Christmas

We spent the past several days visiting Lisa's family in Lake Zurich, Illinois. My ears reminded me of many plane trips with crying babies, and my stomach reminded me that I did not enjoy flying very much, but my baby surprised me by sleeping almost the entire time on the airplanes and on the car rides. That either tells me either I don't know much or that we're blessed with a great baby - probably both!

We went to mass at Francis de Sales and were almost the guest from furthest away... if not for a lady from Poland. Presents were opened as per the famly tradition, on Christmas Eve. Monday we drove into Lisa's grandmother's retirement home for a wonderful visit. Sonya could not have performed better if you scripted it; her eyes glued to the grandmother's eyes and they shared huge smiles the whole time. Sonya rolled over a couple of times to show off too. Afterward we went to an authentic Bohemian Restaurant with the extended family of cousins, aunts & uncles.

The next few days were very relaxing and enjoyable for Lisa & myself as Lisa's parents watched Sonya quite a bit. This allowed us a few chances to go out together alone. We spent some of our gift cards and Lisa rediscovered her seeming adoration of the best eatery around... T.G.I. Friday's. We ate there twice in three days! It was nice getting to see Lisa's best friend Jackie too, and she showed us the many entertaining and exercising joys of the new Wii gaming system. We also went to the Ela Area Public Library. I borrowed the Game of Shadows book & read it in about two nights. It's a nonfiction by the reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle who broke most the leads in the BALCO story about steroids in professional sports & the Olympics. It was an enjoyable yet depressing read.