Sat. with Santa

Sat. in Old Town St. Charles was so much fun: I got to hang out with St. Nick and a bunch of our friends from our old Hazelwood Central teaching days! We were so excited to see so many people show up for the happy hour and had such a good time getting caught up with everyone. DeeDee and I had lunch the day before and had done some major shopping but does one ever get enough? Ah, no. I managed to drag poor E into a couple of our favorite stores: Figuaro's (a specialty coffee shop where we bought lovelies like Chocolate Raspberry and Macadamia nut supreme) and the Flower Peddler where we bought one of our vintage hand blown and painted Santa ornaments and a holiday Kerr plate.

The only down side of the day was that my dad had some problems with his pace maker and what may have been some food poisoning and was in the hospital for tests so we didn't get to meet up for our yearly "I buy you a beer, you buy me one" get together. He was home that evening and doing fine.

Sat. night we ate with our friends, Nick and Kay and Steve and Dee Dee at Rizzo's, an Italian restaurant favorite of ours...had the veal picata and it was to die for.

I'll give a sneak preview of Sunday's fun: the Chihuly exhibit at the Botanical Garden. Amazing!
I could have stayed all day but poor E has thrown his back out and the muscle relaxers were not kicking in very well at all. Brave man put in about two hours total at the Chihuly, the poinsetta and the miniature train exhibits before his smile became more and more strained.

We are home now and I hope to get him into the hot tub a bunch over the next few days! He also has a head cold which has not helped...poor fella. More Chihuly tomorrow plus some of the poinsettas and the miniature train show! Then...the Our Lady of the Snows lights!!