Holiday Visits

We're home for the holidays, heading back to cold Illinois tomorrow morning. We're coming, Gizmo!!! We've really taken advantage of our time in Atlanta, visiting with friends and family that we missed seeing over Thanksgiving. Last Sunday morning, we attended church and spent some time with Clay, Stacy, and baby Nora, whom we haven't seen since July! Nora has grown; she's cuter and cuter, and I volunteered to raise her myself in Illinois...

The men, discussing important matters over the baby...

Precious!Monday, we spent time with JD's longtime friends, Steve, Laurie, and little Lucas. We haven't seen them since May! Lucas can now walk, a busy little man ruling the house!

Of course, since Christmas Eve, we've spent all our time with family.

Our first Christmas living in Illinois was a success in traveling home (as long as we can get back to Normal tomorrow!). I can't believe a New Year is upon us...

Ice Storm!

We had an ice storm last night! JD and I awoke this morning to the world crystalized in ice. It's gorgeous!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

I can't believe that Christmas is only a week away. Finals are finished, papers are graded, and JD is recovering from a cold that kept him down this weekend. Our house is a mess of wrapping paper, Christmas present projects, tissues and cold medicine, and papers for an article I'm working on. It's snowing a little most days, and yesterday the high was 11 degrees. It's amazing how quickly you adapt, though, because it really isn't fazing me much. I stopped by the post office yesterday, and the letter box was so full that letters were sticking out of the in-slot! (That's got to be illegal). So Christmas is almost here, and we're getting ready to head back to Atlanta on Saturday. But we've found some time to put up a Christmas tree; Gizmo has only messed with it a few times. I think she's decided that winter up here is for hibernation...

Winter Wonderland

So as I mentioned in the last post, JD and I arrived back in town last weekend to a winter wonderland. Saturday night dumped 3 inches of snow over Bloomington-Normal, and Sunday added another 2 inches. So far, I'm really enjoying the cold and snow. Ask me again in February.



Here's our street. It's been interesting walking home from school this week. I've learned that you have to stay off the sidewalks, which have become long slip 'n slides. Walking in the snow piles on either side of the sidewalk is much safer.


As you can see, the snow's pretty deep!



Some animal decided to use our backyard as his personal bathroom. Note the footprints on the right and the yellow snow...


Coming from the Tennessee hills, Gizmo should like snow, right? Well, when we threw her out the door into a snow pile, she bunny-hopped right back to the door. Oh well.

Last week was our last week of school, and this week we're taking finals and grading. Besides my two final exams and term paper , I have all these (43 to be exact) lovely, well-written portfolios awaiting my grading. Note the sarcasm.