The Yearly Trek

 Friday Jack and I headed out to Chicago for our annual Arends family Christmas gathering.  Jordan stayed home with Annabelle.  Jord got covid the week before and was back to work but still not feeling great.  I was grateful that he took care of Annabelle for us. My sister has a new puppy and I felt that it would be best not to add a 3rd dog to the mix!  We enjoyed seeing sweet Hope and Flynn the pup is doing well with training and getting along with Hope.

Miss Hope turned 3 on Sunday.  She's such a good dog and companion for Midge.

Welcome Flynn!  He's doing great on being house broke and can already sit on command. He's a mini doodle.

Gotta love that face!  We had a good time with family and the annual party was a hit.  There weren't as many family members there this year and we missed seeing them all.  But those that did make it had fun and certainly didn't leave hungry!

Getting the appetizers ready is my niece Amy. Her brother, Bill is keeping a close eye! There's my nephew Patrick who left warm Florida to gather with us.  Luckily we weren't too cold but we did have lots of rain.  Didn't slow us down any!

My niece Katie and her hubby Blake always host as they have the biggest house and she decorates it so pretty and has a couple of trees to bring in the Christmas spirit.

After dinner we gather around the tree to have our white elephant gift exchange.  We don't really give white elephants!  It's just a game where we bring a silly gift that gets exchanged after we choose numbers to see what order we go in.  You don't know what your getting. Sometimes  it's something nice and sometimes it's a clunker!  We all get a good laugh when someone gets a clunker that's been passed along every Christmas.  I got lottery tickets this year!  Of course I had to trade around to score them but all's fair in this game!  Unfortunately, I only won $8 but hey, I'm willing to share!

It can get a bit crazy!

My Great Nephew, Connor, was having fun!

My brother Rick checking out the loot he won.  I think it was good?

I'm not sure Amy liked the popcorn things but her son Parker was good with it.  Soon it was time to put the cap on another family gathering.  I still miss having my Mom and brother Greg there to join in the evening.  They are truly missed this time of year and always. We spent the next day with my sister and had fun and lots of laughs with her.  She's doing well and is getting ready to be able to have her dialysis at home.

Here she is with her Grandkids, Connor and Ella.  Monday morning we packed up and headed for home.  The weather turned colder and that meant snow on the drive back.

If you zoom in you can read the sign warning of snow covered roads and to slow it down.  It was very windy and a little bit of a white out near the snow belt of South Bend, Indiana.

When we hit the Ohio line the sun came out and the snow stopped.  At least for most of the ride.  Closer to home we did have some more snow but made it back safe and sound with good memories and the task of getting the final days before Christmas wrapped up here at the Pines.

Tuesday found us with a little snow on the ground and they had cancelled school.  Seriously? I didn't think it was that bad but I guess we were under a level one snow emergency.  I made it to work just fine and I took this shot after getting Annabelle out for a walk.  She was super happy to have us home!  To end this post I'll show the gift my sister gave me.

It's a "pawjamma" shirt!  Too funny!  Well, the big day will be here soon.  I know many of my blog buddies are ready and waiting and already celebrating.  We've had a really nice December so far.  It's going to be a warmish Christmas here as the temps will be in the 50's by Christmas.  I'm OK with that and it won't stop us from feeling the spirit of this season!