Baby it’s cold outside…

It sure is a winter wonderland in Chicagoland. It did warm up a bit today. It is now 1 degree Fahrenheit instead of -7 (this is before wind chill is factored in). They say that it is -31 with the wind chill. That’s cold. I did learn a pretty cool fact though…my car registers negative numbers. I never knew it could do that.

Carmella is growing like a weed in the warm summer sun (minus the warm and minus the sun). She is exactly 2 months old today and weighs in at 12 pounds 8 ounces. She is a tall baby too measuring 24 and a quarter inches. Both measurements place her in the 95th percentile.

She had to get her first round of shots today. She wasn’t too happy about it, but she was a trooper. She only cried a little then relaxed and fell asleep shortly after I placed her in her car seat to go home.

There is so much more that I want to blog about, but such little time. In case I don’t get to write more before Wednesday, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

[Ella in her new Christmas outfit that her Auntie Kathy and Uncle Jason got for her. She is so excited her hands and feet are moving like crazy.]

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything on our blog. My computer crashed last week and was off getting fixed for a few days. But it’s back and so am I.

Carmella and I have been busy lately. We spent a cold and snowy day in Chicago two Saturdays ago. Our new, but dear friend, Heidi, her daughter, Hanna and Hanna’s friend, Ruth accompanied us on our outing. We spent most of the day at Macy’s and ate at the Walnut Room where there is a massive Christmas tree in the middle of the dining area. Ella just adores Christmas trees and the lights so it was just perfect. The cheese platter was to die for.

Busy, busy, busy doesn’t even begin to describe Mark’s schedule lately. He amazes me—really! He has done such a good job at balancing work, school, new baby and role of husband. Thankfully he took his finals for this term this past Saturday. What a relief to be on a bit of a break. Monday morning he said, “It feels like I am forgetting something because I don’t have to carry any school materials with me on the train.” Yea!! Freedom for a few weeks.

This week we have guests visiting from out of town, a Christmas party to attend, and Mark is travelling one day (if he doesn’t get snowed in). The last two mornings it has been under 10 degrees—just the beginning of a Chicago winter. The streets are still icy from a rain storm a few days ago and we are expected to get some more snow today. It has put a damper on walks in the park with Ella. I am going to have to become one of those “mall walkers” to improvise.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend. Enjoy.

A Christmas Blessing

Mark and I debated for several days whether to get a real tree or purchase a fake one for our home. Since we will be in Boston for Christmas we knew that a real one would have to be taken down before we left—what fun is that? The last thing I want to do the day before Christmas Eve is to tear decorations off the tree and put the tree on the curb. It’s a sad thought. However, fake trees are extremely expensive and I couldn’t see spending the money.

In the end we decided to go ahead and get a real tree. Thankfully our plans were thwarted by severe weather conditions. The very day we wanted to pick one out God decided to bring on the rain, sleet and eventually dump several inches of snow on Chicagoland. Needless to say, it was a little too cold and wet to go Christmas tree shopping that day.

Well, it was a good thing we decided to wait on getting the tree…The very next day our neighbor mentioned that he wanted to get rid of their tree. He said that they had it in the garage and we could have it if we wanted it. That very night Bill (our neighbor) brought it to the house and I unpacked it immediately. It took me all night to fluff out all of the branches, but when I finished I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. We now have a nine foot tree standing in our living room. What a wonderful Christmas present. God is so cool.

Carmella is just fascinated with all the lights. I place her on her little play mat and she just stares up at the tree as happy as can be.