Saturday, December 29, 2007

Let's Play Guesstures


See if you can guess the word each person is acting out. See below for answers.

1. Scott

2. Hilary


3. Goose


4. Scott


5. Goose


6. Me. The slip is not intentional.




7. Brody




8. Notice the difficulty Ann has in grabbing the card before it drops down--she didn't even get to her fourth word, "rockette"--unfortunately for us.





Answers:

1. drag
2. cranky
3. jock strap
4. dog
5. concussion
6. computer, stopwatch, channel, picket
7. cut, bell???, ground, ?
8. nametag, girdle, cover, ?

Christmas Eve with Grandma Conklin

Eric and I spent last week celebrating Christmas with his family in Spokane, Washington. Brother Mike and Tanya live in Spokane, with Grandma just down the street. And Mom and Dad (Ann and Brody) are in Chewelah, which is about an hour north. Brother Scott and Hilary were out from Athens, Georgia, which meant that we were all together for Christmas Day for the first time since the year before Goose and I were married.

We spent Christmas Eve with Grandma at the Waterford, the active adult community she has called home for around 15 years.

Here's Grandma opening our gift for her--a framed picture of the grandsons:

Grandma with Mike and Emmy, who looked as cute as ever in her Christmas dress and "looses" (her legs are so tiny that her little stockings were certainly not tight).


Scott and Hilary modeling one of Grandma's knit creations:


The Waterford hosted a lovely candlelit Christmas Eve dinner:


After dinner, Grandma taught us to play one of her favorite card game, Spite and Malice. I never knew the Conklins could be so mean.


The "Hoyle Room" is well-used.

The First Noel

The Whistling Conklins, live from Chewelah.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Winter Weekend

We had a great dinner Friday with Scott, a friend from Holy Covenant, at the fancy-ish but reasonably priced Bijan's Bistro. I had never heard of either tagine or tartine, but we tried both and loved them.

Goose and Scott outside:


Afterward, we walked to Joe (a Blind Faith friend) and Lilian's for a small holiday gathering. Even though we had just eaten, we had to sample the goodies.

Today, we slept in late, then spent the afternoon cleaning and organizing while the snow fell and fell outside.

Now presenting....toasty holes!

We finally found our box of Christmas decorations and--yay--my santa cap.


Our lovely sandstone nativity scene:


We also caught up on our Advent calendar readings.


One of the windows in our entryway:


Footprints in the fresh snow outside the front door:


We finally ventured more than a few steps outside this evening. We decided it was finally time to buy a shovel, so we walked the three blocks to the hardware store. On the way back, we stopped at El Guero ("The White Guy"), our local grocery, for some edible supplies.

The light outside was really neat.


Wanderin'.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Lots of Happy Conklins

Here are a few pictures of Emerson and family.

AnnMom (now AnnGram) and Emerson:

BrodyDad, Emerson and Tanya:


All with MargaretGram at the Waterford for Thanksgiving:


We're so excited to meet Emerson in person! Only two more weeks!

Saturday

A group of folks from the Starbucks store where I work, along with a few from other stores, volunteered for a huge Christmas celebration that a local non-profit puts on. We spent several hours helping kids with Christmas crafts, decorating cookies and dancing. Santa was even there! After a fun, but very late, night with Barrett and Megan, it was a bit difficult to get going in the morning, but I was so glad that I made it to this event!

The kids there were so sweet.


HombreArana (SpiderMan):



Skylar and Juan with another little artiste:



Amber (on the right) does the Macarena:



Oscar and Quiana before the rush:


After the event, we headed to Los Comales for some great Mexican food. What a difference it makes to really like your co-workers.


One more picture of the snow:



HC Advent Party

The Holy Covenant Advent Party is one of my favorite church gatherings--and this is only the second one we've been to! There is always much food and merriment and great conversation, but the best part of the evening is singing Advent Songs and Christmas Carols. We all cram into the cozy parsonage living room and sing with vigor--and man are there some amazing singers in this church! It's hard to tell from these pictures, but there were probably over 30 people in the room (and spilling into the hallway). I love Advent.



Saturday, December 01, 2007

First Snow!

Some snow fell a week ago, but today is the first time that anything has stuck. Hello, winter, cold and icy.


Thanksgiving #3

Rose and Robert hosted a big gathering at their place on Friday and it was a feast!


It was great to see Robert's family, who came over from the Grand Rapids area.


Little Justin enjoyed his meal, as usual.


It was also big Justin's 31st birthday:


The clean-up was a team effort:


"Here's how it is, Uncle Eric."


Elijah seemed to never run out of energy:


Mom with the bunny ears...


We have a lot to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving #1 and #2

Thanksgiving #1

Eric cooked up our giant pumpkin in the uber-steamy kitchen and we made pumpkin pie and pumpkin muffins. Mmmm.


On Wednesday night, we had a great Thanksgiving feast at Mary and Amanda's place on the south side. Lots of Holy Covenant folks came by, along with some of Amanda's family. It was great fun.


A few weeks ago, I got a free hair cut from Ricardo at C Salon, a fancy downtown place. Ricardo is a really great stylist and I have already recommended him to lots of folks. And he's a cool person who has come to church with us the past three Sundays and become a new friend!



Thanksgiving #2

Justin and Lil arrived on Thursday and we cooked up a yummy tofurky in sweet potatoes and onions


It had snowed in Chicago two nights before, but there was nothing on the ground until we got to this stretch of I-94 in Michigan. We stopped at a rest stop for a little snowball fight and then, 20 minutes down the road, the snow was gone!


When we got into Lansing, we stopped for some amazing food at Aladdin's, Justin's favorite restaurant from his time at MSU. The Turkish coffee was intense!

Monday, November 19, 2007

New Lil' Conklin

Yay! Emerson Joanne Weitkamp Conklin was born to Mike (Eric's brother) and Tanya on Thursday! She is really beautiful and we are so excited to meet her at Christmastime when we go to Spokane!

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Saturday in the city

Rose, Robert and Justin are visiting this weekend, and we spent a really nice afternoon at Shedd Aquarium. Special thanks to Paul and Kelly (friends of Erin and Matt), who work and volunteer there and shared free passes with us!


Eric watching the dolphins:


The dolphin habitat is in such a beautiful setting.


We hung out for a bit afterward on the lawn. It was a bit chilly, but still a really great fall day!




Waiting for the bus:


We brought some Giordano's deep-dish home and admired Justin's new dinosaur pj's while we dined. So cute.