December 16th

 When you're a child and your birthday falls on a Friday, chances are very high that your family will be celebrating it on the weekend that follows. And if the birthday is of a certain little Chicago girl and if she is turning two, chances are very high that I will be there for that celebration.

Early this morning, after the usual...

... I get in Alpine Blue and drive to Chicago. December is a good time for me to do a "road trip" because I can have my fill of bouncy, jazzy, and sentimentally old fashioned Christmas music while I'm driving. Sometimes I sing along, but mostly, I just smile at the mood this creates for me. True, there isn't a dusting of snow, just pounding rain, but still -- I jingle all the way to the big city.

(and the windshield wipers go whoosh whoosh whoosh...)

And by late morning I'm at the Chicago home of the younger family. 

Birthday celebrations aren't until tomorrow. Today, there's just the joy of seeing their Christmas tree, their holiday home, the girls of course, and as an extra treat -- a meetup with a good east coast friend of my daughter's -- a fantastically witty, funny, caring woman whom I last had lunch with when my girl was still in law school. She's visiting the young family and for this lunch, today, she has prepared platefuls of latkes!

(girls at play)

(a moment of quiet...)

(lunch!)

(the household empties out for a Primrose recital; I stay with Juniper...)

That's not the end of good eating: after the recital, and the nap of the little one, and all the predictable and wonderful elements of this visit, my daughter's friend turns to making paczki. It's Hannukah (though really, a day past it), it's Poland, it's fried dough balls for goodness sake! Stuffed with blackberry jam.

(pause while the dough rises...)

(voila!)

Evening. The kids have their bedtimes, their dad tucks them in and keeps an eye on them while my daughter, her friend and I go out for a dinner at Daisies. A very beloved Chicago eatery that has caught the attention of many. Wonderful, creative appetizers, sublime pasta dishes...

And importantly, I get to jump into my daughter's world, where family isn't the common denominator. It's a whole new perspective for me -- a younger one, but not so young as to put me on a totally different planet. And as always when I am with my daughters' friends -- it is hugely fun. Both girls know how to pick friends who make you smile, no, make that outright laugh.

I'm overnighting at the nearby hotel because their house is full and will be even fuller tomorrow.

Sleep. I need some sleep before tomorrow's celebrations! But it is so good to be here in this tumult of family, friendship and radiant faces of two little girls! I stay up just thinking about it all...

With so much love...