Almost Christmas Time!

The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of excitement and magic. Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love the true meaning of Christmas and the feeling that lingers in my heart the whole season. Holidays with children makes it just that much more special. Amelia kind of understood the meaning of Santa Claus and also understood that it was Jesus's birthday. On Christmas morning, even though she was horribly sick, she woke up singing "Happy Birthday to Jesus." 

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we headed downtown to see the huge Christmas Tree. I have decided that these trees look magical at night and far away. We went to the rockafellar Tree last year, and I just didn't appreciate it because it is just too huge and not lit... anyways, I know I am hard to please, but that's that. During this weekend, Chicago has a little Christmas market call the kriskringle Market, where a lot of Scandinavian shops set up around the tree and you can shop for unique gifts. Well, when we went it was a beautiful 50 degrees,so all of Chicago was also there. We got stuck in the middle for 15 minutes unable to move our stroller because there was too many people. It was CRAZY.

Since that experience didn't really work out, we headed to Millennium Park to hangout and shop for some more Christmas gifts. 

While I was in Utah for my dear friend, Dane's funeral, Anthony took Amelia to his work Christmas Party and I guess it was a huge hit and a lot of fun. Amelia got to pet a reindeer and sit on Santa's lap. She asked for a BIG box of toys, blocks, and a baby. She got a little tricky there with a big box of toys! haha. 

A cute outfit my aunt gave her for Christmas last year and it finally fit this year! So adorable. 

Her new thing is to play catch inside, but we have to wear sunglasses in order to play!

We also saw Santa at the mall. Not the best Santa, and it was a little confusing to her as to why she was seeing him twice. Next year we will stick to one. This guy also had the biggest, REAL belly that she barely fit on his lap.

For our friends and neighbor gifts, we made a weekend of decorating more than a hundred sugar cookies. I am not a fan of regular sugar cookies, but I found a recipe that sounded amazing... and luckily, it was the best rolled sugar cookie I have ever had! Definitely a new tradition. 

She also insisted on wearing this antlers on the daily. 

And this is the day before Christmas Eve... and telling sign of what was to come, since she literally NEVER cuddles with us.

a bit of this and that

We had a lot of down time between Halloween and Thanksgiving where we were stuck inside most days. I signed Amelia up for preschool, so we did that, and frequented the gym... and target. 

Amelia learned how to use glue and  it is her favorite thing to do. I cut up pieces of paper, and she goes to town for a good 45 minutes. 

One night she asked for a bowl of veggies for her movie snack. no arguing there. 

For Thanksgiving, I only took pictures of Food. Go me. 

We made 2 chocolate cream pies, 1 famous apple pie, and 113 equally famous rolls. 

On Black Friday, we went to see the movie Big Hero 6. It was a flop for this girl. She just wanted to run everywhere. 

 We also bought our first live tree. We have a huge fake tree, but our living room is too small in our current home, so we opted for a small tree.. which actually turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought.

This is how she goes camping. It is a regular occurance at our house to find her reading books or coloring her.

 .

A friend from Cornell, Lydia, came to visit and brought amelia this amazing game. It's called GoldieBlocks. Amelia loves it and it's educational. Win Win. 

Lake Geneva

On October 25, we had a unreasonably warm day and decided to head to Lake Geneva. It's a small town that is only an 30 minutes north of us in Wisconsin. It is the cutest town with adorably quaint mainstreet stores, with beautiful and enormous homes on the lake front properties. 

We headed down to the beach and played in the sand. This was a big step for Amelia. She had never voluntarily gotten dirty and played with sand. We are getting closer to that free spirited girl I know is in there. But she sure hates being dirty. haha. 

Grandma Nicole Visits Chicago:: Just hangin out

And of course, we had some down time. Vacations and having visitors just passes too quickly. I felt like she was had just arrived and then was already leaving. We had a lot of fun while she was here, though. 

We decorated pumpkins, went to gymnastics class, did some shopping, and made a pie. We had a bunch of apples from when we went apple picking, and so I made my first apple pie. It is a family recipe from my Grandma Mary. She makes the most amazing pies, and obviously I have work to do. (Since then, I have made 3 wonderful apple pies that are delicious.)

Grandma Nicole Visits Chicago:: City Girls

Luckily, we had a day that Anthony could work from home and my mom and I could go for a day in the city. The weather was actually pretty decent and better than I had hoped for. We took the train downtown, and walked everywhere except for one cab ride. My mom was in a stepping competition at work, so she was wearing her fitbit and we got over 20,000 steps.. about 7-8 miles! It was a fun day, but also very tiring!

One of my favorite things to do with in the city is going on the River Architecture tour. On this boat, you learn about all the different buildings' history, cool city facts, and you have amazing view of the city. 

After the tour, we walked around Navy Pier and learned that there really isn't much to DO there, but it is a bit quirky. 

For lunch, I made reservations at the Hancock Tower. I know alot of people like to go to Sears Willis Tower, as see the view, but honestly, the Hancock tower as a better view and you get to eat amazing food. That is just a win all around. 

 We got there and still had about an hour wait, even with our reservation, so we headed up to the bar area, and got a corner window seat! Best seat in the house. We got so lucky. Also, here is a little tip if you ever visit. You can go up there and just eat and have drinks without eating in the restaurant. 

And of course, we went to the Bean.