Bringing Luke Home: December 2008

It's been a very busy week with lots of Christmas activities thrown in. We enjoyed our annual Christmas party at Jessica's house with the families of international adoption. Luke was the first to sit on Santa's lap with a list of wishes, mostly centered around "Spiderman."
On Wednesday we left for Chicago. We stayed at the Fairmont hotel which is only a 5 minute drive to Navy Pier, a wonderland for kids to play in. While John attended his music conference I took the kids over to Navy Pier. We played most of the day in the special winter wonderland area. The kids went on rides and jumped on inflatables until they could move no more. John joined us in the afternoon to help me get the kids back to the hotel. Later that evening we took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe, a real experience in jungle life for the kids. Chicago was in the middle of a snow storm so there were few diners out and Lily had the best time with our waiter Chip. By the time all as done Chip had convinced them that the animals were all real and he was the one who built the place and collected the animals. Lily is still talking about him.
The next day we woke to snow! We took our time getting ready to check out while the street crews of Chicago worked their magic making the snow disappear off the streets. We were able to meet our friends the Morales out on Navy Pier to take in the Children's museum. We traveled with the Morales on our trip to China in March. They were picking up their new son, Tonito while we were picking up Luke. Lily and their daughter Vivi became fast friends in China so it was great to all get together again for a visit. The kids loved the museum especially skating in their socks. We all ate lunch at the McDonalds and then had to part company as we traveled on to Wisconsin.
The roads were clear but the snow kept getting deeper as we headed North to visit our friends the Binzels. They live on acreage and the road and driveway go back about 1/2 miles from the road, but no fear, it was plowed and ready for our arrival. Lily and their daughter, Leah are from Fuling and we traveled together in 2005 to pick up our daughters. The kids started in playing right away and Luke felt a little like the odd man out (being the only boy in a princess world) but soon they were all playing together. Susan made some wonderful pizza with homemade bread dough crust and we quickly ate two pizzas (and drank a bit of wine) It was so cozy with the deep snow outside and all of us warm inside. All too soon it ended as we had to leave the next morning for home.
The weather was kind to us as we made our way back to Missouri. The snow disappeared but the cold weather followed us.
We are home for two days before packing up and heading out to North Carolina to spend Christmas with John's family. Thank goodness for DVD players in the car and mini vans, it makes the long trips bearable.