Holiday Recap

What a busy past couple of days and it is already back to work tomorrow. We had a great holiday week with lots of holiday cheer! The festivities began on Thursday after work. We had our annual girl's holiday dinner with my girlfriends! We went to Brio and dinner was delicious. We capped the night off with dessert and our traditional grab bag gift exchange. I ended up coming home with a super cute purse! It is always a good time with my girls! Rob and I were off on Friday, which was nice. We slept in and took the kids to daycare in the morning. Rob and I were able to knock out our grocery shopping and a bunch of our errands. We even were able to stop for lunch - just the two of us.

On Saturday morning, Leah finished up her last gymnastics class. The teacher said Leah did a great job over the past 8 weeks and is ready to advance to the next level (without parents - yikes)! The next session starts up in a few weeks and we are debating if we'll have her repeat the class she just took or move her on to the next one. Although she is physically ready for the next step, I don't think she would do so well without mom or dad there (i.e. dance class). The next class technically is for 3 year olds and Leah won't be three by then, but we'll see. Later that night, we went out to celebrate Rob's birthday (his birthday wasn't until the 23rd, so we went a day early). We stopped at Oak Brook Mall first and wow - that was a mistake. It was a madhouse filled with last minute shoppers! We just ran into Macy's and were on our way. It was our intention to go to the Cheesecake Factory for Rob's b-day dinner, but after we saw how crazy it was in that area, we decided to take a pass (since they also don't take reservations). We ended up at Champps. It was pretty empty and we were able to get seated right away. We had a great time and the kids were on their best behavior.

Sunday was Rob's actual birthday! Happy Birthday to my hubby! We went to church in the morning. We've been attending a new church the past several weeks and I absolutely love it. I actually look forward to going to church now (which probably would not have come out of my mouth before). This church is a Lutheran church and it is just different. Everyone is extremely friendly (including all of the pastors) and the messages are wonderful and relevant/relatable. We've decided to get Mason baptized at the church and will become members in February. I am looking forward to it. After church, we ran to the Promenade and came home. Leah and I got ready to start baking cookies for Santa (and also cookies to bring over to my brother's). Leah was such a good helper to her momma and enjoyed herself (for about 30 minutes before she lost interest). Luckily both of the kids were tired and both went to bed pretty early! This gave me a chance to finish up all of my wrapping! I still had quite a bit left to do.

Monday was Christmas Eve and we had plans to go out to my brother's house for the day. (Fingers crossed that they will be out 'here' in the suburbs next year for the holidays)! We got to his place around 11:00 and the girl's immediately started playing together. Leah loves her cousin Annabelle. Jeff and Sarah also had Sarah's parents over too, along with my Dad. We had a nice time. We tried to get pictures of the kids together 'early' before they got too wound up, but we still weren't successful at getting a great shot. Sarah made dinner and it was wonderful! We had lasagna, tenderloin, and several yummy sides! There were lots of leftovers so we even got to take some home. After letting our tummies settle for a bit, the kids got to open their presents! Later on, we had dessert and we were all in food comas by that point. We could tell all of the kids were starting to reach their breaking point, so we decided to call it a day and head home. Afterall, we had a big night ahead of us - Santa was coming to town!

 Brother and Sister Love

Cousins (the best pic I could get)

Best Friends

 Annabelle eating a munchkin

 Baby Alyssa

 Leah creating a work of art

 Enjoying her dinner

 Annabelle in the middle of all of the presents

 Leah patiently waiting to open her presents

So tired and ready to go!

Both kids fell asleep on the way home. Leah wanted to put on her Christmas jammies right away. I put both of them in their holiday jammies and we all hung out in the living room. Leah was anxious to play with some of the new toys she got from Grandpa and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sarah. We must have played 'Hi Ho Cheerio' about 5 times. After spending time together for a while, it was time to put out the cookies and milk for Santa and then off to bed!



After the kids were snuggled in their beds and fast asleep, Santa Claus must have come just past midnight. He left a note for Leah and Mason and told them that he was proud of them for being such good kids all year long.

Christmas morning, both kids were up at 7:30 am. Leah came running in our room asking if Santa had come. We told her we weren't sure and should go downstairs to see if he came. When Leah saw all of the presents, she was so excited and jumped up and down that Santa had come and ate all of the cookies! She didn't know where to start - she saw her doll house and then her guitar and was so happy. She started opening up a few presents but then would stop and tell us that she needed to practice her guitar. Mason had fun opening all of his presents too!

Loved her new guitar

 Mickey!

 Mase did tear some of the paper for his presents!

 So excited for a DS game (although she didn't know she was going to get a DS)

 Mason sitting with us - content as can be.

 The most awaited gift of all - her DS! She was SO excited.

Playing the DS

Pop the Pig

Chillin on her new Princess Couch

We had the whole day to lay around and play with all of the new toys! We stayed in our PJ's until 1:30 pm before we had to start getting ready. Leah had so much fun and wanted to play with 'everything/' Later on in the afternoon, we went over to Rob's brother's house in Oswego. Many of his brothers and sisters were there too with their kids, along with his Mom. It was nice to see everyone. Leah is painfully shy and it took her quite a while to warm up. We had lots of good food and Leah had a great time (after a while). After a few hours the kids were wiped out and it was time to go. Thanks Ron and Ruby for hosting!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! I know I enjoyed my time with my family! I just wish my Mom could have been here to celebrate with us. Happy Holidays!!!