Preschool Musical

Everett had the honor of being a wiseman in his preschool program.  He was amazing!

Reeve surprisingly went on stage but didn't do much else except sway back and forth.

And Because...

...I couldn't get a good pick with Santa at Daley Plaza, the real deal was a couple towns over and I just had to see him.  Also, he was visiting one of my favorite places to take pictures.  So, the field trip began.  Santa didn't go as smooth as I thought.  Reeve wouldn't smile, despite a candy bride, Elias freaked and I was sweating from being in an actual greenhouse.
But alas, a Christmas pic was born:

We wandered around the greenhouse snapping some pictures.  All of that ended suddenly in the cactus room.  Can you guess which child touched a cactus?  We spent an hour with glue, duct tape and hot water getting hundreds of fine needles out of Everett's fingers.  Field trip over!

Speaking of..

...the Christmas Spirit.  My dad came into town for the month of December and was able to share in some pretty special moments.  He joined us for our annual Macy's windows extravaganza followed by a mosh pit of Daley Plaza where we almost didn't make it out alive.  We weren't able to enjoy much there.  We did wait in line to see Santa but even that was a bust.  Reeve refused to get a picture taken and we were all worn out and cold.

 We warmed up at a nice hotel for the night were the kids loved playing with the radio and putting on quite some crazy dance moves.  We even let them jump on the bed for awhile.

the next day...Navy Pier Winterfest which is always truly a highlight on their year.

Kicking off the Holiday

The weather was mild and the kids were anxious to get into the Christmas Spirit.  We headed on over to Tinley to see their annual parade.  I heard they had horse and buggy rides so we sprinted on over.  Well, we took a little too long to get there and the line was really long.  What turned out to be a nice, leisure horse / buggy ride turned into a quick ride around a u-shaped drive.  The entire thing lasted about 33 seconds.  ah well.

While Eddie was securing us a place in line with the horsies, I took the kiddos exploring.  We saw a big gingerbread house.  Reeve pretended to be interested in it to avoid yet another picture taken by his mama.

The kids decorated some cards to ship to the soldiers that are missing Christmas at home this year.  :(

 The second the sun set, the light parade started.  Not too shabby.  We didn't have enough time to see Santa, or get hot cocoa, or eat dinner, or get any sort of treat or do Christmas crafts.  I know to get there earlier next year,

 This is best picture I could take with my point and shoot camera and moving children.  Luckily they were all in it.  dumplings!