Christmas Time in Chicago

Its finally after Thanksgiving which means Christmas decorations are finally going up. I have my Christmas tree up. The first one I've had since I moved to Chicago. Its fake but I think it's way better than dealing with a real one in my apartment. Grandma and grandpa sent me a Santa ornament (thank you!!) which is very lonely on my tree. My and Karli's parents are going to be coming in the next few weeks to see the city in the holiday season which is pretty amazing. It seems like every building decorates in some way for the holidays. The third picture is the Merchandise Mart which I get to see all lit up on my walk home every day.

Thanksgiving Day

 Walkers at Hawk Meadows:  Dave, John, Emily, Elija in stroller, Barbara, Don, Mike, Laura, Kristian, Ron

 Ron's new bearded look.  He plans to be in the Christmas Journey for their church and then may have a gote.

 Lauren admiring dessert choices: pumpkin (2 kinds),sweet potato, pecan, pumpkin cheesecake and the ice cream hasn't been put out yet!

 Playing ball with Elijah: Katelyn, Drew, Lauren.  Jonathan and Katie in background watching football.

More football watchers:  Bill, Jill and Mike.

A good weekend

The weekend began celebrating with Jim at the Community Recreation Center's 25th anniversary banquet honoring Manchester volunteers.  Jim was nominated by the Kiwanis Club for his willingness to help in any way at community events.  He was presented a framed certificate of appreciation while Cynthia, Caitlin, Herb, Dad/Grandpa and I applauded.  In the silent auction I was high bidder on dinner for two at  famous Zingerman's Deli and four tickets to the theater/music school event of my choice at U of M..  It was a good evening to be together.

Saturday's main activity is shown in the photos.  Don came after lunch to fire his rifle at the targets.  It takes a lot of preparation to get ready for deer season.  Leaving at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning will be the main push for this week.

After church Sunday Dad/Grandpa and I went to the grand opening weekend open house at the Broad Museum of Contemporary Art at MSU.  The building itself has been controversial and I have tried to reserve comment until I went to the open house.  Check out the building at broad museum@msu.edu, it is too hard to describe.  We waited 20 minutes in line to get in and the line was over twice as long when we left.  I'll go again, both the building and the art take some getting used to.  The 3D movie was interesting and much of the art was like nothing seen in Lansing before.  One of my art friends was quoted in the newspaper saying "New York has come to us!"

 The top blew out of the tree earlier this year.  Dad will call Art Kyler

 to see if he'd like to cut it into firewood to heat his house.