Happy New Year!

Jackson and I made hats to celebrate New Years Eve.

Not Exactly A Sleigh Ride!!

The other day, when Jack was visiting Nana and the snow was falling, we took an old rusty and dusty sled off the garage wall, attached some Cat-5 cable to the handles and Nana took Jack for his first sled ride.



Jack wore his jacket, cap, and mittens. To augment this for greater warmth, Nana bundled Jack in one of her "Afghans".



After going only three blocks, they returned with rosy cheeks and another adventure under their belts.

Random Audrey shots

She's getting to be such a big girl!


Sitting in her highchair...


Crawling everywhere now...


Taking a bath...


Eating rice crispies.

Christmas 2007

Here are a few pictures I took Christmas Eve at the Shell House. If Lou and/or Ang have some on their camera, they can add them later.




Laura, Ruben, and Chiquita drove up so we got to see Ruben before he continued on to Puerto Rico the next day.


They got to spend time with Jackson and Audrey, too.


We did a low-key gift swap.


And we had a nice dinner. Afterwards, Jackson even got a Santa cookie.

Christmas morning!

Here's the evidence... Santa was here!


Here's Lou giving his grumpiest, groggiest, bedheadiest look. Audrey doesn't seem to mind.


Here's Jack opening his Lightning McQueen Mack truck.


It was such a nice day we all went for a walk after.


Jackson was a little worn out from all the excitement - he crashed!

Western Springs Christmas

A few more shots from the Shell family Christmas...

Highlights from our Iowa Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in Iowa at the Hotel Fort Des Moines this year. Bella and Jack had lots of fun, and we were able to meet our new nephew Noah.


We stayed in a suite with lots of room to spread out.


Jackson got to open one of his presents early.


Grandpa Ron liked it so much, he had to play with it too.


Audrey got some new things to chew on.








We went downstairs to breakfast every morning - Jack enjoyed his chocolate milk, and Grandma Jean enjoyed not having to cook!


Here's a pic of us with little Noah. He's a keeper!




Bella and Jack got to do lots of chasing and giggling of course.






We were hit with a snowstorm on Saturday, but we were safe and sound in our hotel, and we walked around Des Moines' skywalks.

Merry Christmas - Part 3

Courtesy of Saturday Night Live
(although they had YouTube pull a different video I wanted to post so they may ultimately pull this one or the last one, too...if that happens let me know)

Merry Christmas - Part 2

Note: this isn't necessarily for children.



Courtesy of Saturday Night Live.

Brookfield Zoo Festival of Lights

There's nothing like a snowy festival of holiday lights at the zoo to get you into the Christmas Spirit.

Merry Christmas!!!

Note: this isn't necessarily for children.



Courtesy of MadTV from a few years ago.

Christgiving 2007

Here are a few pictures from Renz's Christgiving trip to Chicago. I didn't take any pictures during dinner, sorry.


Uncle Renz got to exchange some gifts with little Jackson and Audrey, since he doesn't get to do that often in person.


As long as some presents were being handed out early, Mom/Nana got an early gift from Pop/Boompa...some fancy wind-chimes.


Renz got some gifts, too. This is the only time it's acceptable to think "What a crock!" at Christmas.


Finally, Renz and I got to do some retro-gaming on my new toy, a used X-Box.

Next weekend...Happy Festivus!

More Christgiving

Just wanted to add a shot of Larry with Audrey. She enjoyed meeting her Uncle - look forward to seeing you again soon!

Svengoolie

Local TV horror host Svengoolie made an appearance at Max Madsen Mitsubishi in Countryside today, so I couldn't pass up the chance to see him...again. I saw him before back around 1979 when he appeared at International Time in Yorktown Mall (back when he was Son of Svengoolie). I emailed him the old photo about a month ago, and he said they were going to be showing it in the mail segment of one of the upcoming shows, maybe even tonight's.


Me and Sven, ca. 1979


Me and Sven, 2007

U P D A T E ! ! !
I checked my recording of last night's episode, and sure enough Sven showed the old picture of the two of us from 25 years ago in his mail segment. It was pretty cool hearing him mention me by name and show the picture. I'll see if I can somehow post the video of it here.



Ok, I guess I might as well include this as well...

It wouldn't be Christmas...

without Grandma Shell's candle holders.