pre-Christmas UP trip

There are still some dishes to be done and put away from last night's dinner, but that's noisy work, and I'd rather Conrad be able to doze some more while I'm awake, up, and sitting in the kitchen. Blogging it is, and it's good to have some luxury of time.

A week ago we were farther north, up in Escanaba. A short trip - my vacation allocations will likely only allow such quick jaunts until I get the new pool of days next summer. At least it's a drivable distance from Chicago, and better still, last weekend we serendipitously avoided the worst of the weather while we were on the road. We left after work on Friday and made it up in good time. Cold, but bare roads. The next morning, however...





I think that was around 7:30 on Saturday morning. I had to blaze a trail on the sidewalks for a bit until it just made more sense to walk on the road over to the coffee shop. While Conrad and his Mom slept in a little, I wrote a bunch of Christmas cards and enjoyed a latte.

After breakfast we set out on one of the main activities we'd planned for the weekend: getting a tree with Conrad's Mom for her apartment.





We'd done this before, heading to a place just outside of town and cutting it down. The overnight snowfall made it a bit more of a slog this time, and it wasn't a sunny day, but we found a handsome tree fairly easily, and in short order we had it tied up, tucked into the back of the car, and were on our way home deeply breathing in the fragrance of the fir.

Karen and Dan came over to help decorate it, a relaxing afternoon of admiring and appreciating the variety of ornaments. Conrad's Mom was really happy with the tree, and that right there made the trip for us. She put out some of the cookies that I'd brought her, and I took photos.



The cookies were a special hell this year, in among how swamped I've been at work and at home, and the night I made them, I had no patience or desire to take photos as well. I'm glad that I got these shots at least because some of them turned out prettily.

Dinner that night was at the Stone House Grill, and we finished the evening with a bit of wine and cookies at Karen and Terry's.

The next morning we had to be on the road again, though not especially early. I got some photos of Conrad with his Mom and the tree,


then it was a quick pop-round to Karen and Terry. Rain was falling on and off, and until Green Bay, it was a wet morning of driving brightened by memories of the weekend that was.