canoe of monkeys

It wasn't going to really be New Year's without mom here, but then I found a cheap fare at the last minute and persuaded her to fly to Milwaukee and take Amtrak to downtown Chicago. Her train got in at 7:15 Friday night; we had dinner reservations at 8:30. John and Kate had just arrived from Omaha. So we decided to hang out at Ed's until it was time to go eat. They even have a tree and the tree had this birchbark canoe being boarded by the pirate monkeys. (More photos of Beth and Ed's Christmas <a href="http://canadiense.typepad.com/photos/holiday_season_redux/">here</a>).