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