Christmas celebrations

We have had a whirlwind of Christmas celebrations for the past two weeks straight.  Two weeks ago were all of the school parties, and the all-school prayer service.  We were cookie-making machines, and were able to give a ziploc of homemade treats to each of the girls' many teachers, who are each so very special to us.  We also took the girls to a Santa brunch after Katie sang at church on the 18th.  And we went to a rollerblading party when school was out!

Last week, Mom & Dad C came here for an early Christmas.  We opened presents in the morning, and we all loved our gifts!  Then we went to a Polish restaurant for lunch, and then we visited a Polish market and a Polish bookstore, before going to an Italian market.  Our dinner was a hodgepodge of homemade gnocchi and takeout Italian subs, but it was good!  Then we walked around downtown Rochester to enjoy the lights.  The pictures don't do it justice - the lights are amazing!

We drove to Wheaton to celebrate "real" Christmas.  We had a leisurely time visiting with friends and family while we were there.  The girls didn't wake up too early on the 25th, which was nice.  We opened presents (again loved them all!), went to church, enjoyed a yummy brunch at Joe & Nancy's plus more presents, and drove to Racine for Christmas dinner.  An exhausting, but fun day!

On our drive home, we stopped in downtown Chicago to see the Blue Man Group.  The girls loved it!  But we got home very late at night, and had to push back "our" Christmas by another day.  Santa brought lots of presents to our house while we were gone, and they had to spend another night under the tree.

Yesterday was a very relaxing day of opening presents and playing with all the new toys.  The girls played outside in the snow (a rarity so far this winter), and we all went to the pool for fun.  The girls had a sleepover in Megan's room last night; all three were curled up in Megan's bed.  It was so cute!  They slept fine, and weren't up too early - as far as we know.

Today we attempted to tame the mess in our house, and filled our garbage and recycling bins to the brim!  We also did a little shopping with our gift cards, and cleaned up part of the basement.  The girls spent the day playing with their toys, and they're having another sleepover tonight, this time in Katie's room.  Jessi is on the bed, and Katie & Megan are on a "nest" of blankets on the floor.  They are all very worn out and are sleeping great.

Thank you to everyone for the generous gifts of presents, and for spending time with us if you were able.  We have had a wonderful Christmas this year, and we look forward to an even better 2012!

We had way too many pictures to add to this blog post, so I uploaded them to Snapfish to make it a little easier:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=8015521008/a=55285543_55285543/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Merry Christmas!!

December so far...

We've had a very busy month so far.  Are you surprised??  :)  The month started off with Chris on a trip to Italy for work.  He had an exciting flight home - on a private jet with the CEO!  The day after he got back was the Rochester Christmas Parade.  Chris helped to build the school float, and the girls walked in the parade.

Famous kids - they were on TV!!

Fan club at the parade

Jessi loves doing her own hair, and everyone else's! 
Most nights I have to spend 5+ minutes taking out dozens of
clips and other accessories out of someone's hair.

Jessi has really gotten into puzzles.  She loves to show off
her skillz and never allows a sister to help her.

Last night we decorated our tree.  It's so beautiful! 
(even if there are no ornaments up high)

 On Tuesday, we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.  Well, there wasn't a lot of celebrating.  We had to squeeze in Katie's tutoring and a dr appt before we went out for dinner.  And in the parking lot of the eye dr, Jessica got "tripped by my mama" (as she puts it) and fell HARD on her face.  Her hands were in her jacket pockets, so nothing broke her fall.  She was bleeding everywhere - she had two split lips, bloody nose on both sides, and a badly scratched up nose.  Her lips and nose swelled up quickly.  She spent most of the night with ice on her face!

That night we went out to dinner at a Japanese hibachi place, where they cook the food in front of you.  It was a big hit with the girls, except Jessi was afraid of all of the fire.  Not even the onion volcano could make her smile.

Today we took Jessi back to the eye doctor to pick out her frames.
Here she is!  Her new glasses are brown on the outside, and deep
purple on the inside.  It is subtle, but very cool.  Her lenses will
be in within a week, and then she will be sporting specs all day,
every day!  Poor farsighted baby!

Also today, we hung the rest of our outdoor lights, and we put up all of the decorations in the house, including 5 nativity scenes and dozens of snowmen.  We also baked peanut blossoms and watched Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

Cookie monsters

Add in choir practice, ballet practice, and LOTS of homework and special projects, and we have had a whirlwind of a month so far!  This coming week will be full of end-of-the-year stuff at school etc, and then it will slow down.  The girls are in school til the 20th.