Within Which Are Many Pictures

We had a Wintery-Twintery time in Chicago this time. There was never a time when there wasn't snow on the ground.


On Sunday, we celebrated The Twinks' birthday up in Chicago with our Great Lakes relatives.

Emma struck a pose with her cowboy cake...


While Joseph got right down to business.


We also had Christmas with Uncle Matthew, Aunt Nicole, and cousins Will and Josh. The Twinks were decked out as Santamen.




As is my wont, I put gift bows on their heads (and my own, at times, but there are no photos thereof).




As one-year old kids tend to be, they were often more impressed with the wrapping than the gifts. They'll figure it out soon enough...


Oh wait, maybe Emma already has...


We also have to thank the kind people at Palm Court as we left quite a mess behind at this end of our dinner table.

Emma and Will had much fun.


JoeJoeMan got serious with his breadstick.


Of course, there are many more photos from our trip to be found at the Flickr site (check the badge to the right), as well as some that I never posted from our "All Saints' Day Dress-Up" at my parents'. There's some cute stuff there...

Oy, Airlines

We flew back home yesterday, and lemmie tell ya, it wasn't fun. We got through O'Hare pretty easily (delayed 30 min, I think), but the kids were none too happy on the flight. Thankfully we were sitting near understanding, kind people. Then came Memphis. We got on the plane on time, but then it went South. The plane was HOT. Also, it turns out, the plane was overweight, so we had to have volunteers to leave the plane. In the end, we sat at the gate, in the plane, for an hour before we took off. We fed The Twinks when we got on the plane, but they were already fussy before the plane even took off. I did not have the touch, as I couldn't get either of them to fall asleep. Sarah got Emma to sleep and we swapped, but she eventually woke up, and was sore displeased. As we got close to home, we were told that visibility was bad and we might have to divert to an airport 2.5 hours away from home (with no car, natch). They decided to fly around for 15 minutes to see if the visibility got better. Eventually it did, or they decided to cheat, because we finally landed, and not a minute too soon. Sarah and I hadn't eaten since breakfast so when we got in at 5:30 we were starving. The Twinks seemed glad to be home, and happily terrorized our cat and dogs, and played with toys, old and new. Thankfully, they went to bed early and slept pretty well last night (or if they didn't, I certainly wasn't awakened by them). Of course, they were up with the sun at 5 AM this morning, but that's every morning...

Happy Birthday!

The Twinks turn "One Years Old" today. To celebrate, we went shopping at Target in the snow. Chicago + December Weather + Babies = Not That Fun. It really started snowing again this afternoon and we're hoping we don't get delayed flying back tomorrow, but it is Chicago...

We'll have some pictures to post after we get back. All in all, we've had fun, as busy as we've been. Those of you who remember our terrible American Airlines experience back in February will be happy to hear that our Northwest Airlines experience was much better. From Pensacola to Memphis we even got to sit at the front at the bulkhead, with an empty seat for the kiddos on each side. Jackpot.