Holidays in Illinois

We departed La Conner for California the middle of November to spend Thanksgiving with our kids in San Jose.  Jill and Bob got engaged at Thanksgiving, so Jill, Joy and I did some serious wedding shopping.  What fun!  I love spending time with my two best friends.  Joy has been up to her eyeballs in weddings lately, so had lots of advice.  
Have you shopped for a wedding dress lately?  My goodness, what a daunting task.  It's a whole lot more complicated than when my mom and I got ready for my wedding 44 years (yikes!!!) ago.  I have to admit, Joy and I got a little "rummy" waiting for Jill to try on the next dress!  What a silly girl Joy is!

Thanksgiving dinner was at Jill and Bob's and it turned out to be a great team effort.  Everyone had their own specialty and we all managed to OD on turkey and football...a perfect day!


We also went "wedding venue" shopping that weekend.  We made it to Half Moon Bay to a lovely hotel at the harbor.  What a beautiful place, but just tooooo over the top for the wedding.  It is a fun place to spend a weekend, though!

Following Thanksgiving weekend, we drove to Visalia to pick up Smokey and then headed east for Illinois.  My niece, Kelly, was getting married in Cincinnati, OH, December 12, so we had to make tracks!  As usual, Smokey was a good traveller and added a few states to her travelogue!  We stopped in Manhattan, KS, to see Dave and Kathy Carpenter...friends from our days in Pennsylvania.  Isn't it amazing to pick up a friendship, almost in mid sentence, after being apart for years?!?  Dave and Kathy have a vacation home in Mexico.  We dream to taking the Tug south to their place and anchoring right out front.  Wouldn't that be great?

Cincinnati, OH, the second weekend in December turned out to be chilly but not too snowy.  Kelly was a beautiful bride and Matt was a handsome groom.  We're so happy for them and were thrilled to be a part of their special day.  This photo is of Kelly and her mom, Suzanne, before the ceremony.  One of my favorite pictures from the wedding!


We had a cold, wintry drive back to Farmington, IL, where my brother and sister-in-law live.  We planned to stay with them while we were in Illinois since they have lots of room.  Smokey son made friends with their cat, Sammy, and they managed to develop a peaceful coexistence.


We were there for about four weeks so we were able to see lots of special people:  Ardith Owens Platt, my best friend from high school; Janet Shortness Mottaz and her husband Ted.  Janet and I were friends in high school and she sang at our wedding, but hadn't seen her in years.  We visited with Stan and Christie Combs one evening at Ardith's house.  Stan and I used to ride the same school bus...a thousand years ago!  Of course, we spent lots of time with family and brushed up on our pitch-playing skills with Jerry's folks!  In the photo you see Jerry, Maxine and Jim in the front row, and me, Becky (Jerry's sister), Dan (Becky's husband), Sally (Don's wife) and Don (Jerry's brother) in the second row.

We spent a couple of days with Jerry and Sue Hipple who are on a family farm west of Aurora IL.  Jerry and Jerry were college roommates and Jerry was our best man.  We'd lost touch with them for many years but reconnected at a Monterey Cowboy and Poetry Festival several years ago.  Since then we've visited back and forth several times, but haven't gotten them to Cosmo Place yet.  Since Jerry is a busy farmer, it's hard for him to get away in the summer.  They live in the original farmhouse, built in 1906, I believe.  Sue and Jerry have done a fabulous job of maintaining the original feel or the house and have some beautiful antiques and family heirlooms.