Out to lunch..

David , Leslie, and the family are in town from Oklahoma so we met up with them for lunch on Tuesday

Here are Chris and Kellie,David, Pat, and Dick looking over the menu.

And here are Bob, (making a goofy face) Leslie, and Katie.

I ordered a beautiful and yummy walnut raspberry salad that was very tasty. We had a really nice visit. It's always fun seeing the Bykowski "clan."

It's A Wonderful Life.

Sunday evening we braved the frigid sub-zero temperatures and went to see "It's A Wonderful Life" at the Sunset Playhouse.


If we didn't have tickets we never would have gone, but it turned out to be a very enjoyable show.

Even though we have all seen this movie on TV a hundred times, it still is fun to see George Bailey and his wife, Mary, live on stage, along with the rest of the residents of Bedford Falls.

meanwhile..back in Wisconsin...

This is what we woke up to this morning. It seems like it just hasn't stopped snowing in days!

Here is Bob having the time of his life..snow blowing!

The entire city is pretty much shut down at least for the morning.

We just heard another snowfall is expected tomorrow. How much you ask? Does it matter??

Shaelin doing what he likes best.

Shaelin was over for a few hours on Sunday and he was in the mood to make a little music.


Here he is counting to ten "to get the beat!"

He really likes playing the drums. Wonder where he gets it from???

Saturday at home chopping ice

Because we have been having so much snow and temperatures that are low one day and higher the next, we built up a large amount of ice in our rain gutters.


So here is Bob chopping away at some of the ice.

This is a small portion of the huge amount of ice he managed to get out the gutters! It seems to be an endless task.

Holiday party with the neighbors

Saturday night we were invited over to our friends, Bob & Judy. Another friend, Bernie, is in the middle.

There was lots of good conversation...

And of course..food-glorious-food.

And..more food! I guess that what holiday parties are all about.

A Dickens of a Christmas

Friday evening we bundled up and visited the historic village of Greendale for their holiday celebration. A lot of time and work goes into this every year. Just strolling through the streets and visiting their unique shops was fun.

This is their Village Hall beautifully displayed in holiday lights

Many choral groups as well as bell ringers performed in fitting attire

The children got to visit Santa and have their picture taken with him

There were horse-drawn carriage rides and tractor-drawn hayrides

I thought this little guy was so cute. If you noticed, he ordered a huge ice cream sundae and to go along with it...a cup of steamy hot chocolate!

Evening with Neil.

Thanks to Kim, Brian, Mike, & Kristine, we were lucky enough to have floor seats at the Bradley Center Monday to hear Neil Diamond in concert. They bought us tickets for our anniversary.


We almost had our camera taken away twice so we really didn't have time to focus or aim.

He indeed looked quite fine for a man of 67!

It was a great show with great seats. Thanks, family!

First snowfall of the season.

Woke up this morning to a nearly 4 inch snowfall. It's amazing how quickly our autumnal environment changed to a winter wonderland! I went out to our yard and snapped away..

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Friday night at the game.

Friday night four of us decided to go to a Bucks game. They were playing the NY Knicks so we figured it would be a good game...and that it was.


The half-time entertainment turned out to be almost more fun to watch than the game! This woman was from San Francisco and managed to balance 20 bowls on her head after flipping them off her foot and riding a unicycle all at the same time. She was amazing!

This 'guy' rides on a blimp and while hovering the crowd, drops t-shirts and gifts to the lucky fans who can catch them.

After four quarters of watching all the goings on, the Bucks did declare a victory! It was really an entertaining evening!

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Terry Fator & Friends

We were fortunate enough to get tickets to a sell-out crowd in Waukegan's Genesee Theatre on Saturday night to see Terry Fator.


The winner of 2007 "America's Got Talent," he isn't your average ventriloquist. Terry Fator has an incredible voice, is very funny, and does impersonations of many celebrities. He does all this while having the ability to mimic famous singers.

He pretty much blew the audience away with his amazing talent!

Terry Fator has indeed created a new genre of ventriloquism.

He is headlining in Vegas on Feb. 14th. Guess who wants to see his opening night performance?

Brunch at Mike & Kristine

Sunday afternoon we were invited to Mike and Kristine's place for a lovely brunch. Got an official tour of their place and couldn't resist taking a picture of just a "fraction" of Mike's bobble head collection!

Here is Mike with his favorite feline friend, Tiger.

It was so nice visiting with Kristine's parents. It's been a long time since we've seen them. It was a really relaxing afternoon. Good eats and good conversation!

The Lucky Strikes

Our friends, Jim & Kathi talked us into joining a couples bowling league after 20 years of being away from the sport. Kathi didn't have a bowling ball of her own so I searched and found this one in the basement. If you look real close you can see that the name on it is KIM. Yes, this was Kim's ball used in 1982 when she was in a junior league! She only needed to have the holes drilled a bit and now she uses it with no problem!


Here Kathi is getting ready to roll! She decided to keep the name on. So she goes by Kim at the alleys!

Getting ready for Winter

This past week has been a series of spectacular weather! After getting in a round of golf on Monday and Tuesday, we finished cleaning up the yard and getting it ready fpr Winter. I spotted this guy hoarding his corn thinking he is going to remember where he buried it.




Our yard is filled with ornamental grasses which now are filled with brilliant color. Fall is truly my favorite season!

Pictionary party.

Saturday night we hosted a Pictionary party inviting ten of our friends. The game always manages to bring on lots of laughs.

Here is our friend, Jim, trying to get a point across to someone..anyone!

And then there is Bob. He doesn't understand that he only has One Minute to draw his word.

This is Jim's team looking totally perplexed on the Jim's "thoughts on paper." The evening brought on plenty of giggles and all seemed to have a good time.

Trick or Treat Sunday

Even though the temperature was in the low 40's, the ghosts and goblins were out for trick or treat this afternoon.
Here are just a few walking the streets

This gruesome character was hanging around our house for the longest time!

Finally, here is the 'master of the house' in his finery scaring half of the trick or treaters from even coming up to our door!