Happy New Year!!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year to "all in the family".  We hope you are enjoying the celebration leading to the countdown at midnight.  And we wish safe travels to all that will be traveling to return home this weekend.  Looks like alot of snow coming to Niles and possibly Chicago, so we hope the road crews work weekends there.  Luckily for us, we only have a relatively short drive to Pokagon tomorrow and the forecast is for snow, but not much accumulation.

Cheers!

Love to all,

Connie and Charlie

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of our family.  May it bring all the miracles we are hoping for.  May God watch over Eric, Vicki and Nina as they are far away from home.  We love you all and wish you a very blest Christmas.  Here is a ghost of Christmas past:

Ghost of Christmas Present...

And, of course, Ghost of Christmas Future...

Merry Christmas to you all.  Lots of love from Don & Pat

Fun at Grandma's House

We've all had a lot of fun so far at Grandma's house.  The weather has been very conducive to playing outside so we've taken advantage of it.  The Georgia clan has especially enjoyed the snow.  Here are some pictures of our first snow adventure this week.

Once we were done playing outside and after bathtime, the kids gathered round for a story or two with Grandma.

On Sunday morning, the Froehlichs got ready for church and then the rest of us began to decorate for Princess Marina's birthday party.  I'll let you guess who was leading the decorating committee!

After the decorating was completed, we decided to go outside and play in the snow again.  This time, we got a toboggan ride behind the tractor!

Once the Froehlich's returned from church, it was time for the princesses to dress for the party!

And one very special little princess had a great time!

We can't wait to see what the rest of the week will bring.  I know that four little monkeys are anxiously awaiting Santa Claus.  We'll post more about our adventures later!

Chef Matthew's Menu

Don sent this for review so I'm posting the menu from Matt's restaurant below. 

From Don's post sounds like we definitely need to test it for ourselves!

The long-awaited Rosewood Grill is finally OPEN! WOO HOO!

Greetings Dear Family,

Pat and I, along with her boss Wayne and his wife Kim, attended the "opening night" of the Rosewood Grill in Hudson, Ohio. Actually, as Matt called it, "the Friends and Family Soft Opening."

 There was a limited menu for this night, a choice of 4 set meals, so we all got something different and shared. The 4 appitizers consisted of Stacked Shrimp, which was nice size cocktail shrimp stacked up around a green onion atop shrimp sauce, Mediterranean flatbread pizza, a sliced flatbread served with a tomato-pepper sauce with goat cheese that I forget the name of and finally Matt's famous butternut squash bisque. For dinner ,Pat got the French dip sandwich with fresh-cut fries, Wayne had the salmon entree with grilled asparagus and mashed potatoes, Kim had the fish sandwich also with the F-C fries and I had a steak with some very yummy cauliflower au gratin and also grilled asparagus. We followed suite and shared as we did with the appitizers. We topped it off by sharing some cheesecake and pineapple upside down cake. I believe all would agree that the food was very good and, personally, I'd say Matt hit a homerun with his menu and I can't wait to go back when the entire menu is available.

Below is a shot of the bar area that overlooks the kitchen and this was where our table was located.

Here we have a couple shots of the CHEF directing the action in the kitchen. 

Here is is conversing with one of the roaming "Bigwigs"

Diana said the construction guys finally finished the tile floor at about 4:50 this afternoon. Nothing like cutting it close and I'm sure that there'll be some other kinks to work out, as well. All in all, though,we had a great time and we'd like to say, "good job Matt and we're really proud of what you've accomplished! You've undoubtedly got a winner!"

Blessings to All,

D&P

Princess Joins Eaton Team

Belmond, IA (AP):

The youngest employee just announced at the Eaton Engine Air Manufacturing Operations plant in Belmond, IA.  In a stunning move, the management team chose to name a princess to the staff at the plant.  Caitlin Anderson, whose princess credentials follow, is pictured below with her new co-workers.  While the new employee was unavailable for comment, her father chose to talk to this reporter.  "While I always knew that she was destined for greatness, I never would have thought she would have acheived so much so quickly," said Bryan Anderson, 35 of Garner, IA.  While there have been reports of suspected nepotism seeing that the Princess's mother is the plant controller, this reporter has been unable to verify those heinous claims.

Princess Caitlin's role in the plant is still being formulated, but the members of the leadership team in the Belmond plant are looking forward to working with the princess.  Princess Caitlin follows the family line at Eaton Corporation as her grandfather is a recent retiree from the Automotive Division and her uncle Mike is currently serving as engineering manager in Athens, GA.  Her father and aunt Kristen also had brief roles as summer workers back in 1995.  The family is looking forward to seeing her accomplishments with the company that has served the family so well for so many years.

Happy Birthday Debbi!!

We almost missed this, but Connie remembered tonight after dinner.  Hope you had a special day and that you didn't lose any "jumpers" today!

How many candles on that cake?  54, I believe......

Love,

Charlie and Connie

Is this Iowa?

To paraphrase a line from Field of Dreams, no, this is Michigan.  Although we didn't have the extremes that the Andersons experienced in Iowa, we did get about 6" of snow overnight and the wind has been blowing steadily.  Add to that temperatures in the teens, now below 10 degrees, and it's our first winter slap in the face from Mother Nature.  It created alot of work and some pretty landscapes.

With the concrete driveway I decided to try to use the snow blower to clear the entire drive, since it was very cold and the snow was light and fluffy.  Well, it did about 75% of the job, then I had to finish with the shovel.  That POS snow blower is just not going to cut it here.  I suspect it will be replaced soon!  Connie tells me that it's supposed to thaw again within a couple of days.  WooooHoooo!  We'll try to have some fresh snow for our southern visitors, but in Michigan, there are no guarantees.

Love to all!

So, you wanted to play in the snow

After a wonderful November with record highs and no snow for miles around, Old Man Winter decided to arrive in Iowa yesterday.  He greeted the midwest faithful with 6"-15" of snow, 40+ mph winds, 6'-19' snow drifts, and -15 degree wind chills. Once the winds die down, we're left with the task of digging out of the snow.  Here are some shots as of 11 am today.

Picture taken from my garage showing the small drift in my driveway out to the neighbor's house.

This is a shot of my neighbor across the street.  The snow drift is half way up their garage door.

This is my next door neighbor.  Their garage door is clear, but they have to move a 4' drift off their driveway.

This is another shot of the drift preventing my neighbors from getting out.

Mike and Kristen, I know you like the winter and the kids love the snow, but I'd trade you anytime!!  I'll take the 100 degree heat over 40 mph winds, -15 wind chill and 4' snow drifts!!  Nevermind the fact that the roads are not passable, and if you go outside, you really can't see. Winter, BAH HUMBUG!!!!

I hope everyone is doing well.  Happy birthday Diana and with good luck we'll be dug out of this mess before Christmas. :)

Happy Birthday Diana!

Diana,

Best wishes for a fun and memorable birthday.  The coming year will certainly be memorable for you!

Love,

Connie and Charlie

Birthday pictures

Hey guys!  Thanks to all of you who sent cards and gifts, e-mails and phone calls for Marina's birthday today!  She had a great day!  She loved her horseback riding lesson and of course couldn't wait to dive into the gifts and cake! 

We can't wait to see many of you in a few weeks!  Vicki...enjoy your trip to Germany!  Please tell your family "hi" from us!

Love,
MKMAX

Announcing

Our newest member to the family:
Luke Forest Zarob  10lbs 1oz
proud parents Ang and Tom
proud grandparents Jeff and Cindy

Talked to Jeff this afternoon They were on the way to the hospital
They were so excited. He said they will send pictures soon

Deb

Happy Birthday Marina!!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you........


Enjoy your birthday, Big Girl, and especially your visit to the horse farm. We can't wait to hear about all the fun you have celebrating your 7th birthday. Wish we could be there to enjoy it with you, but we will have to wait until you visit us before Christmas and have a big party then.

We love you!!

Grandma and Grandpa

Proud

She's beautiful, she's talented and she did a GREAT job at her recital today!  Oh, and she makes us proud!  :O) 

Love,
Kristen

My Black Friday

I had decided that I wanted to have the experience of shopping on Black Friday at 5:00am with all of the other ‘bargain shoppers’ out there, so off I went. I was going to start at Target, but it was obvious that I wasn’t even going to be physically able to get to Target, so I crossed that one off my list. Next on my list was the local mall. There I got a parking spot right next to the door, picked out some items, and checked out quickly. It was 5:30am by now so I stopped for breakfast, and amused myself by listening to the stories about the brawls that broke out across the street at Walmart. I was feeling pretty confident by now so I decided to attempt a stop at Kohl’s. Found some things I absolutely had to have, so I stood in the check-out line for 35 minutes. All in all a good day, and by 7:30am I was home and ready to start the rest of my day.

We spent the rest of the day decorating the house and getting it ready to welcome some of you in a few weeks. Today we attended the Mannheim Steamroller concert and the two activities have put us in the Christmas spirit.

While we were in Iowa we helped Stephanie and Caitlin decorate their Christmas tree. Caitlin did a great job of distributing the ornaments evenly around the tree. She is just a little short to reach the top. We’ll be able to gauge her height each year by how far up she can decorate the tree.

Enjoy the Holiday Season.
Love to All,
Connie

Black Friday In Belmond

Happy Black Friday all!!!  We hope everyone had a safe day as they navigated their way to the stores.  I know we had the least amount of population and traffic to navigate of those who chose to shop today and we took full advantage of the situation.  We managed to work our way through Best Buy, Kohl's, Target, and even the Goodnature Store before returning home this afternoon.  Then we made our way to Belmond for the annual Thanksgiving Parade and opening of the Santa House.  We used our heads this year and procured a prime spot on the parade route right in front of the Santa House.  So, this year we only waited about 10 min for our turn in the house as opposed to over an hour last year. :)

We hope everyone is having a great weekend and we'll see everyone in 3 weeks!!  :O

Here are some pictures of our snuggle bun warming up to her favorite man in Red.

Happy Black Friday and we'll see you soon!!

Love, Bryan Stephanie and Caitlin!