Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! This week of holidays has flown by and left me trying to play catch-up! We enjoyed our visit in Missouri with our grandson, all of our children, D's dad and step-mom, my sister, brother-in-law and nieces. Not very often do we get to see so many of our immediate family at Christmas so it was so great to get together. D's sister and her family were missed though -so here's the invitation for next year !

We extended our trip home to include a drive up to the Chicago suburbs to help daughter E with some home maintenance issues. Dad's talents were requested and since he had taken the rest of the week off to use up his vacation days, we were happy to comply.

Before Christmas, the snow had created havoc but made for beautiful wintry scenes. This is what we found when we arrived! At least we didn't have to battle bad roads or nasty weather.

In between the shopping and the maintenance, we had to eat, of course. So we visited some of the wonderful restaurants nearby. We don't often get good Greek food in our area so we went to Opa. It's fun to watch the waiters as they serve the fried cheese (I'm not sure what they really call it. Maybe someone can correct me on that!)

I should have just stopped with the Greek salad that we shared. I have photos of the next course and the mounds of food, but it's almost embarrassing. Maybe I should have taken a picture of the huge shopping bag full of leftovers!
Our last morning in Illinois, E took us out to eat breakfast at a new favorite. The Egg Harbor Cafe is a local chain and quite good. The whimsical decor was what else but chickens! Maybe I need to donate a few of the chicken decorations that I've got stashed away to them. Or maybe chicken decor is coming back and I'll just re-decorate. This was D's breakfast (and lunch!) which they had even named after him (not really, but maybe?)

Of course I visited some of my favorite quilt shops in the area. But I was sad to find out that Hannah's is no longer going to carry fabric and yarn. There were some good sales but in my opinion it won't be near as fun to visit this shop in the future. Shoo-Fly Quilts in Grayslake has now become Quilt Play Shop. I found some nice fabrics there and purchased some additions to my rapidly expanding baby quilt stash and also my collection of purse possibilities. We even saw something that would be appropriately fun for certain Texas/Oklahoma relatives! I think it is an Alexander Henry fabric but E got a pretty good photo on her phone to share with y'all!

We had a quiet but nice New Year's Eve with some friends and we did manage to stay up past midnight to welcome in 2009. I provided a coconut cream pie for our dinner just so I could use my new Emile Henry pie plate. It's deeper than my other pans so my pie filling was almost lost.


There's one piece left. Waiting in the fridge. It's the new year and you know what that means, the annual resolution to eat healthier. We've started off pretty good with oatmeal for breakfast, soup and a shared sandwich for lunch and fish tacos for dinner. After a trip to Whole Foods this afternoon, there's more healthy grains, fruits and veggies around. Now just to figure out how to use them in some tasty recipes and most of all - avoid that pie!


Tomorrow I have plans to start putting away all the Christmas decorations though doesn't it seem like I just got them out? Same with this blog - I think it's in need of some redecorating too. A new year needs a new look! I need to get some belated Christmas/New Years cards sent out too. It didn't seem like we got as many cards this year but there's still some relatives in need of an annual hello.


I wish you all a very Happy New Year! This has been an amazing year with the birth of our first grandbaby, the news of another one on the way and several motorcycle road trips that we've enjoyed. Thank you for stopping by this little blog and especially those of you who've taken the time to comment and become "bloggy" friends. I pray that 2009 will bring health and blessings to everyone!