Christmas 2008

Wayne and I headed north to spend Christmas in Iowa and Illinois with our families. It was raining as we left Paducah, and the weather changed drastically after we hit I-57. Here you see a beautiful rainbow that went across the highway as we changed from rain to sleet. The sun was trying to peak through and gave us a rainbow that started on one side of the highway and ended on the other side of the highway. I've never seen both ends of a rainbow before.

Here you can see the drifting snow that was blowing across the highway, turning the road to a sheet of ice. We drove 20 to 25 mph for more than 3 hours. What should have been a 4-hour trip turned into 6 1/2 hours for us to get from Paducah to Lincoln, Illinois, where we spent Tuesday night. There were cars in the ditch and upside down everywhere along the road. We rode with the truckers and slowed way down so we didn't end up there too. The roads were a bit better on Wednesday morning -- we could drive about 40 mph.

This was the view as we drove into the Quad Cities on I-280. What can be more beautiful than snow-covered trees? Here they had been working hard on the highways so the driving was much better.

As we crossed from Illinois into Iowa, we saw eagles flying and I caught a couple of them sitting in this tree as we drove by. See those two black blobs on the branch that hangs over the open water.

.

We weren't able to go do any eagle watching along the Mississippi River there, so it was fun to catch them as we drove in.

On Christmas Eve, Wayne and I had lunch with his Mom, Buster, and sister Kathi. Then we spent the evening at my sister's home - Karen and Dellwyn Franzen. She and I went through the recipes that we are putting in our Cooking with the Kirklands' family cookbook that I've been putting together. We had a fun evening together. Wayne and Dellwyn joined in when they could get a word in edgewise.

.

Then on Christmas Day we picked Karen and Dellwyn up to go have Christmas dinner with most of the rest of our family at sister Marcia and Don Ekin's in Cambridge, Illinois. Here is a photo of the our gang.

Sad news....shortly after we left Cambridge to go home, we had to call an ambulance for Dellwyn. He passed away at the hospital in Geneseo, Illinois, that evening. The granddaughters and I put together a photo collage of Dellwyn - his life and loves, and the funeral was Monday. Condolences can be left at www.bentleyfuneralhome.com . We'll all miss that twinkle Dellwyn always got in his eye when he was going to be ornery. He'll be missed as a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, and brother-in-law. He went safely into God's hands on Christ's Day, and will suffer no more from his diabetes.