Christmas in Milwaukee

On Monday December 27, we went for an overnight to see Mike and Jackie and Hazel in Milwaukee to celebrate Christmas with them. We had fun eating at an indoor Market. We also had a great field trip to Growing Power, which is amazing and worth visiting. We played a new game and ate a couple great meals before heading back to Chicago area.

Walking on the Lakefront


Hummus, Eggplant dip, she'll eat everything!


Hazelnut

Christmas celebrations

Two shots from family Christmas gatherings: Hungry Hippos and a little trap set were favorite gifts of Douwe's (and yes he did get the black and white scarf and pretend bird that talks).

December highlights

Douwe made his first acquaintance with Santa at a Christmas caroling party. He made this request: "I want a black and white scarf and a pretend bird that talks. "



Snow angels


Greta and I attended the Christmas talent program at Steve's current school to see him recite "The Night before Christmas."
One child lip synched James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto." Hearing that song in an auditorium full of children who live in the rejected city of Gary and have themselves been further rejected for behavior or academic ineptitudes from mainstream Gary schools . . .a very powerful experience.


Steve came over for a few nights over the holiday school vacation
Opening an early present . . .

Gingerbread cookies . . .




New pretend family to play with

November highlights

The week before Thanksgiving, we had Steve as an overnight guest, then spent Saturday morning at his favorite museum, the Museum of Science of Industry. Steve's choice of special exhibit was the Smart Home, which is an actual house built in the courtyard which incorporates many inventions and materials and design choices for reducing the energy and natural resource demands that are part of building a home and living in it. Douwe absolutely loved the Idea Factory exhibit.



The day before Thanksgiving Douwe and his cousins enjoyed a morning at Bellaboo's, which is Douwe's favorite destination for a special excursion.




On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Douwe spent lots of time with his new cousin Hazel, who was in with her parents from Milwaukee. She is growing so much and it was fun to see her at this age!



The same weekend, we made our annual trek to the DeMotte area to pick out our Christmas tree.