How was your weekend, dears?  Mine was wonderful and terrible.  First the wonderful, shall we?

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Our nephew's first birthday.  You wouldn't know it from this picture, but he's a pretty jolly little fella (he hates hats, and was mostly confused by the room full of people he doesn't see often staring and singing at him, but hey, thus endures the strange tradition of birthday parties).

My sister and her husband love reptiles and its been a (year) long tradition to get Jake alligator items, but we went more traditional this year, getting him a Radio Flyer Wagon.  That sucker is heavy.  Trying getting that up the winding staircase of a big old Victorian house to your top apartment in order to wrap it.

Speaking of wrapping.  We didn't want to forgo alligators all together, so Aaron sharpied up our lime green wrapping paper for a little personalization (personal is always better than expensive if you ask me):

Excuse the glare!

Sunday was my mother's birthday, so we were back over there with her requested meal...Fried Chicken.  Hard to find good fried chicken when you and your boyfriend are vegetarians, but thanks to a little thing called the internet, we found Buckeye's Chicken down on Michigan Ave, and the more carnivorous members of the family all gave it good reviews.  We'll just have to take their word for it.

The unhappy news, is that Taffy, our older cat (she was a present from my father for my 11th birthday) had been acting strangely and unfortunately some blood work at the wonderful Summer St. Cat Clinic revealed she had advanced cancer.  She deteriorated quickly after her diagnosis and to avoid any further suffering, she was put to sleep Saturday morning.  We miss her terribly.

Now, go call your loved ones and tell them Happy Valentine's Day!