December 29th

The 29th was my birthday and it was a marginal day at best. You know it's going to be a stellar day when you start the day at the DMV. I had never gotten an Illinois license after we moved here four years ago. I rarely drive so it wasn't a huge priority... plus I had severe anxiety over taking the written test. Silly, I know.... but I did. Anyway.... my license was expiring that day so it was now or never. It went really, really well.... sadly, it was probably the high point of my day.

I had promised the kids that I would take them ice skating that afternoon. It sounded like a good idea at the time.... and apparently it sounded like a good idea for most of the people living in the Chicagoland area! The rinks were PACKED!!! We had thought we would give the rink at Millennium Park a try... but it was insanely crowded. We ended up at Daley Bicentennial. It was crowded but we were desperate (Alex was dying to try out his new skates).

I took a little bit of video.... totally not really worth posting... but since this is my Daily December post and I have nothing else... here it is....



Things went down hill here. It was so crowded that Clara, who rarely falls, fell twice (which made her fairly despondent). I decided to wipe off the lens of my flip to clean it and noticed that somehow the lens was cracked in two!! (well... not the actual lens, but the piece that covers it). This made me ill. I have absolutely no clue how it happened, it didn't get dropped, hit or anything... ugh. Then... final straw.... while going back to get on the ice, Clara slipped and fell in the slushy puddle by the rink entrance. She was soaked! We were done. We packed up and went over to Old Navy to buy her some dry pants.

We finally went home and it was so nice to relax for a bit before Alex needed to go to his show. After he was at the theater, Jeff, Clara and I went out to dinner and my day brightened a bit :-) .... but I was still ready to go to bed and put that whole day behind me!