Two springs ago, Paul helped lead a geology field trip for undergraduate and graduate students to San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. After considerable delay he finally got his photos back. They are pretty low resolution and some are a little weird but cool nonetheless.
Grotto beach.
Pigeon Creek.
Paul's snorkeling companion, Myriam, who was also snorkeling for the first time.
This week's theme is Sweden. We kicked off the festivities with a meal our friends Janne and Anette first treated us to when we stayed with them outside of Uppsala a few years ago during the holidays.
Pea soup with mustard (and tofu pups as ham substitute).
Pancakes (like crepes) with blueberries.
Lena, avid fan of blueberries and pancakes.
Earlier in the week in Hyde Park before the arctic blast moved in. 
Last night we celebrated the holidays early with a bunch of friends. The theme of the party was "Breaking up Christmas", a holiday tradition in the southern Appalachians that extends from Christmas to Old Christmas (January 6) in which families and friends gather at each others homes for music and dancing. For the festivities we made some regional foods - including Kentucky Squirrel Burgoo (a stew of sorts in which we replaced the flying squirrel with textured vegetable protein), Persimmon pudding, cornbread, and wilted dandelion greens with morels. We made a mountain range out of old computer boxes and played a bunch of music. Lena plays her harmonica in the photo above with her friends Sophia, Eszter, and Rozi.
Paul playing music with Sean, Smith, and Genevieve.
Earlier in the night we attempted to make shakers out of paper strips. It turns out that these fall apart pretty readily (but then become fodder for other crafts).Playing last night (with friends and harmonica).
Some fun with/in packing material.
The cat pinata that Lena and Ramsey made has been a huge hit this week.
Ramsey incognito. Lena I think actually called Ramsey a cat this morning when she came in.
Other creatures have been appearing in our house including this box puppet.
A few photos from a leaf collecting expedition to the local park.
Lena making a paper mache pinata with Ramsey.
The semi-finished beastie awaiting a coat of tissue paper this week.
Lena playing with her paper shakers.
Lena wearing a sombrero.
Lena, Paul, and Riley.
Earlier today we went to the "dance along nutcracker" at the Chicago Cultural Center. Not nearly as terrifying as you might think. We had a blast.
Morgan and Lena at the performance.
More tutus then usual for downtown chicago.
Inside the Chicago Cultural Center - one of Chicago's coolest buildings by far. 
Here are a few photos of some of the hightlights from this past week. The city of Chicago has been helping provide entertainment for Lena by working on the water pipes outside our building for the last couple months. Earlier this week we awoke to one of the coolest trucks yet.
An avid fan of trucks.
Still life with trucks.
After that things only got better with Lena and Ramsey creating a fort in our living room. Here Lena is in the early stages.
Under the canopy.
Lena has been crazy about yogurt of late and is getting increasingly good at feeding herself (at least some of it) with a spoon.
Ramsey and Lena made a felt board this week too which has been a big hit.
A somewhat blurry (Yeti-like) sideways movie of a very happy Lena the other night.
This morning we took a wonderful walk at Palos Hills (southwest of Chicago). It was fantastic and great to be outside for a bit.
Saturday night we thought we'd try our hand at cooking with Lena. Lena was very excited to sample the cheese and help put the stuffed shells in the dish but not as keen on being covered with tomato sauce and filling.
Saturday started with a trip to Letizia's Natural Bakery for breakfast. Here are a couple of photos of Lena at the bakery.
