Joe and I have returned home from our trip to the great northland. Although our trip began with what was supposed to be 5.5 hour train ride that turned into 12 hours of exhaustion - the trip can be considered a success. I'll explain the train later, but let me start by saying that my Mom did an incredible job of making us both feel at home. She prepared unending amounts of food, decorated the house with Christmas cheer, and set out determined to make it a wonderful Christmas no matter what might go wrong. We laughed, we cried, and now we're back to our 30 minute (or more) daily phone conversations!
Christmas Eve was spent at 2 church services and family dinner. Willow Creek Church had an amazing display of the Christmas Story ... told in song, story, illustration, and ice. Yes ice! Life size ice carvings of the Nativity. It was beautiful and relaxing - Oh, and there was a massive table of red, white, and green candy. Lasagna dinner followed ... complete with 3 homemade pies to choose from for dessert. Then we made our way to church #2. A painful experience at best - to protect the guilty party, I'll just say that 1 parent decided we would sit in ROW 2 and arrive 45 minutes early! Every verse to every song, the incense burning my eyes ... it was late, and I was getting silly ... I began counting kneelers as they hit the hard ground with an unmistakable thud. We finally arrived home at 1:45am.
Mom declared 11am as the official time for present opening - if you want presents, you must be somewhat awake and downstairs to get them. I woke up earlier than the rest of the crowd - by 9am I was prepared to begin tearing wrapping paper, but I waited patiently (while eating cookies). Aside from Matthew's ungrateful attitude toward gifts of clothing all went well. My parents treated Joe as another son, and he had just as many presents under the tree as the rest of us! The gifts were extravagant and greatly appreciated - I never thought Christmas (as an adult) would ever be this much fun. As an unexpected 1st - everyone managed to purchase ALL necessary gifts before Christmas this year! Although his shopping wasn't completed (or started) until Christmas Eve, Patrick impressed us all with appropriate gift cards and thoughtful Christmas cards.
Joe found some time to visit with his brothers and I engaged in some much needed retail therapy with my mom. I found the towel bars for our newly remodeled bathroom on super-sale at the Restoration Hardware outlet store. Our final family experience included a visit with Joe's brother John and his family. Our nephews are getting so big - they're growing up so fast - we made them earn next year's gift by giving us hugs before we left. We had a fun visit, but the highlight for me was when John gave me the ONLY family copy of "Smokin' Joe & Screaming Silence" - the band Joe was the lead singer of in high school! It's hilarious - I love my rockstar!
Both the Palmer House and Ambassador East were exquisite - the beds were soft and the locations amazing. Their commitment to customer service is something I can truly appreciate. Oh, but the train was another story. The only sad part of our trip was how unpleasant train travel can be. 93 miles outside Chicago the fuel pump broke! We were towed back to Champaign and bussed (in the snowstorm) to Union Station. Unsupervised children, angry passengers, and the showing of an inappropriate movie on the bus - I do NOT wish to travel with Amtrak anytime soon! If you want more details comment or email me ... there were large amounts of prayer involved - God used Joe to save us all from the movie, but it was exhausting.
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