Christmas 2009

Christmas was a wee-bit quiet this year: poor Larry developed bronchitis, which you know is something, because he never gets colds! On top of that the Chicago-area, in particular, Crystal Lake, got hit yet again with snow and ice. So we ended up missing the annual festivities at Brett and Carol’s and at Mom and Dad’s.

We improvised and had a lovely little celebration with Jack the Cat at home: opening our presents and watching It’s a Wonderful Life (albeit, with an obscene amount of commercials), having wine, cheese and snacks and avoiding the cold and snow.

Since we always do something for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the cupboards were bare – not really a situation you want to be in on Christmas – you want the day to be special and all the stores are closed – so you are out of luck if you did not prepare ahead of time. Luckily Brett gave Mom and Dad leftovers of the Christmas Eve feast for Larry and me - a lobster stew and mussels – my favorite! The meal was fabulous (thanks Brett!) and we ended up having a very nice Christmas, feast and all!

We, of course, missed being there for the Vassallo Christmas, celebrating when you are under the weather is never fun and the snow continuing to fall (read “dump”) made the staying at home the logical choice.

On Saturday, December 26th, we did manage to get out for a couple of hours for the May Family Christmas. The snow kept coming, ALL DAY, which made for an interesting ride to and from the party – we were just slip, sliding away.

That evening, although the snow accumulation made it look suspiciously like a blizzard, we did manage to see Scott and Gwen (who were in from NJ) for our annual holiday get together. We opted to stay local for dinner and opted for Cucina Bella Due. (www.cucinabellaalgonquin.com/) in downtown Crystal Lake. We’ve actually been there before with Scott and thought we’d try it again – it’s pretty good – but I think Larry and I are partial to Mia Francesca’s (www.miafrancesca.com) in Dundee – which is just plain YUM! But I digress…

Anyway, the restaurant was nicely decorated for the holidays and the food and wine hit he spot, but due to the weather (read “ridiculous accumulation of snowfall”) it was just our group of 4 and one there group. I initially thought this would put a slight damper on our evening, but not with us! We get to chatting and all hell breaks loose! Honestly, we could be hanging out at a 7-Eleven with Scott and Gwen and still gave a great time, but having wine and good food to boot doesn’t hurt!