November, including early Christmas!

We had a very fall here in Wisconsin this year, and our warm weather lasted into November. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we went to Retzer Nature Center for a walk/hike.  I was quite warm in my long-sleeved t-shirt, but Bob seemed quite comfortable in his sweatshirt. :)

The walking stick is only a prop for the picture.

November 11 was Grandparent's Day at Jeremiah's school, Unity Christian in Fulton, IL.  They combine it with a Veteran's Day celebration, and they started the morning with a very nice program honoring grandparents and veterans. After a recess break we were able to spend some time in Jeremiah's class.  That was fun, and we can understand why he loves school and loves his teacher!!  School was dismissed at noon and we all went to have lunch at Pizza Ranch.  It was definitely the place to be!! 

The only picture I got was at Pizza Ranch.

And a couple pictures of  Hope from that visit. 

On the 16th we had one of our "Field Trips" with Roger and Sheryl.  We went to the historic Prairie Avenue area in Chicago.  We toured the Glessner House (think mansion) and the Clark House, and then toured 2nd Presbyterian Church.  We had a very good docent at the church, and we learned a lot about the beautiful stained glass windows in the church.  Unfortunately my phone ran out of storage space after the picture of the exterior of the church. 

Glessner House, taken from the back courtyard area

2nd Presbyterian Church

The Midwest kids all came to Brookfield for Thanksgiving this year, and we also celebrated Christmas that day. The Wissinks and Okuleys arrived on Wednesday, in time to have dinner at Portillo's.  I had baked my pie earlier that day, but I had not made the pie crust cookies.  Jeremiah was happy to help with those that evening. 

We had a very small window of time to get all our celebrations in, because Ben was only here for Thanksgiving Day. After church, while dinner was cooking, we did our gift-opening.  We Facetimed with Matt and Cheryl's family while we opened gifts. They had some gifts from all of us to open as well, so we watched each other open gifts.  I didn't do a great job of taking pictures, I'm afraid. :( 

After presents were opened, we had dinner. Then it was nap time for Hope (and a few others) and Jeremiah had a chance to check out some of his new toys.

Later in the afternoon we went over to Brassers and had dessert and lots of visiting  with Lew, JoAnne, Jane and Steve.  We also had Jane take a picture of all of us wearing our "Wiers Warriors" shirts to show our support for Cheryl in her fight against lymphoma. (When we posted our picture on Facebook later that evening, we saw that the Vanderkamp family in Michigan had the same idea!)

The littlest Wiers Warrior really had fun

with Aunt JoAnne's pounding board! 

Friday morning we had butterhorns and did stockings.  And then it was Cedarburg for the ladies, with lunch at Cream and Crepe and of course a stop at Amy's Candies. The guys (and Hope) had access to all the leftovers while we were having lunch in Cedarburg.  So for dinner we did our traditional appetizers, since we hadn't really had our usual Christmas Eve. Jeremiah and Hope had a little movie party that evening. 

Saturday we introduced the Wissinks and Okuleys to a new favorite spot of ours--Rocket Baby Bakery.  Just writing about this now makes me want to go there as soon as possible for one of their scones. 

Saturday afternoon was movie date time for the Wissinks and Okuleys while Grandma and Grandpa babysat.  And then Abby and Neil made their yummy home-made pizzas for dinner, with a little help from Jeremiah.

If it's Sunday morning, there will be pancakes at the Wiers house.  And Hope seems to be in favor of that tradition!

After everyone had their fill of pancakes, they all packed up and left for home. The house on Evergreen Court was very quiet after that. :( 

I was glad that I had something fun to look forward to the next week.  Phyl and I were long overdue for a get-together, and we met at Chicago Botanic Garden on the 29th. We started out with a lengthy chat over coffee and a pastry.  Then we did some walking around in the indoor exhibits. 

The poinsettias were gorgeous!

There was a miniature train exhibit that we were going to skip, but we were encouraged by some other people to check it out. So we did, and were we ever glad!  It was amazing!!

It was a huge lay-out with miniatures of 

many Chicago landmarks...

...like Wrigley Field (notice the W)...

...and the Chicago skyline.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the Garden Cafe there, and then ended up in the gift shop, where we found someone to take our picture.

It was a wonderful day with a wonderful friend!!  We agreed that we must not let so much time go by between our meetings.