Weekend in Chicago

My friend Tabitha recently turned 40 and a few of us met in Chicago for a weekend in December to celebrate with her! We used to all live in the Chicago area together and all but one has moved away. Tabitha now lives in Las Vegas, Karmen lives in Athens, Georgia, and Sonia still lives in Chicago. It was so fun to be downtown and stop at some of our old favorites.

We stopped and took a touristy photo in front of the Christmas tree at Millennium park. 

The big celebration together was going to see the show Hamilton. Tabitha had been wanting to see it and we all said hey why not it's your big birthday lets do it!  Going into it I knew very little. I had read a quick synopsis online the day before so I at least could follow what was going on. Those acting and rapping & singing in the show were fantastic and so talented!

So great we could all be together and celebrate! And later on in the weekend Tabitha's boyfriend Keith flew in from Las Vegas and proposed to her! We're all looking forward to celebrating with her again later on this year!

Thanksgiving 2017

Once again I'm about a month behind in posting but I'm getting Thanksgiving in here just before Christmas time! Maybe one of my new year's resolutions can be to be a bit more timely with this blog.

We had a great Thanksgiving! We were so glad that Uncle Eric, Aunt Susanne, and Shealy came to visit us from Texas. We were excited to show them our new house and location. We were also excited to show them were Snazzy lives. I thought I had posted about his move but I don't think I ever did that either. The beginning of October Joel and Eric moved Snazzy from Dayton, Ohio up to Milwaukee to be closer to us. We had looked at several assisted living facilities in the area over the summer and finally found one near our new home. Snazzy now lives at Cecelia Place in Pewaukee which is about 15 minutes from us. We are happy the move went smooth and the transition has gone so well! We are so glad Snazzy is closer to us now.

Anyway we had a wonderful Seitz Thanksgiving! It felt different because we were in a new location and we were missing our beloved Gigi. It still seems so surreal that she's no longer with us. However, we were so glad we could all be together and start making some new memories together here in Brookfield.

The Seitz boys have a long standing tradition to cook the turkey on the Weber grill and the weather was actually decent for them to be outside. Here they are prepping the turkey. I think they were stuffing it with lemons, oranges, and garlic along with several other herbs and spices. Fancy! (Thanks Uncle Eric for your special recipe!)

Aunt Susanne and Cora making the homemade stuffing. 

I think Cora was helping to measure some sage and thyme. 

The guys "holding forth" as Joel would say

We did convince them to come inside for a bit and play a game of apples to apples while the turkey was cooking on the grill

Finally it was time to eat!

Like I said we had a great weekend together and were so glad we could all celebrate Thanksgiving with each other! We have so much to be thankful for! It's been a challenging year with lots of changes for everyone yet we remain so grateful for all the blessings the Lord continues to provide us.

A Turkey For Thanksgiving

In November Maya's second grade class did a play called "A Turkey For Thanksgiving."  The story is about how Mr. and Mrs. Moose invite all their animal friends for Thanksgiving dinner and the only one missing is Turkey. When they set out to find him, Turkey is quaking with fear because he doesn't realize that his hosts want him at their table, not on it. It was a super cute play and Maya played the part of Mrs. Moose. She was beyond excited to do the play and had her lines memorized by the second day of practice. She is our little actress and loves all things theatrical. 

Mr. and Mrs. Moose at the Thanksgiving Table

Mrs. Moose waiting for all the animals to come for dinner. 

She set the table and welcomed all the guests.

 The class taking a bow

Maya and some of her friends after the performance.