Fall/Winter 2016

Well, evidently I can't keep up with this blog these days but I'm still trying to play catch up ;)

Halloween 2016- Our new neighborhood is very small so we decided to go to Aunt Cyndi's neighborhood and trick or treat with the family. The cousins love hanging out any and every chance they get so they of course loved it! Charlotte & Hannah Kate dressed up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Micah was a police officer, and Clara was some sort of rainbow Zebra. Micah kept us laughing all night trying to sound like a real police officer, saying things like "I'm a police officer, give me all your candy!" We were so excited to be trick or treating in TN this year because it was actually warm enough that we didn't have to wear coats over our costumes! Every year in Highland Park, IL we had to bundle up with our winter coats because winter starts in October there and it was freezing and snowing or sleeting every year. Yay for warmer weather in October!

Thanksgiving 2016- This is the first year we haven't had to drive across multiple state lines to celebrate Thanksgiving with family so that was the first thing I was thankful for this past Thanksgiving! It was wonderful only having to drive 15 minutes to get to families houses. We had lunch at Cyndi's with immediate and some extended family, some that we haven't seen in over a decade! There were so many kids that I don't think ours stopped running around for hours. After celebrating with my side of the family we went to Patrick's parents house, which is only about 5 minutes from my sister's house, and had dinner with his immediate and some extended family. I am so grateful that we are finally "home" in TN, we are close to family, there are lots of cousins for my children to grow up with here, there are lots of grandparents close by to love on my children, we found and moved into our "forever" home and I love it more every single day! I am most thankful that I get to be Patrick's wife and these 4 children's mom! They are my heart and I am one lucky person :) It was a great celebration of Thanksgiving and we ended the holiday thankful that we were already home at the end of the night and didn't have to think about driving a whole day to get back home.

Christmas 2016- Christmas was so much fun this year because Char, HK, and Micah are all at that age where they are so excited to celebrate any and all Christmas traditions to the max! In early December we saw "The Polar Express" at my sister's church on the big screen in the sanctuary and got to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus and eat cookies and popcorn all night. They loved it because they got to give their tickets to the conductor on their way in and he had a hole punch that he used just like in the movie. There were also lots of elves to help direct people on where to go. It was really so much fun! We got to see Santa again at a Christmas Celebration just down the road at Homestead Manor where they had lots of holiday crafts for the kids, a cookie decorating station, and a little train we got to take a ride in.
We hosted Christmas Eve dinner for my side of the family at our house and it was so exciting to finally get to host a holiday since we now live here. We not so jokingly call my mom "Nana Claus" because she always seems to show up with her big bag of goodies for the kids and this was no exception! She had to put stuff in Catie's car and Kyle's car as well as her own just to get all of her gifts up to my house. We had a big dinner and then a big gift opening session. Afterwards it looked like a wrapping paper tornado had hit the living room 😮
We celebrated Christmas morning with just us and the kids. We enjoyed having a little "down" time to try to focus our minds on the purpose of Christmas and sing a Happy Birthday song to Jesus :)
Later in the morning we went over to Patrick's parents house for brunch and to celebrate with his side of the family. We also often refer to his mom as "Nonny Claus" because she too is known to often have a bag of treats for the kids and just loves giving gifts. So you can imagine it was another session of flying wrapping paper for the kids! All in all it was a great holiday!