Happy New Year!

Christmastime in Chicago

We took a night trip to the city to check out some of the pretty decorations. There are several books published on the beauty of Chicago at Christmas, but I think we should have figured out where to look before we left. We only found a few things. But they were pretty. I wore my little Russian hat. The kids were laughing at me. You can too.
And in truth, our main objective was to go to Al's Beef for authentic Italian Beef sandwiches. We went, we ate, we enjoyed. You can get them two ways: dipped and dry. I wanted to do dipped, which is basically french dip, but the whole thing at once. Richard would have preferred dry, so of course, he went and got one the next day and did it dry. That is soooo him. We're trying to experience all of the legendary food places while we're here. There are lots of them.

Have Fun, Maddie!

Maddie has returned to sunny CA for a week. She took her first solo flight including a layover in Dallas. Thankfully, she got assistance for the whole trip. She had quite a way to go to catch the connecting flight. It may be a life-changing experience. She had so much fun and the flight attendants were so nice to her that she may consider this as a career. They gave her tons of food and even let her help in their station breaking up ice and filling cups. She was well cared for. I hope she's having tons of fun. We miss her.

gingerbread men

We finally got around to making gingerbread men this year--after Christmas. Ellie has been really interested in gingerbread this year. They did a big unit on it in school. So her Christmas book was Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett. As part of the illustrations on each page there is a running recipe for gingerbread and she wanted to use that recipe. So that's what we did. It actually turned out really good. They had a great time decorating a few, but soon tired out. I'm glad I didn't make the double batch that I had considered.

Christmas Morning

All of our Christmas wishes came true this year. Here's what we got:
Richard-really wanted a bunch of new sweater vests. On Sundays he wears bow ties and with the sweater vests he looks like a professor. I think he likes the look.
Me-I got the steering wheel cover I wanted and a new towel warmer. Richard also fixed the shower knob so that we get hotter showers now. I just love taking hot showers and getting into hot towels. A little bit of heaven everyday.
Maddie-got lots of clothes. She did not get the camera she wanted but is on her way to saving up for it. Her tastes are becoming increasingly expensive.
Emma-got the scrapbook that she's been wanting for 4 years now. Yay for her.
Lauren-got the Hannah Montana wig that she has given at every friend's birthday party for 2 years now. (I don't think everyone is as thrilled about it as she is, but she insists every time). Much to her delight she also got an entire Hannah Montana outfit: shirt, "leather" skirt, leggings, and her jacket make for quite the Hannah Montana.
Ellie-got the Gariella HSM dress with wig that she wanted and the Belle and Beast barbies. It was a close call on the barbies, but I lucked out and found it on ebay with only 2 days to go and it got here on time. A little Christmas miracle.
Of course we all (okay, mostly me) got Wii Rock band. I knew sometime in August that this would be a must in our household, but couldn't justify getting it until now. I'm getting soooooo good. I just love it. I get to release the inner rocker. Oh, you know it's there.

Happy Birthday Jesus

We don't have very many traditions that actually occur regularly enough to be considered traditions. But our Christmas Eve celebration is the exception. We have been doing this for about 8 years now and it's the best part of Christmas for me. Here's what we do:
Light a bunch of candles--usually about 15. (The number actually coincides with the number of activities we do.)
Then we do things like get new tree ornaments, open new Christmas books and read them, sing Christmas songs, read the Bible story from Luke, set out a treat for Santa, and of course, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eat the cake.
Then blow out a candle at the end of each activity and when the house is dark, it's time to go to bed. This usually lasts about 1 1/2 hours and my kids love it.

Annual Santa Show

 

Ever since Maddie was about 6 years old she has been writing, directing, and producing her own plays using siblings as her main characters. Therefore, ever since Emma was about 4 years old she has played the main role of Santa in Maddie's Christmas productions. If I had known then that this was to be an annual Christmas tradition I would have tried much harder to get photos of it. This is pretty hilarious because I have absolutely nothing to do with it and never have. It just happens one night before Christmas and they never forget to do it. They work together to find costumes from anything they can scrounge up in the house, they rehearse, and then they perform. We now have Santa and two elves in the show. I love it. Emma's costume this year is perhaps the best ever. I think it was the polyfill stuffing beard they found this time that made the difference. In the past in has been made of paper. They crack me up.