The most important event about being home those couple days was that Bryn had her braces removed! She looks so pretty! She is a little disappointed in having to relearn to play her trombone without all that extra stuff crowding her mouth.
I had purchased tickets in the fall to the musical, Wicked, playing at the Oriental Theatres in Chicago for after Christmas. It turned out to be a perfect time to go since the kids didn't have their typical activities during break either. We attended the Sunday matinee and it was fantastic! Abby and Bryn are very familiar with the music because they've played it in band the past couple years. The story is basically a prequel to The Wizard of Oz (link at right). We left Milwaukee at 10:30am and drove right into downtown to park. You just never know what Chicago traffic is going to be like. We walked around a bit and found a nearby McDonald's for lunch. A homeless person offered Abby some bubblegum and asked for food from me while we were dining. After that, we walked around and admired some of the famous public sculptures. The Oriental Theatre was very ornate, as a theatre should be. Abby, Bryn and Paige all purchased Wicked-logo clothing as souvenirs.
We called Craig as we exited the parking ramp. It was snowing. Again. But it was really pretty with all the Chicago lights. Clark greeted us at the door at Craig's house and we left to take Craig out for his birthday dinner: pizza. We came back and admired all the hard work Craig has done remodeling his home in Lyons. We've seen it since the beginning, so we can see the progress. Craig shared some videos of some of his toy inventions and finished up the evening with Clark's Dog Show.
The morning we were surprised with an encore performance of Clark's Dog Show. We got a little tired of it being "all about Clark" so we began joining in and dancing with Clark's animals. Clark didn't care for this, so he would stop the show, turn off his strobe light and go to his desk downstairs. He would come back with a written referral for whoever was interfering with his show. We had fun, but it was time to go by noon.
We got back to Milwaukee on New Year's Eve day by 3pm and everyone got in line to shower. Abby had plans with her friends elsewhere, and Bryn and Paige invited guests to our house. Jeff and I agreed to this as long as we got to go to a movie first. We saw "Charlie Wilson's War." Interesting and worth seeing. The guests arrived at 8pm and we got to stay up to drive them home at 1am! I texted Abby at midnight to wish her "Happy New Year" and reminded her to "Be Safe." She texted me back that she had "kissed a random drunk guy" when the ball dropped, which I didn't think was very safe. Sassy.
New Year's Day our whole house didn't wake til 11am so it was really a half-day. I just did the typical household chores and filled in my 2008 calendar with all the kid's schedules. That is a full-day task!
Jan 2 was back to work, but the kids are off yet til tomorrow. Abby, Bryn & Paige all went in to the salon today and had their hair cut. Abby blew her gift certificate from Christmas right away and got her highlights.
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