Well, we've been back from Chicago for about a week. It was a lot of fun to visit but also good to be back in our own home again, re-settled into the normal routine of things. School, work, church, exercise, etc.
There were many highlights to the Chicago visit. There were several parties: the usual Olsen-side party at the American Legion Hall, a Christmas eve party at my folks' home, a Christmas day party at Bob and Bev Tarpey's house, a New Years Eve party at St. Cyprians. Several of those events are in the vacation pictures. Abigail got to see her first movie in a theater. I took her and Claire to see Monsters Inc. on Christmas eve afternoon to get them out of the house while mom and Michelle got things ready for the party. My dad bought my mom eight tickets to see the Rockettes. Mom; her friend, Bev; my sister, Alyssa; her daughter, Cassidy; my sister, Suzanne; Michelle; Claire; and my brother's fiance, Katie all went for a lady's night out for the event. A few days later my brother-in-law Tom and I went to see Fellowship of the Ring at a local Imax theater. On one of the days between Christmas and new years my sister's family and our family went down to Chicago's Navy Pier. There we went to the Children's Museum and had lunch at the famous Billy Goat tavern. (Saturday Night Live: cheeseborger, cheeseborger,...) In the end we had more gifts to bring home this year than ever before: four large boxes for all six of us. So far we've received two in the mail. The rest will arrive very soon. I'm looking forward to it because my dad gave me a nice leather jacket which is in one of the later arriving boxes.
The actual travel was a bit of a challenge but the boys behaved very reasonably for the trip. I wouldn't want to push it much further, but at least they didn't cry much. Curbside baggage checkin was available both ways, which was a huge help. Mr. Russell worked with us in getting to and from Manchester airport using our van which saved us a lot of parking hassles. In fact returning on New Years Day meant that the airport wasn't crowded. The total time from O'Hare airport dropoff to being at the gate was probably only about 20 minutes. We had assumed the worst by arriving at O'Hare two hours early. Ironically we spent more time in O'Hare airport than we did actually flying back to Manchester. Luckily the return flight was not a full flight.
Sunday evening I ordered several pictures of the vacation through dotPhoto. Some of the pictures are slated to be sent back to Chicago for relatives who were at the various events.
In a strange sense of deja vu, my Franklin planner updates still haven't arrived. They were ordered on the 19th of December. I was stupid to forget that I went through this same scenario last year. Ironically our medical savings account reimbursement came yesterday. It required me to submit a huge stack of paperwork (which went out on Dec 20th) that I imagined some administrator sitting on for weeks. So while one item is merely inventory order fulfillment, it's not here. The other item theoretically requires an administrator to review the expenses, and it is here. As they say in Maine, "Go figya".
In case you haven't seen it, Apple computer released their new line of iMacs. Some have called it the world's most technologically advanced lamp. Frankly I'm amazed that it still doesn't require a cooling fan. An 800MHz G4 PowerPC processor, an advanced graphics engine, a power supply, and a DVD burner (among other things) all in that little case that looks marginally bigger than a half slice of cantelope-- how does it not overheat?!
We went to 10:30 Mass last Sunday. Being the first Sunday of the month, it was the Mass where we honor the kids who have birthdays in January. I got to carry up Michael and Daniel to receive their birthday gifts and blessings. I so wanted them to go in their identical "He did it" outfits. Alas, they had a "blowout" an hour or two before Mass and had to be changed into different outfits.
There are a few purchases we're considering for the next few months. One is that I'm still considering a wireless router for the home. It's really only significant if I bring my work laptop home which thus far rarely happens. Another is to get a small personal laser printer. When we gave my sister our PC, we gave the printer along with it. Lastly, we are considering buying a TV/VCR/DVD setup for the living room so we can catch up to the 1990s (now that it's 2002). Panasonic makes a nice all in one unit that is attractive to us. I guess I shouldn't feel that bad about it. My sister doesn't have a DVD either and my folks wouldn't have one if it weren't for my gadget-collecting brother.
One last piece of news is that we will be taking a long-ish vacation this summer. We will all fly to Chicago. The next day the girls will fly out for the Gerrits 20th wedding anniversary in Flagstaff, AZ. Two weeks later my brother, Chris, is getting married.