Christmas & New Year's

Seeing as we only have 5 days until we board a plane for our new home in Long Beach (and that's not California!) I decided I'd better get this blog updated. Christmas has come & gone and more memories were made. Our son Glenn came home on the 22nd of Dec and daughter Rachel + husband Josh arrived on Christmas day. They were all home for a week and we spent lots of time playing games, watching movies, talking and eating. We went downtown Chicago early in the day on New Year's Even and visited Glenn in his studio apartment on Dearborn St. We walked to a lovely restaurant to eat lunch and on our way home we all got soaked in the the rain. We warmed up with a cup of Starbucks coffee and decided to get out of the city before the mobs of people arrived for the evening celebrations. We knew it was the right decision when we encountered thousands of cars entering the city as we were leaving! We spent a quiet evening at home with our daughter (her husband was visiting friends). Rachel & Darrell stayed up until after midnight but I crashed at 10:30. Early on the morning of January 2nd, we all headed for the airport and went our separate ways; they, back home to Philadelphia and we, to visit our son Nathan in the Caribbean for 4 days. We were met by Nate & his girlfriend (who was visiting form Chicago)and taken to the island on a private boat that Nate had rented. It was one of the funnest things I've ever done! The island is beautiful and the laid-back lifestyle is charming. As I write this, we are still here for another day. We have been wined and dined by many of Nate's friends, had a picnic on the beach with steaks on the grill, coffee on the porch, gone swimming in the pool and lots of other fun stuff. Tomorrow we will head back to the frigid north and begin the last-minute marathon to get ready for departure on Jan. 11th. Stay tuned for details of our new adventure.