Christmas was extra special this year for a couple reasons. First, I got to host Christmas dinner at our house for the first time ever. I wouldn't have survived it without the help of my mom and sister...thanks Mom and Sheila! There was so much food here that we had to put a lot of it on the back porch to keep cool through out the day since the refrigerator was jam packed. It was also great to have my sister and her family in town for this Christmas. They are moving from Ohio (2ish hours away) to Tennessee (8ish hours away) We know we won't be able to see them as often, so it was nice to have this Christmas together.
Mom and Dad with all their grandkids.
This will be the last letter my kids leave for Santa Clause. Austin has known since last year about Santa. Madison was starting to question it over the past couple months, but still really believed and was excited about Santa. Long story short...while I was in the kitchen getting things ready for Christmas dinner, Madison was snooping in our storage closet. She came across the same wrapping paper that Santa happened to wrap her presents with this year. She asked me about it and I told her the truth. She was a bit sad, and had MANY questions the following days. I asked both of my kids afterwards if they were mad we taught them the story of Santa Clause, and they both replied "No". In fact, Madison said she can't wait to be a mommy someday to tell her kids about it. I'm sure I'll be sad next year when my kids seem so grown up that they aren't talking about going to sleep early so Santa will come. Or leaving reindeer food on the back porch for Rudolph and the gang. Mostly, I'll miss using the "Naughty List" threat during the entire month of December. My kids are always so well behaved during that month. Haha
Good news...there are 351 more days of shopping until Christmas this year!
Ahh...the sweet smell of Wrigleyville. Brian and I were both so excited to take the kids to our favorite ballpark. As many of you know, we visit a different ballpark every year, so to finally take them to our favorite was very exciting for all of us.
It was very hot this day. All 3 ballparks we visited so far were at least 90 degrees out the day we went to the game. Luckily our seats were in the shade this day at Wrigley Field.
Someone gave us passes for the kids to go down on the field during batting practice to meet some players and get some autographs. The Cubs were done batting, so we were only able to meet some St. Louis Cardinals players. Pretty exciting, regardless, to meet Albert Pujolls and Mark MacGwire.
Waiting for the game to being and enjoying our AMAZING seats.
If you didn't hear by now, they lost this game BIG time. Austin and Brian were sporting their rally caps and it didn't help much at all. The most important part was that we had a great family day together. We love that the kids are both very much into baseball and enjoy watching the games. I need to start my scrapbook this summer of each park we have visited so far.
