This Christmas season was festive and fun! In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we enjoyed lots of cheerful festivities - Breakfast with Santa at school, Cassidy's Irish Dance Christmas Show, Gavin's Christmas performance with his class - just to name a few! Below are some photos of all the fun we've been having...
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| Gavin's class sings at the school-wide church service |
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| Cassie and Grammy dance together at her Irish Dance Christmas show |
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| Flowers for the special performer! (Her front teeth popped out a few hours later!) |
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| Gavin preparing to take the stage at his school Christmas show |
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| Gavin is all smiles on stage as they sang |
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| Cassidy and I got dressed up to see our local theater perform The Nutcracker |
Then before we knew it, our Christmas celebrations were upon us. We left on Dec 20 and made our way to Cincinnati for my cousin Lindsay's wedding. It was a pretty winter wedding and we loved catching up with the extended Reder family. After that, we drove on to Lexington, KY to have our Reder family Christmas at the Burkholder's home. It was a relaxing time with a household full of great family. We squeezed in a lot of activity - Shannon and her girls spent some quality time with Cassidy teaching her how to sew on the sewing machine (thank you!), the adult guys took a tour of Woodford Reserve, a historic bourbon distillery, we played board games, read books and did a giant jigsaw puzzle! We left their home on Christmas Eve, making our way back to Wilmette so we could wake up at home on Christmas morning. That was a special morning, as always! Such magic! We left later that morning for Clarendon Hills, where we met up at Grammy & Grandpa Brown's house to celebrate the Brown family Christmas - another special, festive time with family. We played in the snow in jammies and enjoyed some delicious holiday meals. Below are some of the moments we captured!
The Wedding
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| I loved watching Cassidy watch Lindsay make her way down the aisle... |
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| Kiddie Cocktails! |
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| With the lovely bride & groom, Lindsay and Alex |
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Christmas in Lexington, KY
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| All the Reder grandkids together! |
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| Woodford Reserve Tour |
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| Reading with Grandpa |
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| Learning to sew (maybe now Cassidy can teach mommy!) |
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| With her sewing teacher, Aunt Shannon. They made that lovely peace purse together! |
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| Tyler with Aunt Tracy & Kelsey |
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| All the cousins! |
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| Cassie and Grandma with her special leatherback turtle Grandma gave her |
Christmas Morning in Wilmette
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| It was a magical morning! Santa ate the cookies, the reindeer ate the carrots, and wonderful gifts were left under our tree! |
Christmas Celebration with the Brown Family
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| Gavin was excited about Matchbox cars and tracks this Christmas! |
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| Tyler loves his new tricycle! |
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| Cassidy had asked for her first sewing kit! |
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| Fun times at the piano |
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| Christmas dinner - the Brown Family Swedish meatballs (it's tradition!) |
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| A toast between Pops and son |
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| Grammy and Tyler swing together outside |
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| He's a happy boy! |
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| Playtime in PJs |
We are grateful and blessed with all the wonderment and love that this season brings!
