Winter Wonderland

And the white stuff keeps on falling...My mom in Hawaii has been calling for weather updates...Well, it finally snowed! Here's a makeshift family photo of us smiling through the continuous downfall of snow in front of our house. The kids started a snowball fight...Max tried out his new Spiderman snow boots we bought him...and the kids are just grateful for "hot chocolate" weather. I'm trying to convince my husband to chauffeur me to the grocery store. He asked, "What is this? Driving Miss Daisy?" I hate driving in the slush and snow! I just hope they don't get couped up in the house when it's too freezing to go outside. What does your family do when the snowfall hits? If you'd email me with fun family ideas to share on the air, I'd be so grateful!

Windy City Weekend

How ironic that after Scott's praise of my prolific blogging, I've been out of the cyber-loop for days! Sorry! I whisked my husband away for a Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago. He banned me from blogging because he wanted me all to himself! We relished every second spent together. Jeff & I are just embarking on our second year of marriage, but sometimes with the stressful reality of a blended family, never-ending bills, and just plain life, we need to escape and pretend that we're newlyweds. This weekend felt like a second honeymoon...we returned to our life in Peoria recharged and rested...gosh, did I say REST? :) This picture was taken in front of one of Macy's interactive Christmas displays--it was the ONLY time Jeff smiled along the Magnificent Mile. Don't worry--his hand tightened around my wallet so I actually didn't spend a dime on Black Friday!

I love Chicago because of the many characters milling around. People watching is the best in a big city. I found a couple decked out in Medieval period clothes in front of the Art Institute. They were hilarious...and spoke Old English. I just HAD to get a snapshot with them. Speaking of a throwback to old times, Jeff and I saw the play "The Brothers Karamazov." I finally understand the book I was assigned in high school way back when!
I hope your Thanksgiving was full of love & laughter! I also hope you had better luck than I did on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Sniffle

Just look at her go...Cat the blogger. My morning show partner loves to write. I'd predict a 2-to-1 ratio of Cat to Scott blog entries on this site. Hard to keep up with her over-active brain. She's a woman and can multi-task. I gotta take one thing at a time. Plus, I've been sick...you know one of those colds that picks a different part of your body to hang out in every day. So today it's a blog entry about blog entries...or the lack thereof. Perhaps I'll be in a better groove after the holiday. Cough...sniffle...cough! - Scott

Baking like the Amish

Now here's a sight I've never seen in the two years I've known my husband: JEFF BAKING. I about died watching him divide batter into two loaf pans. Our friend, Crystal, gave me the starter for Amish Friendship Bread and my husband loved it so much, we decided to make it. It took about ten days total (about eight days of mushing the bag and two days of adding stuff to the mix). It's kind of like the chain letter of baked goods...Someone gives you a starter (cup of batter) and you follow a recipe to make a loaf of bread and four other starters so you can pass it along to your friends, hence the term "friendship bread." When we talked about "weird foods" today I thought about this...The difference is, Amish Friendship Bread is DELISH...I'm not so sure about making rutabagas, as one listener suggested!

Gimme Some Love

Aside from my husband, the greatest loves in my life are my precious nieces. I love them so...and they obviously adore each other to bits! Baby Ali simply couldn't snuggle with her baby cousin enough.
The whole family gathered together to celebrate Thanksgiving a week early. The feast was fabulous...and my husband FINALLY took me to see the movie Fireproof (I'll write about that some other time!)...but my favorite part of the weekend was enjoying the gift of love my darling nieces give so unconditionally in every way.