New Year's Eve!

We had a casual get-together to celebrate New Year's Eve with 3 other families who we just love.  We've done this for a few years now, depending on who is free to join us, and we always have a great time.  Our kids all line up in ages and get along wonderfully and that allows the adults to enjoy the evening, too!  I did not grab too many photos but we all had a blast counting down to 2019!

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Celebrations 2018

Merry Christmas!  We have had so much fun celebrating with family.  We woke up Christmas morning and opened gifts, then headed out on our travels by lunchtime.  We went to Clarendon Hills and had our gift exchange and annual Swedish meatball dinner!  The next day, we traveled to IN to the cabin we rent each year, and spent a few days visiting with my extended family.  We love so much about Christmas - relaxing with family, seeing cousins, playing games, baking, taking nature walks, watching movies, reading books, exchanging gifts, and just hearing about how everyone is doing before we head back into our daily routines after the holidays.  It was a wonderful season.

Christmas morning at our house...

Christmas afternoon and evening at Grammy and Grandpa Brown's house...

Christmas adventures at Big Sky Cabin...

December 2018

December keeps us busy as we enjoy the Christmas season!  Below are the photos of all that we've been up to this month as we prepare for a favorite holiday.

We attended SFX's annual Breakfast with Santa!

We made gingerbread houses!

Cookie Decorating!

Gavin's enjoying playing winter basketball with a fun group of friends...

Cassidy and I go to "The Nutcracker" each year to see her friend Abby perform...

Gavin and his friend Will (and the dads!) went to a fun Bears game.  The Bears beat the Rams!

Cassidy and Gavin sang Christmas songs with their class for SFX's Holiday concert.  It was very festive!

More cookie baking...

Tyler played the role of "the innkeeper" during the Early Childhood Christmas Play: The Story of the Nativity.  We loved it so much and he did so well with his lines and songs!  We were so glad Grandpa Brown could join us for the show!

Cassidy performed in the annual Irish Dance Christmas Show.  She looked wonderful and we all enjoy watching her perform on stage.  Thanks to Grammy and Grandpa Brown for being there!

We joined some friends for a festive holiday sleigh ride!  It was a foggy winter evening and we enjoyed the hot cocoa, the fun ride around the lakefront, and the pretty horses.

We spent an evening at the Botanic Garden to see the Wonderland Express.  The grounds are always so beautiful.

Erik and I took in a few holiday parties - some with friends, some with his wonderful WMP co-workers.

Christmas Eve Mass was lovely and helps us remember what the joy of Christmas is all about...

We needed to arrive early to get seats...so plenty of quiet chatter while we wait.

Time to leave milk and cookies (and carrots)!

Next post: Christmas!