"Hold your mother tenderly..."

Earlier this week, Jack and I attended the wake/services for the mother of our good friend, Carol. I met Carol when her oldest daughter, Jenny, was in 3 year old preschool with Wayne. Carol and her husband, Bill, have become very good friends over the years. The service for Carol's mother, held at Christ the King Parish, was simply beautiful and uplifting. On the cover of the program, there was this quote:
"Hold your mother tenderly for the world will seem a strange and different place when she is gone."
I loved it.
So simple and so true.
As we were waiting to pay our respects, we suddenly realized that there, standing in directly in front of us, was Mayor Daley! I was surprised that he didn't ask for "cuts", instead stood patiently waiting his turn, his hat in his hands. A few people who knew him came up to say hello and he was very gracious. Mayor Daley and his family have a summer home right next door to Carol's family (note: Carol and Bill just bought this house; the Birthday Club is thrilled because that is where we have had our winter overnight getaways for the past 18 years or so!) and so he has known Carol's family for years. For the mass, Mayor Daley sat in the back with Maggie, who came in right before the mass started. It was sweet to see them together.
It was such a meaningful evening to me, all about faith, family and love.

Christmas Day 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas Day with Jack's side of the family. We started with our traditional morning visit to Jack's folks' house. Downtown Sue (Jack's sister) and Paul (Jack's brother) are there also. It is one of our favorite holiday traditions. We start by opening presents in the living room, starting with the kids then moving up through the generations. We had another very meaningful photo gift. Jack's folks gave each of us a pair of pictures of them. The pictures were taken many years apart, the first one at their senior prom and the second one at a reunion. They hadn't changed a bit. Still in love after all these years. Jack and I are fortunate to have had excellent role models in both sets of parents.

Nice looking tie for Wayne

Beautiful scarf for Sally

Love these pictures of Bucky and Grandma

 

After we are done opening presents, Jack cooks up some sausages while the men do the singing of "Shortening Bread" (see the video of it from last year's post- it hasn't changed!) We have a late breakfast in the dining room and sit around chatting and enjoying each other's company.

Jack, Wayne, Paul, Bucky, Grandma, Sally and Downtown Sue

 Before we leave, we all pitch in to help get things set up for the evening dinner. Wayne is especially good at "hunting and gathering the chairs".

Professionals at work

"I found another chair!" says Wayne

 Some years we go to see my side of the family for a little while in the afternoon, but this year everyone was taking it easy and just doing their own things. Matt (Sally's BF) stopped by our house for a while and we exchanged presents. He is such a great guy.
We arrived back at Grandma and Bucky's around 5:30 and Mike, Sue, Lauren and Brendan (Jack's brother and his wife and children) were there. We were all so glad that Mike was well this Christmas; we really missed him last year. It was great to have the whole clan together. Here are some pictures from the evening:

Bucky with some Nabisco products. That's what we like to see!

the cousins

Grandma and Bucky and their grandchildren

The six originals

The whole family! Nice job with the self-timer, Sally!

Thank You, God for another Christmas with family and for the gift of Your Son.

Christmas Eve 2010

I am happy to report that our Christmas Eve celebration was considerably more upbeat this year than it was last year. If you go back and read last year's post, we were total Debbie Downers. Anything we said turned into a negative! This year was not like that and it could possibly be because we had Abbie and Nina there and they just make everything seem more positive.
Wayne came home from the city just in time to go to church. We went to mass at St. Cletus (in the gym) and had one of our very favorite priests as the presider. I also saw one of my students that just "graduated" from our program and that was so special! And Jack received many compliments on his new Christmas pants that he got from Bob, which of course, he loved :). In between mass and Jenny's, we opened our presents to each other. Wayne was THRILLED to receive an authentic Julius Peppers throwback jersey from Sally! So fun. These jerseys are almost impossible to find and Sally happened to be at the right place at the right time.

We got to Jenny and Jay's around 5 pm. It was such a fun night! We were so glad that Karen came this year; (As mentioned in a previous post, Karen is Mom and Sue's neighbor and very best friend of Sue; Karen's mom died on Dec 1.) Abbie and Nina were adorable! The gift swap was fun and all in all, it was a very festive, light hearted evening. One special moment was when Jenny gave each of us a framed picture of one of our favorite Dane moments. It was taken in Dallas at Tom and Ann's during one of our family vacations. This picture totally captures the essence of Dane.

 

Jack looking at one of our favorite photos

Speaking of Dane, we always talk about how much Nina reminds us of Dane at that age. Jenny put their Christmas card up by a portrait of Arne, Dane and Kjell when Dane was about the age Nina is now. It is hard to see because of the flash, but the similarities are amazing. So comforting to us all.

Here are some more pictures from the evening:

Jack's Christmas pants

Wayne, Marmar and Sally

Pretty aerial view of party

Sisters!

Da Bears

Karen with her steal from the gift exchange (behind Wayne and Marmar)

Nina and Abbie, wearing the coats that Wayne got them

Thanks to Jenny and Jay for hosting an awesome Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve Eve

We are not having our usual Christmas Eve Eve this year. If you go back and read my post from last year at this time, you can read the description of our typical Christmas Eve Eve, also known as G*Heide Christmas. We couldn't do it on December 23rd this year because Grace is bowing in the debutante ball in our town. It is held on December 23rd every year. Wayne was an escort (for his friend Shannon) and on the honor guard when he was a freshman in college. It is a fun night. Anyway, we moved the date for our get-together to last Sunday. This G*Heide Christmas celebration never disappoints (well, except for two years ago when Wayne got stranded in Remington IN on the way home; I-65 was closed down that night due to black ice and other hazardous driving conditions). The event was held at Chuck and Teri's this year. Joe, Caylen's fiance, joined us as did Sally's BF Matt. It was great to have them there. We started out the evening with appetizers (baby hotdogs, oh yeah) and we went around and talked about each person's highlight of the year. We ate dinner in the dining room and celebrated Grace's birthday. Afterwards we went back into the living room for the Yankee Swap or gift exchange. As always, there were some excellent gifts! Here are some pictures from the night.

Highlights...how about Jack's new Christmas pants?

baby hotdogs!

gift swap..it's a pillow! it's a pet! it's a pillow pet!

Sally got the Big Boy bobblehead from Chuck which Jack then took

Sally, Wayne and Britt (just back from Australia!)

the kids! and Joe 

We love our friends!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit!

There's nothing like Winter Break to get me in a good mood! My last day of work was Friday and I have this whole week to finish my Christmas preparations. I can't believe that I don't even have to think about lesson plans for tomorrow! The first four days of my vacation have been fun and social!

 We started off the weekend with a Progressive Dinner with the Birthday Club and husbands. We had appetizers at Chuck and Teri's, then walked over to Mary and Bob's for the main course, and finished up at Mary and Ed's for dessert. It was really a fun night and no one couple had to do too much work as we all contributed. One of the highlights of the evening was Jack leading everyone in the singing of Hard Rock, Cocoa and Joe. I will put a short video after this post. Everyone was in good spirits. We were thinking of two couples who couldn't be there who were dealing with real life issues; Carol's mom was in final stages of dying and did pass away on Sunday morning. And Trish did not come; her husband Pat died this fall after a long battle with ALS. My gosh, Pat was an awesome guy. Overall it has been a tough year for many folks in the Birthday Club, but we were all ready to enjoy each other's company.

Jean and me. Festive hats from the party poppers

Jean, Christy, Mary, Jerry and Pam getting the entree ready

On Saturday night, we were thrilled to be invited to Caylen and Joe's engagement party. Wayne was not able to come because he had already accepted an invitation for a Christmas party downtown, but Sally and Matt came. We are all so excited for Caylen and Joe. He proposed two weeks ago while they were vacationing in Spain. They are looking at dates in November.We are so looking forward to that wedding! We have known and loved Caylen her whole life...even before she was born as Jack likes to tell her.

Joe, Caylen and Joe's dad listen to Chuck's toast

Sally, Matt and Teri

the darling couple

Our last event of the weekend was GHeide Christmas. That event is going to get a post of its own!

Hard Rock, Cocoa and Joe

Here is the video of Jack leading the Birthday Club group in singing that old Christmas favorite!

It's the Holiday Season!

Kellie, Jess, Donna and the head honcho, Paul

 It was a delightful holiday weekend! It started off with a get together with my Fun Friday friends (i.e., the folks I work with on Fridays in the behavior disorders classrooms). The program coordinator, Paul, officially hosts the party and Julie, one of our team teachers, has been letting us have the party at her house the past few years. It had been pretty stressful in the behavior disorders program last week and so everyone was glad to be together and relax. Always a good way to start off the weekend.

On Saturday, Christy and Steve invited Jack, Wayne and me, along with their son Matt, to a very cool holiday dinner. It was held at a quaint Italian restaurant in Highwood named Del Rio's. It's their holiday dinner and includes entertainment by performers from the Lyric Opera. It was such a fun evening! The food was phenomenal and the entertainment was superb. After we finished dessert, five singers came out and entertained us with Christmas carols, patriotic songs and even a few short pieces from the opera world (which I admit I know nothing about. Nothing. But still very entertaining). The most fun part was the audience participation version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Our table (and the one next to us) was assigned Four Calling Birds. It was hilariously fun and became a bit of a competition with the other groups. The evening ended with a group sing of God Bless America. We had such a good time and it was even more special because we had Matt and Wayne with us.

Moms and their boys

Dads and sons

On Sunday, we were going to have Jack's family over to celebrate his parents' birthdays. Bucky's birthday is Wednesday and Grandma's was Sept 30 but we have not yet officially celebrated it yet. However, the weather altered those plans. We had terrible wind chills and blowing and drifting snow, so the big event was cancelled. We'll just have to celebrate bigger on Christmas (if that's possible!).

12 Days of Christmas, Del Rio's style

Brrrrr

Very profound title for this post, I know, but man, it is tough adjusting to the change in the weather. It's dark and cold on the morning walks, but at least it's pretty. I find the weather more tolerable on my early morning walks than loading/unloading buses at work. Maybe that's because I don't care how silly I look when I walk and am so bundled up and am expecting the cold. At work, it's a shock everytime I walk in and out of the building.

Happy and sad news around here this last week. I will start with the sad news first. Our friend Harriette died last Wednesday at the age of 90. Harriette and her daughter Karen (my sister Sue's very best  friend) live across the street from my mom and Sue. Jenny and I helped watch over Harriette in September when Sue and Karen went to the Bears game for Sue's birthday. I am so glad to have spent that time with her. We all had a lot of laughs about our attempts to make sure Harriette was well cared for. I did not get the nurse gene like Sue did! Harriette was such a gracious lady and will be missed by many.
The happy news is our friend Caylen is engaged! Her longtime beau, Joe, proposed last week while they were vacationing in Spain. Everyone is thrilled.I will provide more details as they become available.

Thanksgiving rocked

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. This year it felt well-paced and enjoyable, as opposed to some years when the 5 day break is just exhausting... although I do have to admit that today I am not moving too quickly!

I had Wednesday off of work and Jack and I did our usual Thanksgiving errands. Sally worked half a day and then was gone all afternoon and evening with friends. Wayne got off work around 6 and came to our house for dinner and to relax before heading out with his group of friends for "Blackout Wednesday", though it was a rather calm evening from all reports. On Thanksgiving morning, I had a lovely walk with Jean before everyone was up and then it was time to get crackin'. We had a total of 19 people for Thanksgiving dinner: my mom, Susie, Jenny, Jay, Kjell, Arne, Beth, Abbie, Nina and Bruce (Arne, Dane and Kjell's dad) from my side and Bill, Marie, Downtown Sue and Paul from Jack's side, plus the four of us and Matt. Everyone was in good spirits. Wayne provided the appetizers and nuts, all Nabisco and Planters products of course! and he was in charge of that portion of the meal. He did an excellent job. After dinner, Beth, Sally and Susie took a ride to see Bill and Guiliana's new house in our town (for those who don't know, they have a new reality TV show that is pretty popular). Kjell, Arne, Beth and the girls hung around a while after everyone else left and it was fun to watch the girls do their thing. So entertaining!

This started out as a picture of three people and we just kept adding!

Bears fans!

Sally and Matt

Nina saying hi to Marmar

Wayne and Abbie doing some crafts

Uncle Paul, Downtown Sue, Grandma, and Bucky getting ready to leave

We all slept in the day after Thanksgiving...til 9:15! That is pretty much a record for me. The four of us rehashed the day and then did some more of the clean up. Sally, Wayne and I ran over to the mall in the afternoon for about an hour to check out the sales. Both kids were very successful. In the evening, Sally went to Matt's for a family get together and Wayne went to an annual beer pong tournament at Matt's (Christy and Steve's son Matt, not Sally's Matt). Jack and I went out to dinner with Chuck and Teri at a new sushi place in town and it was delicious. We were home and in bed by 10.

Yesterday, we had the annual Turkey Bowl pregame at our house. Every year, Wayne and his group of friends (many of whom he has known since kindergarten) go over to the local park and play touch football. They gather at our house first for some refreshments. It is so fun to see these kids (though no longer kids) every year. There have been a few marriages already, and one baby so far, Mason (son of Jeff and Andi; Jeff is the son of Mark and Cathy). Mason came by to say hi for awhile. He is adorable!!!

Jeff, Andi and Mason

Most of these kids have known each other since grade school

In the evening we attended Jordan's (note: Jordan is the father of JD, Wayne's buddy who just got back from Afghanistan) annual start of the Christmas season party. It was phenomenal as always! We loved seeing so many of our friends as well as the younger generation. Jordan has been inviting JD's friends the past few years and always invites Sally, too. It was a beautiful evening. The food and beverages were out of this world good. Fun times.

Maria and Jordan

me, Jordan and Christy

JD and Jack

Wayne, me and Mark

Wayne, Jordan and Sally

This morning Jack, Wayne, Sally and I went to mass together. It's the first Sunday in Advent. That is hard to believe! We have all been doing our own things this afternoon and getting ready to get back in the work groove tomorrow. I am so thankful to God for many things this year, including our health, jobs and the fact that Wayne and Sally don't have to leave to head out of town this year.

My traditional pre-Thanksgiving grief post

Monday night of Thanksgiving week! Love it. It has been a weird day weather-wise. It was 61 degrees this morning when I walked and then stormed off and on the rest of the day, including periodic torrential downpours. Kinda matched my mood. I LOVE Thanksgiving, but I can't celebrate it without thinking of the trio who are not here to celebrate...my dad, Tom and Dane. They were so much fun. You can't even begin to imagine how much they were loved and enjoyed by all of us. Being around them just made you feel good. I wrote a post about Tom last year about this time. You can go back and look in my November 2009 posts for it. If you want to.
I have been thinking about Dane even more than usual this week because of an article that was in our local paper. A young father collapsed and died at the train station in town early in the morning on 11/10. He died of a sudden cardiac arrythmia, just like Dane. He was a graduate of the University of Iowa (like Dane), was an actuary (like Matt), was the father of two young girls (like Arne) and he was adorable (like Kjell). Man, I feel for his family. I want to reach out to them.
On that note, I know that my dad, nephew and brother would love nothing better than knowing we were all having fun and enjoying life. I know that is what I want when I am gone...for those that I love to remember me, not with sadness, but with great joy and as an inspiration to enjoy life and treat others well.
Let the Thanksgiving fun begin! (after I finish parent conferences tomorrow!)

Catching up

Susie and Brooke

Jean and Pam, the birthday girls

As forecasted in my last post, I had a very busy week and so I didn't get much time to blog. The week started out on Sunday with a visit with my mom. We went grocery shopping and "caught up on the computer" as Marmar calls it. I was still hanging out there when Sue and Karen got back from the Bears game (yaay! beat Minnesota). Brooke helped Sue empty out the car.
Other highlights of the week included Birthday Club at Mary's, with Kathy cohosting. We celebrated Jean and Pam's birthdays and had a great time catching up. Then on Wednesday night, I hosted Bunco at my house. I have been in this Bunco group for the past 14 years. It is a wonderful way to stay in touch with people. We meet the third Wednesday of each month (except for Dec and July), start rolling at 8pm and finish by 10pm. There are 16 members (many the original 16) and we take turns hosting, so each person's turn comes up once every 18 months or so. We are a loud group.You wouldn't believe the screaming that goes on when someone rolls a big bunco!
This weekend has been so relaxing, a great way to recharge the batteries as I get ready for one of my favorite holidays/weeks...Thanksgiving!