We have our hot water back with no damage as far as we can see. After a few stressful days, we are finally out of hot water. Or should I say we are in hot water?

Who ever thought that a sight so boring could be so exciting?

Monday there was a wind chill weather advisory. They expected (with the wind chill) the temperature could be up to -45°. The weather people said it was the coldest day Chicago has experienced in 30 years. That you could get frost bite just by spending more than 5 minutes outside.

They are calling it “Chiberia”on social media. There is also a bunch of idiots throwing pots of boiling water in the air to watch it freeze but accidentally scalding themselves. I almost lemminged myself into doing that, thank god I was too lazy to try it!

Adam’s office was closed. The Chicago Public School system was closed. Many businesses shut down as well. We weren’t snowed in, we were cold in.

We thought it was funny. We were happy for a few extra days of holiday. We had no idea what would happen on Tuesday.

Monday we pretty much spend the entire day indoors. It kind of felt like we got a second Christmas. Not the kind of Christmas most people have. Not the Christmas where you stay up late the night before setting up, then wake up early opening presents. Not the day where you blow your diet and stuff yourself and end up in a food coma on someone else’s couch.

Us Jews generally have a low key day with whoever they are living with, maybe go see a movie, then order in Chinese. Since I married Adam and gave up all the awkward gifting moments, overeating and exhaustion, Christmas has become one of my favorite days of the year! A real day off, one without any obligations. A day where you can feel guilt free about sitting around in your pajamas all day.

I know they advised staying indoors, but I had to feel this weather for myself, firsthand.

Adam challenged me to stand outside for 3 minutes. I lasted 2 minutes and 30 seconds. If my friend Heather in Alaska is reading this, I’m sure she is making fun of me right now.

It was like a ghost town out there, but with my full head wool ski mask on it was almost bearable. With this thing on I could have robbed a bank, if any were open that is.

With it off I felt like I was breathing in icicles. Painful.

In the end it was the everyday gloves that did me in. I needed my heavy duty ski ones to make it that extra 30 seconds.

We ain’t in Florida anymore, Dorothy.

We kept ourselves busy. With so many people around there is always something to do. But staying in all day and knowing it tends to change the pace of things. It was nice to have extra time to google chocolate bubble gum, spend time tickling the kids, and saying yes to any games instead of “I’m too busy”.

The kids made their own games up all day…

Ben’s naked “jump festival” (his words)

Luckily I wasn’t asked to jump around in my underwear on the bed too. I think I’d have to draw the line on that one.

Adam read lots of Harry Potter to Jack. We cooked whatever was left in the fridge. We spent way to much time with electronic things.

The older boys entertain the younger ones.

The next day school and Adam’s office were closed again.

Then it happened. We discovered that our pipes froze.

And worse, we discovered our rental unit’s pipes froze. The rental unit directly above our unit.

Adam was able to use my blow dryer to unfreeze upstairs, but no luck downstairs. So now we are all praying that the frozen water didn’t expand and make a hole in the pipe. That it won’t leak when it defrosts. If it does, it could soak our house and cost A LOT of damage.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Yesterday afternoon, despite the severe weather advisory, we bundled the kids up, packed them into the car and braved the icy, snowy highway to visit the Chicago Botanical Gardens.

The name is deceptive, as the Chicago Botanical Gardens are actually located outside of Chicago in a suburb called Glencoe. It’s about 25 miles north of the city.

We had promised Jack that we would take him to see the Wonderland Express. Sunday was the last day.

I must admit I was apprehensive about traveling on dodgy roads and carting the kids around in 10° weather, but Adam talked me into it.

When it’s this cold you run when you are outdoors!

I’m so glad he did!

We practically had the place to ourselves! With so many kids to watch, being able to let them run around and see them at all times is the difference between a stressful outing and a fun one.

They have a scavenger hunt for the kids that the older boys loved. When you complete it you get a free hot cocoa.

The exhibit is quite impressive. All the buildings depicted are made from natural materials. Most of the buildings are replicas of ones in Chicago.

In the picture above you can see many famous buildings including the Marina City AKA the “Corn Cobs”, the Chicago Public Library which was built by the winners of a design competition, in front one of Chicago’s Picasso sculptures, the Wrigley Building, and the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).

One of the conductors even let Jack and Ben hold a train!

Afterwards they have a family fun center where older kids can make bird feeders and snowflakes from coffee filters. The younger ones played in the Insta-snow bin.

It’s over now but Chicago people remember to put it in the calendar for next year!

Finally! The twins are old enough to go sledding. This was a major day for them, not only was it their first time sledding, it was their first time playing in the snow.

On our way to the sledding hill.

Sometimes children this young do not enjoy new experiences. I remember the first time Jack touched sand he cried. So I was curious how they would react.

We had nothing to worry about with the twins! They loved every minute of it!

Sam hates wearing hats and gloves. Our fix to that was to put him in a snowsuit with sleeves you could fold over to enclose his hands. He ran up and down the sledding hill a bunch of times.

Aaron really enjoyed playing with the snow and getting dragged along on the sidewalk in the sled.

The older boys were old pros, Jack can walk up the hill and drag the sled on his own, and bring Ben down with him.

Jack is at the age where a drop off play date is more the norm than a visit from the entire family.

In this respect I’m lucky. Since we have so many kids in this house, a few more makes almost no difference. And sometimes having another kid or two around actually makes life easier – the kids are occupied with their friends and don’t have time to fight with each other!

Thursday we hosted Jack’s two buddies from school, Luke and Timmy. They are like the Three Musketeers. Any chance they get they run instead of walking, they slap each other on the butts, or make potty jokes.

I planned to take them to the Museum of Science and Industry, but in the morning my sitter cancelled. I was worried, I couldn’t take all 6 kids to a huge museum alone, plus I was planning on doing it during the twins nap time.

Luckily, Adam was able to work from home and cover the twins so I could take the older boys and friends out.

McDonalds and Phineas and Ferb for the ride to the Museum.

The weather forecast was for snow all day. There was already a couple of inches on the ground. Besides the sitter, the foul weather kept everyone else indoors too. Which was a bonus for us! The museum, for once, was not jam packed.

The boys enjoyed seeing the trains, the inside of a plane, the ideas factory and jolly ball…

They found a mini Hulk in the streets of the train exhibit.

Ideas Factory

Jolly Ball

Afterwards I really wanted to take them sledding. In the end we decided the temperature was too cold for us to stay out for the long enough to justify the effort of putting on all our snow gear. Today the temperature is 2°. Which makes yesterday seem like a tropical paradise…

This month we had one of those inevitable but always unexpected surprise that home owners eventually face. We needed a new washing machine. It was a 4 digit expense. Painful, especially in December.

About a week after we had it installed, a check came in the mail reimbursing us for Ben’s school fees. The difference in price from the washer to the reimbursement was $4. A timely check indeed.

Then, last night, New Year’s Eve, we sat down to a nice family dinner. I made crab cakes, green beans, crusty bread and a minestrone soup. Aaron cried hysterically and threw his food the entire meal. Of course, he wasn’t too upset to eat the s’more dessert afterwards.

Later that evening we got an email from our upstairs neighbor. He was out walking the dog and heard all the crying, felt bad for us and left us two very expensive bottles of wine. (It MUST have been bad on the other side of that door to leave TWO bottles!)

So I guess the moral of the story is – it pays to misbehave.

Today we had one of our sitters, Daniella, watch the twins while Adam and I took the older boys to Winter Wonderfest.

I was amazed how much I learned today.

First I learned that Jack is a complete dare devil. He has no fear and kept trading off between queasy parents to accompany him on dizzying, stomach churning rides.

Adam and Jack on the “Cliff Hanger”

Jack is in the yellow top with red pants, I’m to the left in the purple shirt….

Jack and I in the “Gravitron”. I squeezed his hand the whole time and screamed while he laughed at me.

I also learned today just how deep Ben’s aversion to transition is. We had to strongly suggest and encourage any new attraction and when we finally did get him on board, he wanted to do it over and over again. When we tried to move him to another attraction he would flop on the floor. Poor little guy. He is so articulate but has never been able to articulate why transition is so difficult for him. I must try harder to be mindful of this.

It’s hard to imagine that someone with so much love of life, someone who is so full of laughter, can have this major difficulty that he has to deal with every moment. Life is full of change.

This is not to say he did not have a great day.

He enjoyed the train ride…

He enjoyed many of the bouncy house rides…

I also learned by watching Jack and Ben together, without parents, that even though Jack can tease Ben relentlessly at times, he is a very good big brother to him. He held his hand or hugged him every time they were in line together. And because it was his beloved Jack, Ben was very well behaved.

And he loved his favorite McDonald’s lunch followed by ice cream…

In fact, we ALL enjoyed ice cream.

Finally I think the most important thing I learned today was watching Adam parent. He was completely on his game today. Patience, understanding, positive. That sort of stuff is contagious. It made me want to stop sighing so much, stop yelling so much, stop jumping to so many conclusions. After all, our kids model themselves after our own behavior and the best way to make them good people is NOT to yell at them to be better, but to be a good person yourself.

Sunday night we headed out to the Morton Arboretum to see their new display, Illumination. It’s an interactive lighted tree exhibit.

They have nine interactive light experiences placed along an illuminated, circular path. Some of the more fun ones included singing to black walnut trees and watching them change color, projecting your face onto 30-foot-tall evergreens, and being a ‘tree hugger’ – when you hug the tree, it lights up.

It was really well put together. I could see how much effort and thought went into every piece.

I thought the kids would also find it amazing. Dancing, changing lights delighting them at every turn. Hot chocolate stations and open fires. All these seemed like really exciting ideas for the kids to experience. You never know what will hit them.

Jack was cold, he thought something smelled like poop (I told him we were in nature, city boy!), and he didn’t like the warming stations because he didn’t like the smoke.

Warming station.

Ben sat in the stroller or on Adam’s shoulders for the entire walk, when he wasn’t crying about his foot hurting.

The twins made it about half way before they were crying to get out of the stroller. They are so young I’m not even sure they noticed the lights.

In fact, I think the only thing they all enjoyed was visiting the winter train exhibit afterwards, the Enchanted Railroad.

They were pretty excited for drive through McDonald’s as well…