by Joe Doyle on December 25, 2008
Travel makes you wise
Presents bring you much joy
Love is all you need
Christmas Eve as a kid was filled with lots of family running about, too much food and Bailey’s on the rocks. Christmas Day was loads of presents and the most relaxing day of the year.
While the holidays always bring about sweet memories of traditions old, I love the new ones my family creates. The kids have their cousins and the terrain has no snow. As we make our future together, I hope that their memories are just as wonderful as mine.
From my family to you and yours – love, peace and Merry Christmas.
by Joe Doyle on November 5, 2008
We hope your day is filled with fun and frivolity. Kinda hard to do at work, but you should.
Presents and treats await you this evening.
Much love -
The Fam.
Stacey blows out a marshmallow at Cousin Dave and Anne’s place en route to making smores. And now she curses me.
by Joe Doyle on October 14, 2008
If you ever hear of a friend traveling with a toddler, have compassion. Toddlers are assertive. Always on the go, they hate the word “no”. They can’t talk, but they want to. They are frustrated. The like to explore. They test your boundaries on purpose, just to get a laugh.
It’s a tough gig for one, double crazy for two. Luckily for us our friends and family – everyone rolled out the welcome mat and took control to make sure we had all the necessities and more (thank you thank you thank you).
Still, it was maniacal at times. Katie was sick from motion in the van and on the plane. PJ didn’t want to sleep in his tent. We went from care-taking 25% of the waking day, to 100%. Man was it cruel.
If I’m sounding like we had zero fun, I apologize. Nothing is farther from the truth. We saw old friends and our family got to meet the rest of our families. There was a spa day for Stacey, I was pulled around Palos by Paolo (thanks again for the bike!), Rachel and Ken. We even had 16 people for dinner in Greek Town on the last night.
The trip north reminded us of how much we love tall trees and fertile soil, and miss our friends and family. We’ll do it again soon – maybe when the kids are five or so.
Pictures from the trip are found here.
Here are some highlights:
Sun rise over the pond in Galena, IL.
Aunt Betty plays with the kids.
Katie chasing Aunt Kelly's cats.
PJ and Grandma Jean learnin'.
Katie on the slide at Little John Lake.
PJ and Grandpa Joe at Cloud Gate (The Bean).
Doyle cousins computing.
