Christmas 2011!

We had three wonderful Christmas celebrations this year!

Christmas morning in Wilmette
The kids woke up to find that Santa had come!!! How fun it is to see the "magic" through the kids' eyes!

The kids picked the goodies for Santa and his reindeer, and Cassidy hand-wrote a special note.

The opening begins!

Nemo gets a big hug
Super Gavin!!!
Cassidy and her new pal, Squirt
Santa's best delivery, according to the kids? Action Canyon Thomas - it was the only item on Gavin's list this year! Extra points to Daddy for assembling!

Christmas at Grammy and Grandpa Brown's house

We had a wonderful time celebrating with Grammy and Grandpa Brown and the Tiemans - it was Jackson's first Christmas! We exchanged gifts and dined on homemade Swedish meatballs for Christmas dinner, as always. Gavin ate a plateful!

Gavin and Grandpa Brown had fun operating the train

Big hugs for Grammy Brown

Gavin loved his new racing train set from the Tiemans

A cousin photo!

Grammy Brown's pretty table

Christmas in Lexington with the Reders

We packed the Burkholders' house with 15 people and had a great time catching up with everyone. We opened gifts, enjoyed wonderful meals and desserts, and did some outdoor ice skating - Cassidy's first time on the ice!

All the cousins!
The ice skating crew
"Look Mom - I'm skating!"
Gavin and Grandpa Reder watch the skaters
Exchanging gifts!
It was great to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Reder, who drove all the way from their new home in Florida!

Christmas Preparations

As soon as Thanksgiving was behind us, we turned our attention to the Christmas season! The kids are at such wonderful ages for Christmas preparations - they love every minute of it and fully believe in the magic of Christmas. Here are some of the ways that we got into the holiday spirit this year...

After bathtime, the kids would get dressed in their footie pajamas and we'd drive around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. The kids kept an eye in the sky for Rudolph's "practice runs" - and Cassidy decided if she dressed up like a reindeer, maybe Rudolph would be willing to come close so we could catch a glimpse.

Walked in the Wilmette Holiday Parade as part of the Saint Francis Xavier contingent

Spent an afternoon at Grammy Brown's house and decorated a gingerbread house

Met Santa Claus himself at SFX's "Breakfast With Santa" event

Erik and I got dressed up for his company's annual holiday party, always a fun, festive event!

Spent an afternoon making homemade playdoh and had fun with Christmas cookie cutters

Went out to play in our first snowfall (and amazingly, our only snowfall to-date!)

Cassidy made this adorable nativity scene in preschool - we love it!
Erik took the kids to see the annual model train exhibit at the Botanic Garden
Christmas is only days away...
Christmas Eve baking - these are cream cheese mints in wreaths shapes, yum!
Christmas Eve was wonderful - we got to spend the day with the Hardings! The kids went to bed very excited for the magic of Christmas morning!

Costa Rica!

Erik and I took an exciting trip this fall to Costa Rica! It was our first time taking a vacation without the kids, and we have Grammy and Grandpa Brown to thank for that! We missed them every single day, but it was also really wonderful to spend a week on our own schedule, doing things that we choose. It was really a fantastic trip. The photos capture the highlights!

The porch of our cabin at El Sabanero Lodge in Guanacaste, Costa Rica
The lizards that crawled around the pool deck each day
Spending a day at the beach
The howler monkeys jumped around in the trees above us
The view from El Sabanero - neat to watch the clouds roll in
Zip-lining through the jungle canopy was a highlight for both of us!
The foliage was so lush and beautiful
Ending our trip with a night out!

Legos!

As the weather has gotten colder, we've been playing inside more, and have re-discovered the fun of legos! Cassidy and Gavin love to dump their whole duplo collection out and make all sorts of creatures, buildings, and towers...
They've been having such fun with legos that we recently decided to take a trip to Lego Land in Schaumburg. It was a fun day! They have a museum full of life-size lego creatures, and they also have 2 indoor kiddie rides, an indoor playplace, and a movie theatre. They have classes twice a day with a specific lego item that you make together - the kids went to the "bee" session and got to take home a cute lego bumblebee that they built as a souvenir.

Thanksgiving 2011

As always, we had a lot of fun over Thanksgiving visiting family in various places. We started off at Grammy and Grandpa Brown's house, where Cassidy helped Grammy prepare the turkey. She's becoming a good little kitchen helper! This was the first year that it actually sunk in for her that the turkey we eat for Thanksgiving dinner is the same kind of turkey that we also feed at the farm. We explained that the turkey lived a happy life and is now enjoying turkey heaven. She stared in disbelief at that uncooked turkey, and then said, "Wow, that turkey really is in turkey heaven." Gave us all a good laugh! Beyond the wonderful meal, the kids had fun playing the organ with Grandpa, opening special Christmas ornaments that Grammy picked out for them, and of course seeing new baby Jackson all decked out in a Christmas hat, onesie and winter socks. The last photo I'm adding here is Gavin responding to my request for a happy face. His teenage years are starting a little early.
Our next stop was Lafayette, IN for Thanksgiving with the Reder family. Mom and Dad visited via skype this year, since they had just completed their move down to Florida. They were missed for sure! But we kept all the same traditions going - all of our favorite family recipes for Thanksgiving dinner and plenty of homemade pies for dessert. The weather even cooperated for a friendly game of football in the backyard. The Hardings were wonderful hosts to us all - they seemed like old pros and made one of the most delicious turkeys I've ever had!