Christmas Eve 2019

My headache has been in an unfortunate place for the start of the new year but I am determined that this is my year to figure out the cause, not to mention pain relief that actually works for me. I'm already seeing 2 new health professionals and I hope one or both of them are heading in the right direction. It does explain my absence from here though but I don't want to do move on to the new year without sharing the final celebration of 2019 that was Christmas. I LOVE CHRISTMAS SO MUCH and this was one I'm holding on to forever!

The magic on Christmas Eve was palpable, I could almost touch it with my fingertips. Everyone woke up with a "this is the BEST DAY EVER" attitude and we started the day with the greatest Christmas Eve tradition, sledding! There was hardly a flake of snow in sight but when the snow doesn't find you, you can always go find it ... in the form of a well groomed man made sledding hill right in the middle of town. ;) Our sledding crew ... 

The real MVP who always offered to haul all the tubes and all the children ...

Luckily it was a conveyer belt situation so not too much work was had by anyone.

I love how tiny she looks in that tube! She never actually rode by herself and truly looked nervous every time we held her going down the hill but still smiled once we reached the bottom. haha

Liam on the other hand lived his best dare devil life!

Brendan's wet pants! haha He insisted on not wearing a stitch of snow gear (it really wasn't that cold) but we all laughed when he went to jump on this tube for the picture and tipped over face first.

Me and my best little guy!

The teenage guys who worked there were so free spirited about how you went down the hill. We rode as a train once, in a big tangled mess, some on their stomachs with a big swan dive, etc. It was the best time!!

Both kids were so excited to see snow! Liam really wanted to just play in it despite the signs everywhere that said not to but you can't stop them from an adorable snow angel or two ...

After sledding we went back home for nap time for Lyla but instead she insisted on opening a present and no nap was actually taken. Both kids opened a new Christmas book to add to our collection ... Pick a Pine Tree for Liam and The Little Reindeer for Lyla. We happily found a take n' bake pizza on our porch from a sweet neighbor and it turned out to be the best lunch surprise!

Liam did some coloring during quiet time and practically had me in tears when he told me he drew a picture of me as a present because he "loves me so much!" I adore him!!

As his last day with us, Banana the elf showed up that morning in a ziplock bag so Liam could take him anywhere he wanted that day without losing his magic from being touched. He loved carrying Banana around on all of our adventures and brought him to Sita's house for Christmas Eve dinner.

Banana might need to come with a girlfriend next year because someone had a difficult time sharing ...

The present snatcher herself ... every time we turned around she had grabbed a new one from under the tree to try and open it without anyone noticing. haha Who can say no to that face! She loves that little monkey in my mom's toy collection ...

She loves her Uncle Brendan even more and sat right next to him the whole night!

He sweetly let her open pretty much all of his gifts ...

When it was finally their turn to open one ...

My mom let them open their gift from GG (great grandma) and they spent the rest of Christmas Eve night playing with magnetic dress up dolls ...

And a lego race car!

Snuggling with Sita ...

Just before bed Liam and Nic spread 9 carrots on our patio, one for each reindeer, and Lyla helped me pour Santa's milk and put cookies on his plate. We all piled in Liam's bed while daddy read Twas the Night Before Christmas and we tucked them in bed with sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads.

Merry Christmas Eve! XO

December Magic

I love the month of December so much! It never feels long enough and it is crammed with as many Christmas activities as possible. We didn't get as much snow during the month of December as we all would have liked (I LOVE a white Christmas) but did get one magical day at the beginning of the month with the perfect snowman building snow! This was Lyla's first snowman she's ever helped build and it seemed just right to give him a heart. <3 p="">

Liam's need for speed with this sled was a lot faster than the shamble she bargained for ... brothers!

We were Christmas shopping at the Village and Nic took our picture in front of this cute display at Anthropologie and Lyla (completely unprompted) made her first silly face picture so I joined in on the crazy. ;) haha

Besides stringing the pom garland, the kids decorated (and redecorated a few hundred times) our tree this year. It was definitely something special with its random purple strand of mardi gras beads, a few clumps here and there of tinsel, A LOT of balls close together, stuffed animals shoved in throughout, etc. but it made them happy and in turn, it made me happy too so I left it. I realized they sacrifice for me too, like the many matching outfits I had them wear throughout the Christmas season ...

Our elf, Banana, found himself in a new spot in our house each morning. I wish I would have taken a picture of him each day for the kids to remember (next year!) but he always had to be up high or some tiny hands who didn't understand would latch on to him and traumatize the older child. He had to come back one day with a toilet paper bandaged leg. haha

Liam's last day of preschool before Christmas break, he got to wear his Christmas pajamas and bring a stuffed animal to his party! She may not have had a party but Lyla had to, too! How cute are they in their matching jammies?!

Sorry this is so aggressively close but the one non-magical moment in December ... being convinced that Liam has a bad hay allergy. His preschool is on a farm and I almost always remember to have him wash his hands the moment he gets home from school, but this particular day there was a lot of sibling fighting and meltdowns happening as we walked in the door and everyone was starving for lunch that I forgot. A few short minutes after he was done eating his sandwich and grapes, his whole mouth broke out in this rash and took 3 days of allergy medications to go away!!

The night after my brother got in town for the holidays, we picked him up and met my mom downtown for dinner at Chicago Pizza. I had heard earlier in the week that a downtown bank gives free carriage rides on Friday and Saturday nights during the holiday season but I didn't know much more about it. We discovered you have to show up and wait in a long line before they open to get your name on a list to be able to ride and most nights they fill up in seconds. While we didn't end up getting to ride, we were able to pet the beautiful horse and watch another family ride away on it. We took the kids to Freak Alley instead! So many crazy talented local artists filled the sides of these buildings ... Liam was obsessed with this skull cave and pirate ship.

I loved the Martin Luther King quote and these fun faces ...

Lyla loved Jesus! <3 p="">

The best part of December, Nic took two weeks off of work! We took full advantage of the time he was home with us and did so many fun things as a family. Liam worked really hard on a goal to earn a movie at the theatre so we took them to see Frozen 2. IT WAS SO GOOD! My expectations were high after loving the first one and hearing good things about it but it really blew us all away. So many funny moments and incredible music. Can't wait to see it again! Liam has already asked me 10 times when it will be on Disney +.

It was the first movie Lyla actually sat through and didn't need to roam the halls for a few minutes. Elsa and that pile of popcorn in her lap did the trick!

We drove around and looked at Christmas lights one night in our jammies ... found a great little neighborhood close to us with some awesome ones! The kids did not care for my hot chocolate so I'll have to step up my game next year. haha Who knew a candy cane in it was a bad thing?!

This beautiful scene made December so magical! Nic and I replaced a ceiling fan with this gorgeous chandelier as one of our Christmas gifts to ourselves and I can't stop staring at it!

 Christmas Sunday church service is my favorite all year. The music was so good ... so many talented duets. While this picture didn't turn out as I had hoped (hello possessed looking child haha), I still love it.

I miss magical December already!

Our Gingerbread House Party

This was our second annual gingerbread house party with my dad's side of the family! We tried to plan it to celebrate his birthday too and we were so sad he got pneumonia the day before his own party and wasn't able to make it. We missed him!

I think everyone had a great time! Each table was lined with all of the essentials and then some. Sprinkles, coconut for snow, marshmallows, and several different kinds of red and green candy.

Everyone brought their own gingerbread house kit from Costco and we all dove into the contest once everyone arrived ...

Jared's family brought an adorable gingerbread village with 4 mini houses that surrounded the big one ... such a cute idea!

Liam was looking forward to this day ever since the haunted gingerbread house we did around Halloween that he wanted to create another haunted "Christmas" house. Complete with vampire snowman and a graveyard (heap of candy). 

Brendan and Danika made a snowman surf shack! He was lucky the dang thing turned out after he took a butcher knife to one side and the whole house crumbled to pieces. haha I think I threatened him 3 different times not to spill blue food coloring dye on the floor/carpet ... he's kind of known for spilling. ;)

Nicole and Grams were on twin baby duty most of the time and Josh and Olivia made the cutest traditional gingerbread house you ever did see. 

Lyla ate every last piece of candy she could find ...

We ate tomato basil tortellini soup, Cesar salad, and french bread for dinner while I sent my dad videos of each numbered house to judge and pick a winner. 

House #1 ... the village!

House #2 .. the traditional!

House #3 ... the surf shack!

House #4 ... the haunted house 

Grandpa couldn't have picked a more perfect winner than the one who loves candy maybe more than anyone in the whole room... he picked house #2, the traditional, and cute little Olivia was beaming to take home her 9 flavors of hot cocoa tree and snowflake marshmallows! 

I'm sure grandpa will be back next year to try to steal the winning spot! ;)