We got together Saturday afternoon to celebrate some belated Power family birthdays, and although there's not much to report, other than we had a great time (as usual), ate a lot of food (as usual), and didn't play any games (that was unusual, but we were okay playing with Sadie and watching the Bulls beat the Brooklyn Nets instead), I wanted to share some shots from the day.
The Power Men
The Power Gals: Two Frans and an Angi
Sadie and Pop
We will be sad to say goodbye to our roof deck when we move
We left our place and headed to Sean and Angi's for some pizza and more Sadie time. Roo had a great adventure playing in the backyard grass.
And she's currently recovering.
I think she's got a good idea. I'm going to join her. See ya.
Happy One Year Anniversary to the gorgeous Fran (Napier) Power and Neill (Power) Power!
The two were married last year on a warm, sunny St. Patrick's Day afternoon. The ceremony was lovely and the party was full of family, food, candy, and a whole hell of a lot of dancing (there may also have been drinking). We posted about the Napier-Power wedding officially, but we never posted about the fame that followed a month later.
Trevor, who works as a photo editor for four magazines published by Modern Luxury, immediately recognized Fran & Neill's attractiveness and submitted one of their wedding photos to CS Brides, one of Modern Luxury's sister publications.
Here's the photo he submitted:
I mean, they're gorgeous, right?
Of course the editors published the photo, and it ran in the Fall/Winter 2012 print and web editions. It's still on the CS Brides website, so check it out (and I'm not saying that the other couples on the site are duds, but, well...yawn.)
So, here's to many more years of happiness for Neill and Fran! And hurry up and get to a milestone anniversary so we can have another party.
It's two weeks past Christmas and one week past New Year's Eve, and less than one week until I start a new semester. So, here are some things to wrap up and some things to look forward to!
First, when we saw you last we were only beginning our four days of magical Christmas romping. We'd gone to John and Fran Power's place for a Very Power Christmas, and we were gearing up for some Bork and Bosco time (and some Bosco Bork time. it's not as confusing as it sounds, really).
We hung out with the Borks for some pre-Christmas Sunday supper. Bo got some cool new toys:
Not pictured: the 72 piece blocks set that will stay at Grandma Bork's house and some new Matchbox cars from his auntie and uncle
I, too, got some cool new toys, courtesy of Paula and Greg (let's be clear: it was all Greg).
Racing grannies, an angry nunzilla (who is yelling at the grannies) and a cow about to shoot that ball out of his pie hole right at the nunzilla (Trevor has been shooting that cow at me for two weeks now. thanks, Greg. thanks ever so much.)
Greg also got me this ermahzing rubber chicken. Don't feel bad; I put that sign on him. It used to be on the little pink doll, but I thought the chicken made more sense in our household.
But the pièce de résistance is the sound that my new effigy makes. Here, take a listen.
So, after the gift exchanging, we said our goodnights...
Good night, Grandpa!
...and Trevor and I popped over to Sean and Angi's place for one last hang-out with Rae and the gang. We played Cards Against Humanity and laughed until our faces hurt.
Rae, Auntie Fran, Uncle Neilly, and Sadie (who is eating...something)
Christmas Eve morning was spent with the Madels in River Forest and we were so happy to get to see Doug and Jean, Becca and Jason and their families, but also Grandma, Grandpa, and Jim, who'd all driven down from Door County for the holiday. We did some brunching, some chatting, and a little bit of gifting.
Sadie got a cool new house with locks and keys from Grandma and Grandpa Madel
Gradma Madel tries on a new shawl while Angi, Sadie, and Sean stand by
Grandpa, Jean, and Destiny
Grandma checks out the owl jar from T. and me
Destiny asked me to not put this on the blog. So here it is. I love being an aunt.
After T. and I gave our stomachs a rest and our bodies a nap, we headed downtown to spend Christmas Eve eve with the Boscos, Borks, and Ericksons. We ate a lot,
Grandma! I can fit this entire pear slice in my mouth.
And now I can cut another piece! By myself! (um, no, you can't. put down that knife.)
talked a lot, and gifted a little more.
What?! MORE toys? Holy Christmas, Batman!
Uncle Jimmy is, as always, Santa Claus.
On Christmas morning, Trevor and I woke up and lounged around with coffee and the new books we'd exchanged (oh, what? you're surprised that we get each other books for Christmas?), and then wandered over to the Bosco's house to stuff ourselves on pizza, macaroni and cheese, and pie. I think there might have also been salad, but I don't know what kind of beanbag was paying attention to that.
This is what Bo did that morning:
Oh my goodness! Look at my OUTFIT! I'm SO CUTE!
So that was that. Almost immediately after Christmas, on Trevor's first official day of vacation that wasn't a national holiday, he got sick. So we hung out a lot inside, watching t.v. and movies, reading our many new books, and slowly weaning ourselves off of holiday food. It was hard since both Fran Power Sr. and Grandma Madel had sent us home with eight hundred thousand cookies.
We had a quiet New Year's Eve--just dinner out and then some movie watching--and then Trevor's cold germs finally caught up with me last Thursday. So I'm coughing like a...a person who has a chest cold (sorry, that's the best I could do) and starting to really rev up for my faculty workshop day on Thursday and the first day of the semester, which is next Monday.
We hope that everyone else had just as lovely, family filled, and as fattening a holiday season as we did. Happy New Year, to all!
I turned in my final grades last Friday and almost immediately started to prepare--really prepare--for the holidays. It included the following:
Shopping
My bags were heavy with wares from a trip to the outlet malls with my friend Kate
Wrapping
Baking
Yes, that's butter. Lots of butter.
And yes, those are dinosaur sprinkles. Merry Christmasaurus.
Eating
The Bûche de Noël at La Petite Creperie in Woodstock
The remains of Wyatt, the turkey, from our Friendsgiving (Trevor and I did not participate in the Wyatt consumption)
Crepes from Iguana Cafe
And hanging out with some fantastic people
Like some of my coworkers for our end-of-semester holiday feast...
This is where that log cake de noel came in.
Our Friendsgiving friends...
Cristen, mixing up some egg whites for homemade egg nog
Jayson, taking a picture before we sat down to eat
My awesome mentee Angelica...
Angelica with her presents before we hunkered down for some crepes
And family...
On Friday, I went with Mom and Bosco to check out the model train display at the Hancock Center.
Taking it all in...
Still taking it in..
We walked home from the Hancock and had some lunch before playing with some cool blocks. It was the perfect day.
Applesauce: the snack you eat right after lunch
Blocks!
On Saturday the Power clan got together. Rae was able to fly in from Florida, but we missed Letty, who's been helping out in Atlanta for the last few weeks and only got back to FL yesterday. She'll stay at home for the holidays, but then go back to the TSA office in Atlanta until they can find a replacement (a replacement for Letty? impossible, so good luck, suckers).
Sadie ripping open her Ugg boots from Destiny
Sadie showing off her Girl PoWEr tee shirt from Auntie Rae and Auntie Letty
The cousins Sadie and Destiny--Sadie is in her final of four costume changes for the night
Angi with her new loud eyed baby Dora
Tonight we'll go over to Mom and Dad Bork's place to do some gift exchanges, and then to Sean and Angi Power's to hang out with them and Rae before she has to leave tomorrow. There will be more eating, drinking, and hanging out with our favorite people, and we'll be sure to take some pictures. But until then, Merry Christmas!
This weekend Trevor visited Michigan for the first time in his entire life. It was monumental.
Well, maybe not monumental, but it sure was a lot of fun.
Greg and Paula got a lake house recently in Michigan and T. and I went up (and over) to spend the weekend with them, Bosco, and the elder Borks. It was a quick drive for a day and a half of gorgeous sun-filled Michigan.
On Saturday the seven of us took a tour to some of the local wineries. Bo was our designated driver since he's more of a whiskey man.
A picture with a cardboard monk
The gorgeous family
Vineyards
But we didn't only tour wineries. We had to get some substance in our bellies, so we went to the Chocolate Garden and had a tasting before buying some real food. Like cayanne pepper and dark chocolate truffles, and drinking chocolate mixes. You know: real food.
Dad Bork, using a refined writing instrument to fill out his chocolate tasting ticket
T., checking out the Michigan he's been missing all these years
After tooling around all afternoon, we all got a little sleepy--some of us more than others.
So we headed back to the lake house to rest up before dinner.
A panoramic shot off the back deck (with T.'s new iPhone!)
Down to the beach
Hi!
And then Greg and Trevor got the grill going for dinner (not chocolate truffles, but it was still good).
T. on the back deck
Greg at the grill
We had a little time to play while dinner was cooking, and Bo showed off his excellent conversation skills for the camera.
He may not say a lot of English words yet (although no, yes, boat, mama, no, sit here, no, help me, watermelon, and no are all in his wheelhouse), but he sure has style!
After dinner we played a lively round of Trivial Pursuit and although the men kind of won by a little bit (or maybe by twice as many pie pieces, but whatever), the ladies were amazing and would have won if it hadn't been so late. That's right. We lost because we were tired.
The girls were pretty tired, too, although they pretended for a while.
We're UP!
And, we're down
And we all slept like exhausted chihuahuas until this morning when Greg woke us up with a delicious egg breakfast.
The weekend was tons of fun and we're looking forward to making many more visits to the lake house over the years (especially to make use of Greg & Paula's new boat and wave runner).
And then we drove home and, after unpacking I promptly fell into a nap. For three hours. And if you think I won't be able to sleep tonight, you'd be sorely mistaken. Sorely.
(this is a picture from last week during T.'s Columbia College Reunion--another post on that will be coming soon)
