Ah, December

Sigh. I didn't make a single blog post (well, except on the YABC blog) during the entire month of December. It was a really busy month. So, as Inigo might say..."to sum up...."

On December 1st we went to the Mercer holiday party. I managed to fit into a pre-pregnancy dress (whoo-hoo!) so I didn't have to buy a new one. We went to the Marriott Lincolnshire and had dinner. It was a pretty low-key event, but it was nice to see everyone. Tony even managed to win a $50 Amex gift card.

We also tried a new place (or rather, new to us) called Jacky's Bistro in Evanston. Kind of a mini-celebration (got the galley copy of my book - another whoo-hoo!). Jacky's is a nice little French place with charm and not very many tables. If I was up-to-date on things I'd write bunches more about it (I'm much better if I write up something right away), but I'm sooooo not up-to-date right now. I will say that we liked it, though it was quite a hike from home (I picked Tony up from work, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but still). The service was decent, the food was good, and it is on OpenTable.

The next big event in December was our trip to London. This was my last chance trip before being cut off from long distance travel by the doctor. Sadly, I was sick during pretty much all of it (got bronchitis right before we left), but it was still good to get away. And Tony was working for most of it. But, we did get to see Stonehenge, which is something I've always wanted to see. We had quite the adventure getting there (part of the rail service was down, so a 1.5 hour trip became a 4+ hour trip each way). BTW, we were seriously wind-blown and freezing cold in this picture.

While we were there we also got to hit another top 50 restaurant (this a top 50 in the world, not US, obviously). We went to St. John. So far, I'd have to say it is one of the least fussy of all the "fancy" places we've been. It's located in old smoke house and basically, they just whitewashed the walls. I mean, hey, any place that'll do whole suckling pigs isn't all that fussy. Here's a picture of the head of one unfortunate beast.


It was a good time. We had all kinds of stuff you don't normally find on menus (like roasted marrow bones (which was really, really good) and pig's head fat). The chef believes in "head to tail" eating, which is definitely also Tony's philosophy. The service was friendly and casual and the dining room reminded me more of a down-home cafe than a fancified upperclass place. Great fun.

When we got home, things were pretty quiet for a while. We got quite a bit of snow, off and on. Grace actually braved it one day, though she never actually touched a paw to the stuff. Just sniffed it, going "hey, where'd all the grass go??" Tony even got to try his hand at sledding. Me too, actually. My first time ever. It was fun, but made me realize I seriously need to get some real winter clothes. As in ones that don't just get sopping wet.
And this is Tony's idea of a fun December picture...
Let's see...also in December we went to a caroling & hot chocolate breakfast at Connie's house on December 15th. That was fun, though I was still a bit stuffy, so my singing voice was not at its very best...ha, like it ever is. We also had a little neighborhood get-together with a few neighbors and played games.

Then there was the big family visit, though I'll do another post about that so I can post some more pictures of it.

The only bad news, which in the scheme of things isn't super-bad, is that I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at my last doctor appointment. So, from now until I give birth (though hopefully not long after that) I have to check my sugar 4 times a day and do insulin shots. Well, at least I know now why I was so godawful tired (it's one of the high sugar symptoms). There are some risks for me and the baby, but hopefully everything will turn out okay. I'll be glad to just get through all these doctor appointments.