Massage - Trip North - Lego Sets - Dinner

Aurora, IL  (Hi  31  Lo 28)

My monthly massage and chiropractor appointment was Monday.  I'm getting over a bad cold and was afraid I wouldn't be able to go, but I did. I hate this weather up north. I haven't had a cold since we went fulltime in 2010 and lived in Florida in the winters. I'll probably have a cold every winter while living up here. 

Tuesday I started my week  trip to Aurora, IL (took five trips to the car to load it)

Click the photos to enlarge. 

Travel time took four and half hours north to see Rick, our youngest son. We planned for a weeks visit and over Thanksgiving. It's less likely to have bad weather then it would be for Christmas. I haven't seen him since 1995 for any Thanksgiving or Christmas. I arrived about 2:30 so I beat the darkness. I followed the GPS and didn't make one wrong turn. That's a first for me, I usually make a wrong turn or something happens I'm in the wrong lane to make a turn. I'm very proud to make it perfectly. 

I brought along my R2D2 Lego set that Jim bought me for my birthday. I haven't put it together yet, because I knew I'd need some help. Rick has put together over 20 Lego sets and is quite experienced. 

What the finished set will look like. 

 The back had two trigger areas you push in and the next picture show the guns and area on top opens up. 

The top opens up guns come out, the legs come up and down, it moves sideways. 

Notice the middle leg is almost hidden and everything is closed up when it just sits. Genius way of building it. I love Lego's and their ingenuity. 

Here's Rick's Lego sets. 

This looks just like Nintendo set and has a disk in the inside. 

A TV that turns the knob and Mario jumps and moves across the screen with different background. 

Tuesday Rick worked most of the day which he's done since Covid started. We went to Tammy's,  Ricks girlfriend,  and then out to dinner at Meson Sabika. What a place!  The dishes are real little but you get a bunch of them. The menu is long and very impressive how they make them so delicious. My favorite is the salmon wrapped around creme cheese. 

I think we had 10 little dishes to share before the end. I can't name all this but thought I'd show a picture. 

Wednesday we got groceries for the Thanksgiving meal. We worked on the Lego set and then went back to Tammy's for dinner. I made chicken and noodle casserole.  We visited awhile then back to Rick's. 

Thursday morning we went to Tammy's about 9:30. We cooked most of the day. The turkey was 17lbs and not totally thawed out even though it was in the refrigerator since Monday. We baked that thing five hours and still wasn't totally done, but good enough to eat by 5:30. Tammy made a Polish dressing, which was wonderful, Brussel sprouts, 7 layer salad (awesome), mash potatoes, and rolls. Rick made peanut butter cookies and deviled eggs. I brought pecan pie and sweet potato casserole from Eckerds in Belleville. They're a great place to get holiday foods. 

Before and after. 

 Tammy and Rick

Food all laid out. 

There was a booboo getting the turkey ready. Rick was cutting the turkey and slit the tin pan it was in. The juices ran down on the floor and inside the stove. It was a mess!  Tammy grabbed a cookie sheet to put the turkey pan in it. It took awhile to clean it up after we ate. Now the stove doesn't work and it's a gas stove, so Tammy will have that checked out. 

The final plate of everything. 

Nice setting and perfect meal.  Thanksgiving wasn't the same without Jim, but we had a drink in his honor and kept him with us in spirit. 

Friday Rick and I went out for breakfast at a tiny "hole in the wall" that had great food and a lot of it. 

We worked on the R2D2 then Rick picked up Tammy for the hockey game. I worked on several computer projects I needed to get done. 

I have to add something that Tammy has done with Christmas trees. She has seven in the house but five of them are Star War Themes. How do you find a brown tree?  You look for it till you find one. I love Yoda. 

I notice I look very very old compared to our grandson Jack. I noticed putting the Lego set together I don't have agile fingers anymore either. 

When they got home from the game we started decorating the trees. I hope to get pictures for you next week's blog. The rest of the weekend is hectic and I'll have something for you all about our time in Chicago. Stay tuned!