she planned for snow. See when you are a native Floridian, snow and cold weather (while on vacation) is a novelty. Something special and exciting you can fly back to your friends and brag that you survived below freezing weather. She also had a few other reasons to visit (very special reasons) = we!
This blog entry and the next will show a few things we did while she was here. In no particular order.
On this day, I made my mom walk around Hyde Park with me. We discovered some pretty cool stuff!

Frank Lloyd Wright's Heller House. Mom pointed this house out before she knew who the architect was. She was impressed at it's detail and just for being an interesting building. That is a sign of a great designer, 100 years later you are still catching people's eye.

People actually live there!

Miles and his grandma!

The Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright. We did not tour it due to our pre-existing dog-xema following us around. Hounds not allowed in Robie House!

Hyde Park is full of churches, chapels, ringing bells, and all kinds of old beautiful buildings.My mom with actual SNOW on her. We were both pretty excited about this. I had to take a picture with her black hat and white snow specks.Snow ball!
You can see the snow ball (or ice chunk really) at the top of the picture. After our walk, we picked up Mike, grabbed some lunch and headed to a Church for some Christmas Carols. This church looked just average on the exterior. Just look at the ceiling and interior! It was stunning!!
After the church we drove over to the Zoo. It was decorated in Christmas lights, and all the exhibits were open late. The Zoo in Chicago (by the way) is totally free!
Mom said "I have never been to a free zoo!"
I said "I have never been to a zoo in the dark"
Mike said "I have never been to a zoo when it was this cold out"
and on and on... basically it was a new experience for all!

1 Monkey!

2 Monkey!

3 Monkey!

4!!!
Don't worry, the monkeys are all inside. Most of the animals are in inside exhibits rather then face the Chicago winter. brrrrr!!!!

see.tree

It's Christmas time and our home was looking a bit un-festive. Basically we needed a tree and since we are in the area of cold and native growing firs... we knew what we had to do.

Chop one down ourselves!

We drove to Richardson Tree Farm in Illinois and suddenly transformed into (self-proclaimed) lumberjacks!

We had to ride on a tractor out to the trees and we were made to sing Christmas Carols along the way.

We walked around the tree farm for almost 2.5 hours! It is a tough decision. The tree had to be perfect. We saw all kinds of trees...
trees with bald spots...

Short trees.

tall thin trees (this was one of mike's favorites)

We walked around the area of tress probably 2 to 3 times (its several acres). Having lengthy discussions about what makes a great Christmas tree. Height, needle, smell, plump-ness, color and on and on. We would get to one and I would love it and mike would go... 'really? that tree... um... sure' which really means 'lets keep looking'. We would watch family after family discover their perfect tree, chop it down and leave. But we kept looking (perserverence ). Just when we reached our breaking point we (together) found it.
Our tree!

It was sititng there waiting for us the whole time and when we saw it, we knew.

Blue Spruce Fir.

Once we found it, un-snowed the limbs, the real work began... cutting it down.
We both sawed at the base a couple of times and then...

We took a break to make snow angels... duh!

Back to sawing. Mike did most of the work. I just tried to keep warm.

Timb-er!!!

Our first family photo... Mike, Mel and Christmas tree.

Here she is! Oh-Christmas Tree!!

!Merry Christmas!