Christmas Story

On the Wee Sing Christmas CD there was a carol that a French priest wrote in the words of the Canadian First People he was
bringing gospel to, so that they would understand what strange kind of good news came to the world one day in Bethlehem. . .
Twas in the Moon of Wintertime.

Being born in poverty isn't pretty, and that the tacky, trashy, smelly elements of the Christmas story aren't so much included when we see illustrations or sing carols about a cosy stable. . . Jesus was born in a style that would get him rejected by those closest to him, because it is just too sketchy and unsettling that God would let himself be part of such an unholy situation. Is Jesus' birth a cosy homey love fest, or a entering into the yuckiest of the yuck kind of birth into poverty and violence. Here's a take on what a middle-class, neat and clean Christian family from a nice town in the Chicago area might hear if Christ would have come this decade:

Did you hear about the baby that was born in a truck-stop bathroom off of 80-94 in Gary? The guy with the mom wasn't his real dad you know, and nobody really knows who got her pregnant. They were traveling into the area from somewhere else and didn't have any money or friends in town. . . .She didn't have any baby clothing in the trunk, so they had to use some paper towels from the self-serve car wash to wipe off the baby and wrap him up. . .no cradle, so she lined a big yellow mop-bucket with newspapers and that had to do the trick. . guess who were the first visitors to the bathroom? The convenience store clerks who were working the night shift across the street. . they came to see what was going on. . .

The family stuck around and stayed in a house in Gary for a few years .. not the best place to be, there were lots of burned and abandoned houses on the street, but the rent was affordable and there was running water and heat. .. .

Bad news though, the Indiana governor had a visit from a small group of nuclear scientists from a Bangkok university: an Iranian, a North Korean and a Sudanese. He didn't know for sure what religion or culture they were loyal to but it definitely was not American, and the way they talked through their interpreters about their crazy theory of a scientific discovery that gave clues to some new world leader being born in Chicago area, he figured it was some terrorist plot to take down U.S. government or something. . .so he told them to let them know when they found this new world leader and his secret hideout.

An awful thing happened when the governor didn't hear back from the scientists . . he had some scientist friends tell him that the most likely place that terrorists would hideout was a place near the water systems and energy plants at the lakefront, and another of his friends woke up with the Gary, Indiana tune from THE MUSIC MAN in his head. So he sent in CPS and a couple swat teams to make sure all the male infants and toddlers in Gary were forcefully removed from their families and institutionalized into sketchy group homes where they were misused and mistreated and overmedicated in order to break them down into chaotic creatures, forever to be locked up within juvenile facilities and then eventually max security prison. It was easy enough, as all the poor people in Gary could easily be falsely written up for neglect or abuse or something or other . . .seeing the deplorable conditions of their rotting, moldy, rented houses, and they would have no access to anybody with power or interest to help them recover their babies. The one baby and his parents were warned just before the round up (in a mysterious text-message), so they hitchhiked to Mexico where the baby and family lived as refugees for several years until that governor was no longer in power. . . The baby and his family ended up back at his parents home town by the time he was school age, but Spanish was his first language and he never quite seemed to fit in as a normal American child with his accent and his food preferences and all . . and all the kids were told to keep their distance because this child's mom was a not to be trusted (pregnant before marriage you know, and weird stories when you asked her who the real father was.) Everybody expected this child to be strange and not quite safe for their kids to play with.

Getting ready for Christmas

No pictures in my camera for a few months!
So this entry has no visual aides, but a summary of some of our Advent activities in the past 3-4 weeks.

We took Douwe to Oak Park area for a special evening holiday concert: Canadian Brass. It was perfect for him, musical and entertaining, and a wonderful variety of music. So enjoyable!

We joined some of our Lanting family members in listening to Illiana Community Chorale sing most of Handel's Messiah.

Douwe had 30 seconds on Santa's lap at the Kid's Peace Christmas party at Old Country Buffet for foster families and their children. An amazing gift that was provided for each one of the children: A handmade quilt! Some women somewhere made about 50-60 of them so each child got his/her own.

My fourth year in a row of making banket with Mom Groen . .I rolled out and rolled up eight sticks and they were not too shabby!

Our Advent theme at Peace Church is "Mothers of Hope: A Shoot will come from the Stump of Jesse" and each service has focused on one of the five unlikely mothers mentioned in Jesus' geneology in Matthew 1. We have been learning and singing a wonderful song each week called: In Matthew's Gospel There Are FIve

Looking forward to the service of Lessons and Carols at our church tomorrow evening. The readings, the artwork, the congregational and choir music are all tied together to show how the Good News of God WIth Us is the primary story throughout the Old and New Testament.

First gingerbread house kit attempted by Douwe and me. Messy, but I was pleased that it turned out better than I expected.

Silly and fun holiday musical for children at Beverly Arts Center: Mrs. Claus.

A visit to the Atrium in Museum of Science and Industry to see the collection of Christmas trees from around the world.

Annual trip to DeMotte area tree farm to find a live Christmas tree and our usual wreath that hangs on our front house wall.

Douwe went with others to the Journey of Joy tableaus at Cottage Grove church to remember the stable setting of Jesus birth.

Our 6th? annual Christmas feast with our monthly supper club, at our house this year. So many delicious drinks, appetizers and desserts!

Our Holiday collection of kids books on CD are back in the car for a few weeks: Sam the Snowman, Santa Duck, Room for A Little One, Merry Christmas Curious George, and I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, Bear Stays up for Christmas.

Best few weeks to open the mailbox because there are actual items from people we know instead of just solicitations and ads and such.

Many many repeats of the Wee SIng Christmas CD, track #6: The Twelve Days of Christmas. Douwe can't get enough. .

Costumes and Jack O Lanterns

Douwe put on a costume this year for the first time . . the last two years he didn't have any interest in putting or keeping a costume on. He put on three costumes this year: 2 of them were the rejects from the last two years, ghost and Thomas. And one was a dr's costume but we didn't get a pic of that. He decided he would wear one to a costume party on Saturday night, the second to a midday festival at the Town Hall, and the third for Trick-or-Treating. And he did! He had so much fun running around the neighborhood with his neighbor friends (and all their parents in tow.) We also had a fun time carving pumpkins on Saturday afternoon with some family members at my sister's house. .

Mount Desert Island Rocks: Day 6

This day was not rainy but quite foggy or low clouds, so when we would drive around the island we could tell what the elevation was by whether we could see ahead of us or not.

We got a few neat photos on Echo Lake:

Mount Desert Island Rocks: Day 5

Here's a few photos of the Fernald Point Carriage House which we found via VRBO. We highly recommend if you are a family of 2, 3, or 4 . .





Today was a rainy day . . we spent some time at the Oceanarium
and we did a very wet guided hike to see beavers active near their lodges at dusk. We also tried a hike up Bubble Rock, but it got way too steep at the top for Douwe's safety. . .disappointing turn around so close to the summit!

We also did a picnic snack in a little spot called Pretty Marsh, I think, on the far west side of the island. . It was very surreal and out of a different era with moss carpet all over and spongy needle paths, so beautiful, even soggy!

Mount Desert Island Rocks: Day 4

Today was a water day . .
Jeff took a kayaking excursion in the am while Douwe and I went to Thunder Hole to see the waves crashing against the rocks.

In the afternoon we rode a lobster boat to learn about lobster fishing and see a bunch of offshore wildlife. Very fun.

Mount Desert Island Rocks: Day 3

Today was our biking day. The park has a bunch of "carriage roads" designated for non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians, so we picked a morning and an afternoon route.
Our morning route took us all around a wetland area and Witch Hole pond. We saw about 6 huge beaver lodges
and about 8 different beaver dams, it was so amazing to see what they build close up. We stopped in one spot to explore some more and could not believe this dam. One huge pond was made by this beaver dam and only a few trickles were getting through to the brook that was about 8 feet below. Unbelievable.

We also found a beautiful rock fall under Duck Brook bridge. These carriage road bridges are something else, and then the trails go under them to brooks and falls and then the leaves of all colors and the light orange pine needles carpeting the paths . .no wonder we kept running into photography club people with their tripods set up. . They were probably annoyed with us playing by this brook when they were trying to set leaves just so and get some good nature photos. . .

We went back into town for lunch . took a takeout pizza to the public dock at Southwest Harbor and Douwe befriended a cat that seemed to be a dock cat.

After a little pit stop at home for regrouping our snack pack and letting Douwe watch some TV, we headed back out to a trail, this time a carriage road that went around Amphitheatre Mountain. . the sun was getting ready to set but we still had some beautiful light. Found a few more brooks. Douwe could not be more excited than just jumping around on rocks and trying to cross these little brooks, it is fun for us, so I can't imagine what he must be feeling in terms of the adventurousness of rock hopping over a stream.

Mount Desert Island Rocks: Day 2

I'm getting into extra detail on place names because if you are reading this you will definitely want to plan a trip sometime to this area . . and either everything around here is picture perfect, or we are just landing on really good spots for our vacation adventures . .seriously this place is unbelievable.

Today we made a list of all the things we want to do this week and set up some tour times and stuff, then decided this would be a good day to do Douwe's choice: a hike in the woods, and Jessica's choice: a hike by a waterfall.

Our morning hike started only a few blocks from our rental house and it went up to the top of Flying Mountain. It had a beautiful view of Somes Sound which is supposed to be the one fjord on the east coast? I think someone said. Douwe met a few other kids at the top and shared snack time with them. . We are seeing a lot of families with younger children so it is fun to see other kids hiking up mountains and enjoying it also.
We had snack time on the bottom of the mountain right on some waterfront rocks and saw lots of lobster bouys in the water.

For lunch we went into town (southwest harbor) and had some great food at Little Notch Bakery and decided to come back in a few days for sure to get some of their pizza after we tried a bite of Douwe's slice.

Our afternoon hike was so gorgeous I can't even believe it. We barely even went that far on the Hadlock Brook Trail, but we made it to Waterfall Bridge and it was beautiful. Douwe was the first to spot a rainbow in the falls and his favorite part of the whole day was climbing up higher than the trail to the top of the waterfall. The danger, the adventure, the spray, the rocks . this is as good as it gets for a four year old. I stayed below on the bridge and just relaxed and watched some people go by.

Then we scurried into Bar Harbor for low tide to check out the sand bar between our Island and Bar Island which turns into a path of dry land during low tide. We didn't make it across to the other island because we got too busy watching seagulls dropping shells onto rocks from above to crack them open, and watching a guy collect a colander full of live mussels? clams? and overturning rocks to find starfish and little creatures. .
Then we went to the harbor waterfront part of the town and walked the path a bit and saw the moon and a cruise ship and boys jumping off boulders and all kinds of exciting things, before finding a place for dinner and then having the most delicious flavor of ice-cream: Indian Pudding at the Mount Desert Ice Cream Shop.

A jam packed day of fun and I just have to add that it is October and the leaves are colorful and the summer congestion is gone, but it was over 75 degrees today. How could you improve on those conditions?

Mount Desert Island Rocks: Day 1

We got an early start out of Ellsworth this morning to get right on that island and start exploring the Acadia National Park. We did the little intro video at the welcome center, bought a good trail and road map, and then went right for the Park Loop Trail and before we knew it we were at the highest point of the island and looking down on Bar Harbor from the peak of Cadillac Mountain. This point is when Douwe decided that this vacation is fun after all as he was thrilled to find that the whole mountain (and pretty much this whole island) is made of rocks and boulders to climb and jump and hike upon. For about an hour he tested his limits of how steep a rock he could climb or how high he could jump down or what trail marker he could find next. He was so excited. The view was beautiful.

Since it was about 85 degrees by mid day, we decided to spend the afternoon on Sand Beach, a lot of other people were there too and a few brave swimmers. THe tide was going out so it was fun to try to build castles and dams to redirect all the rivulets flowing out of the higher sand and down to the sea. Douwe's squat sank lower and lower until he was fully sitting in wet sand puddles and by the end just pouring wet sand on his legs. We should have packed swimsuits but who knew?

Our check in time was 4 and we were eager to see our carriage house, so we drove over to Southwest Harbor to move our stuff in and see the place. Perfect set up for us on a very quiet road, we are so glad to be on this part of the island and this little carriage house is very new, very small and very beautiful. We love it!

Went into Southwest Harbor for dinner time and to get a few groceries. On a whim we tried to find XYZ to see if they were open and they were and they seated us even though we didn't have a reservation! THis was a find and thanks again to our trusty guide book as this restaurant was hidden in the woods down a lane outside of town.

Maine: First full day

We woke up in Portland and bought a couple of New England's best sticky buns at the Standard Baking Company.
We walked along the Eastern Promenade Path for a while and then found the City Marketplace to buy some lunch ingredients for later. . Then headed north and east on Route 1 out of Portland to make our way towards Ellsworth.

We stopped in
1. Rockland for lunch overlooking the waterfront
2. Camden to explore a park and follow a river as it disappeared upstream under buildings and reappeared in other places about a half mile, and crossing various bridges over it.
Found a shop that was selling all ice cream treats for half off on its last day of being open. We also found the underground library which had the nicest children's room I've ever seen in a library, almost too nice, because there were so many fun things to do that books probably don't get noticed. . .

3. Searsport to stretch our legs at a waterfront playground and a game of follow the leader which included about 40 boulders up and down. . .Good prep work for all our rocky hikes in the coming week.

4. pull-off for a view of the bridge over the Penobscot narrows absolutely beautiful

5. old old town of Castine for dinner on the wharf. Jeff was amazed because a book he recently read called THE FORT is set in this town. He saw the fort on the way to the restaurant, and he did not pick that book knowing it was set in a town that we would be near.

It was a leisurely day of driving and eating and exploring and every stop seemed to be the perfect place to experience the coast of Maine. I had my first experience having a full lobster meal. . . .it was very good but the green stuff kind of grossed me out . .I wasn't expecting that part of it. . .

Arriving in Maine

This is going to be a great vacation . . setting in Maine, fall foliage about to peak and the expected temperatures in the 70s!
We landed this afternoon in New Hampshire and set out for Portland, Maine where we will spend our first night.
After we checked in, we found dinner and great draft selection at the Great Lost Bear.
Tried to get a glimpse of the waterfront after that but it was a bit too dark. . .we'll try again tomorrow. ..

Fall Camping

We spent the weekend at Indiana Dunes State park with friends and in spite of the gloomy forecast of all rain, it turned out to be beautiful.
On Saturday we hiked one of the longer trails out to the Beachhouse blowout and found out it was recently voted the top hike in Indiana! It takes a long portion along the dune ridge so you can see the forest down on the south and the lake/beach down on the north, it is outstanding. Douwe was a trooper and probably walked on his own for 2 of the 3 hours it took us. . .

4 years old

Douwe had a wonderful time celebrating his 4th birthday with such activities as a
outside marching band, beanie-bag toss (using beanie babies as the bean bags), flower scavenger hunt and bozo buckets . .(and we sang happy birthday to Jeff as well!)

Afternoon visit

The three of us had a little excursion this afternoon to a beautiful spot just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. . .
lagoon, and a little island with the Osaka Japanese Garden. Douwe biked from the parking lot to the garden. It is one of my favorite spots on the south side!

On the lakefront in three states

This week turned into a bit of a mini-vacation without really planning on it. On Sunday afternoon we spent some time in Michigan city at the beach, zoo, and lakefront park having a picnic. The wind was coming strong from the north and huge waves which were fun to watch, and great view of the windy city from the top of the lookout tower at Washington park zoo!

On Monday we met my friend Amy and her children for a day at the St. Joseph lakefront. This is a wonderful spot for a summer excursion as they have recently improved their lakefront and filled it with children's activities: like a playground on the sand, an open splash pad, a carousel pavilion which includes free access to sidewalk chalk, checker boards and hula hoops, and a pizza restaurant in the Amtrak station. We also enjoyed a few hours in the Curious Kids Children's Museum, which is one of our favorites. We had perfect weather to be outdoors and it was so nice to catch up on the past year.

Jeff had to spend a few nights in the city for work, so we spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the city and did a few excursions: riding the redline CTA, a couple trolley rides to Navy Pier, and brunch at Toast followed by playtime at Oz Park. An almost four year old loves experiencing the thrill of moving objects, so South Shore train, ferris wheel, little Thomas train ride, and taxi rides all were included in the fun. He was amazed by the noise and speed of the underground train, and couldn't believe that some people get to ride one of these every day! I was impressed by the upgrades and improvements to the Grant, Belmont and Southport stations, everything looks so much nicer than when I was a CTA commuter ten years ago.

Summer eating

Been putting in a lot of kitchen time the last two weeks, mainly to keep up with our little backyard plant plots and make the most of the summer produce that is abundant right now. Tomatoes are reddening and yellowing faster than we can keep up, so lots of tomato/pesto sandwiches, bruschetta, pico de gallos, caprese salads, red tomato sauce being prepped and devoured around here.
Jeff just roasted a bunch of tomatoes and peppers to make his annual double batch of salsa for camping this weekend.
I prepared an enchilada dish earlier this week that used four ingredients from the back yard. . .tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, onion.
Today my lunch and dinner included some basil, beets, tomatoes, an orange pepper, and cucumber from our back yard.

We also went twice in the last 5 days to the Hobart farm (Johnsons) that is offering raspberry and blackberry plants for u-pick, so two special desserts came out of the oven this week featuring those berries.

This is my favorite time of summer . . I don't really eat fresh tomatoes or raspberries all year and then when this month comes, they are abundant and I can eat them right off the plant and keep on eating them . . it does not get any better than this!

I am so glad for people who grow food for others to buy and eat . . I was in the raspberry field on Saturday morning having more fun than ever and imagining a day when berry-picking drew as many enthusiasts as those spinning rides at the county fair that was so so crowded the other night. There are going to be zillions of berries on those plants in the next couple weeks and I hope the market demand is worthy of the value and abundance that is ripening on those bushes!

Bike ride

We never get many bike rides in mid-summer because it is so hot! Well we picked a great day to meet Uncle Steven and Aunt Ashley and their girls for some riding in Chicago along the lakefront. Tom Skilling announced that this day was going to be: meteorological perfection. It was. North breezes, sunny, 78 and clear views of skyline, lake . . it was absolutely gorgeous. We met near the Aquarium and biked to the Bird Sanctuary and the "waterfall" near McCormick place old building, then back north to some nice playgrounds for the kids: Daley Bi-Centennial plaza and Lake-Shore East I think they are called. Douwe and the girls had a great time on the bikes and off.

Lake County Fair

I don't think I have been here for several years. It was a mild night, so everything is more pleasant at a fair when the evening is not so hot. . some highlights were:
The pig barn, seeing a sow with 11 or 12 babies, climbing tractors/excavators, etc. , the remote control car dirt track, the ferris wheel, the climbing obstacle course "ride" which Douwe did about 6 times, and the elephant ear at the end of our visit.
Very fun.

Fire hose

We stopped in to visit the VBS activity night at Beacon Light Church in Gary and the Lake Ridge Fire Dept had a hose truck there for the kids to try out. . .
Douwe got a chance to spray the fire out of the "burning house"

Morton Arboretum

Perfect weather for a little impromptu morning visit to the Arboretum with Kristin and her girls . . which turned into a 7 hour visit because it was so fun.



We spent most of our time in the children's garden which is huge and full of great spots to explore. Douwe's favorite is the tree top bridges. He also loved the hedge maze.
Later we found the prime climbing tree that is a bit of a walk out into the main arboretum. . Near the Japanese area.
We had picnic lunches and a little ice cream treat later. . this is the kind of day that summers are made for.