Christmas Weekend

My parents flew in this weekend for another round of Christmas festivities.  As soon as they got here, my mom had to get to work wrapping all the boxes of gifts that her UPS elves delivered the past few weeks so they'd be ready when an excited little boy woke up on Saturday morning.

After what seemed like forever (to Will), we opened up gifts and stockings on Saturday morning.  The stockings are as much fun as the wrapped gifts thanks to all the trinkets that Jason and my dad seem to find to stuff in them (only one flashlight each for this year!), plus the gift cards and goodies that the rest of us put in there.  Thanks to the Target dollar bin, Will got two things he loved:  Iron Man socks and a box of M&Ms!  He also got his own gift cards to McDonald's and Target, so dinner and groceries are on him this week!  Besides the presents, we spent time playing with Will's Star Wars LEGO playsets; challenging each other to Scrabble; and eating our holiday favorites like Chicago-style pizza and Jason's signature Christmas prime rib. 

Besides our tree, my favorite part of Christmas theming is Christmas cards.  I hang all of the picture cards across the mantle and this year my friends and their families supplied all of these wonderful photos!  It's a joy to see the pictures of everyone's growing families.  Bonus points for Christmas letters, but I know not everyone has time to do those!

Christmas Day

Since my parents aren't coming until the weekend, we had a pretty low key Christmas morning just the three of us and then we headed to Chicago for a fantastic dinner at Ryan's.  Somehow Ryan and Will ended up dressing alike!

The fantastic food spread:  turkey, cauliflower macaroni and cheese, roasted veggies, tabbouleh, and hummus with fresh vegetables.  Oh my goodness, it was all so delicious!  Ernie guarded the treat table.

After dinner we broke open the boxes of Ryan's childhood toys (mostly Star Wars - and the surprise discovery of the MASK series) that my dad shipped.  I think he saw the golden opportunity to get something out of his basement when all three boys (Ryan, Jason and Will) started talking Star Wars so much. 

We also watched and napped in front of the Christmas classic A Christmas Story.  A lovely, relaxing day! 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

This year we went to church on Christmas Eve.  I figured the Christmas pageant would be a good introduction to church for Will.   The service was a mix of funny and traditional, so it really was a good fit.   I learned a few things, too.  Apparently the wise men aren't really in the Christmas day story in the bible. . . there were some funny jokes about the different versions of the traditional story versus the bible story.

After church, the plan was that Will was going to get to open up all of the presents from me and Jason.  Apparently Jason didn't get that message and thought Will was going to just open one present and save the rest for when my parents come up this weekend.  We compromised on one that Jason bought and the remaining two presents that I bought. That's right. . . I bought Will three Christmas presents (he opened one last week) and thought that was it, but his Daddy and Amazon are apparently working together, so additional presents have appeared under the tree.  I can't wait to see what else Will's getting! :-)

 

Will opened another pair of pajamas, a small LEGO playset, and the big excitement:  a Play-Doh "playset" that includes a garbage truck and four new cans of fresh Play-Doh!  "Rowdy" garbage truck is something he has been coveting for awhile.  It kept him busy until bedtime last on Christmas Eve and entertained all Christmas morning.

Jason and I don't normally exchange gifts for any holidays since Amazon brings him whatever he wants all year long, but this year there are four presents under the tree that he said are for me.  He let me open one on Christmas Eve: all weather floor mats for my Audi!  Super excited, because I loved those on my last car.  There weren't any presents under the tree for Jason, but he did wrap up one thing he bought and said it was to him from William.  Big surprise: another LEGO Star Wars set!  Those boys are ready for winter!

 

We've had a nice, quiet Christmas morning, and are now getting ready to head to the city for Christmas dinner! 

Christkindlmarket

We made our annual trek to Christkindlmarket Chicago last night meeting up with Ryan and several friends.  Will fell asleep on the last 10 minutes of the ride, so he was a bit of a grump to start.  He was better after a mug of hot chocolate.  We adults warmed up our spirits with mugs of gluwein.

Not sure how he managed that mug with those giant mitten on.  So we all know it's cold here in the winter.  Luckily we didn't struggle with the elements last night because we were all appropriately dressed in layers and snow gear.

While we were waiting in line for the ornament house, there was a woman eating a chocolate covered banana.  Will had to have one of those next, since he didn't love his frankfurter as much as the rest of us enjoyed our bratwurst with sauerkraut and mustard!  I just finished my favorite treat at lunch today: cinnamon sugar roasted pecans!

After we closed down the market, we walked past Macy's to see the windows.  They all had great themes!  The one above is to honor the Marshall Field's Walnut Room.  The one below is kids watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV.  For a current take, there is an Elf on the Shelf in the wreath!

 We got a good siblings picture this year, too.  Another fun family event!

Snow

We finally got some real snow yesterday.  It started late morning and just kept up steadily the entire day.  By evening, we had around three inches of snow accumulated and Jason decided it was time to get the snow blower out to clear the driveway and sidewalks.  Will begged him to go out to help (and make snow angels).  Of course we have all the requisite snow gear -- we're required to send it to daycare every day so they can go outside for recess -- so the happy boy got dressed and ready to head out for the first time all day!

After a few snow angels, he got out his plastic shovel and scooped a tiny bit of snow.  Jason did two passes with the snow blower before Will got in the way of one and ended up with snow down his back.  Ten seconds later he was back inside to snuggle with Mama.

Rachel also loves the snow.  She went out several times during the day and was very disappointed to not get to go out front when Will did. Here she seems to be saying, "Don't you see me here waiting on you?"

Star Day

Will has his annual "Star of the Day" coming up at school this week.  Each kid makes a poster to talk about what holiday or holidays their family celebrates and what they do.   We put together the poster on Saturday evening and then made some fun treats for Will to take.  I'm not sure what Will is doing in this picture below.  When I said, let's take a picture he did this:

I got this idea from a blog that my cousin Beckie led me to.  She was sending me there for marshmallow snowmen, but I found Oreo snowmen instead!  These are two Oreos covered in white chocolate and decorated with sprinkles and icing.   They were pretty easy to make and cute!

Soccer

We decided that since we had survived a few months of swimming lessons, that we could try our first Saturday commitment: indoor soccer!  Happy Feet is the same group that Will takes lessons from each Tuesday at school.   For Saturdays they take it up a notch and have to wear shin guards and matching jerseys and they play with the parents in the audience.  Yesterday was the first day and it was so much fun for all of us!  Will was super excited before we went in.  How adorable are those XXS Umbro soccer shorts and XXS shin guards? 

Will was hoping for a blue jersey (his current favorite color) but his school was orange.  Even though the league is outside of school time, they try to keep the kids on teams by daycare.  We didn't recognize any of the kids in the 4-year olds group with Will, but we did see one of his friends in the 5-year olds and he was wearing orange, as well.  So there must be a few other schools mixed in here.  But they have the same coaches (Coach Bobby and Coach Jessica) as at school.

They did drills for a half hour and then played 3-on-3 with a fourth kid in the goal for another half hour.  There were 11 kids total on our court, so a few sat out as well.  It worked out well to have extras since there was frequently a kid crying or wandering off for a water break.   

Will impressed me with his skills and his focus. He looked like he was having a lot of fun running around.   And he even scored two goals!  The only other kid to score multiple goals was a boy wearing pink soccer shoes who was playing like a mini-pro.   I'll be curious to see how that plays out over the session and if he ends up with the ball too much. 

Swimming Update

Now that we're through vacation and Thanksgiving, we have moved Will to a new swimming lesson class time.  The private lesson days were short-lived and he has two other boys in class with him.  Between the three of them, they were a bit crazy, so that - along with Christmas and New Year's interrupting Wednesday lessons - made it a good time to check for a more convenient time slot that we could actually get to without racing.  Will had his last Wednesday lesson last week and his first Thursday lesson the day after.  From what I heard back from Will and Jason, the lesson and time slot were both good!  I got to take Will to his last Wednesday lesson and snap this picture.  I'm looking forward to catching one of his Thursday lessons soon, as well!

Tree Trimming

On Saturday we made our annual trip to Cosley Zoo's Festival of Lights to select our Christmas tree.   The weather was nearly 50 degrees and dry so that was a fantastic start to our day.  We found the perfect tree very quickly.  It was another one of our "usuals" : an 8-foot Fraser fir. 

 

Once we got the tree safely home (and that wasn't a given thanks to a somewhat iffy tie down job), Jason was able to break out the chain saw to trim the trunk and bottom limbs.  Check out those beautiful lights behind him!  We were very thankful that he put those up a few weeks ago.  They were on for the first time when we got home with the tree!

 

 

Sunday was the official Christmas tree decorating.  Will is still of the age where he thinks certain chores are fun.  I was happy to have someone to clean up the stray needles.

 

And, finally the finished product!  Another bright and beautiful tree!  This year's tree has nearly 1,000 lights thanks to Ryan's handiwork.  We had such a fun time putting the ornaments on this year and talking with Will about where we got them.   He and I each had our new Disney ornaments to add!

Thanksgiving

As is our tradition, we spent Thanksgiving with Jason's parents and siblings in Indiana.  Pat, Kelly and Lily hosted 16 of us for a DELICIOUS Thanksgiving dinner and Thursday night slumber party!

Jake and his Mimi Cathy made sure there were plenty of boys toys to play with like these super hero costumes.   Lily had plenty of "new to Will" toys as well.  It was tough to pull him out of the basement for dinner time.

We finally got all six grandkids together this year!  At almost 14 and just turned 12,  Ali and Carter were very good to play with the four little kids (all aged 4 1/2 - 5 1/2).  

On Friday morning, all of the kids and most of the adults ventured to Indianapolis to the Children's Museum - the world's largest!  This place was awesome!   It had a fantastic Dinoscape which thrilled the Dino lovers in our family.   We put together this big puzzle!

 While Carter climbed the rock wall, Will kept busy at this quarry scooping rocks - over and over.

Everyone except the Shields family got up early to see Santa arrive in an Indy car.  The three of us slept in an extra 90 minutes and got there shortly after the museum opened.   We did get to see Will in an Indy car!

We had a fantastic weekend with our family, and I'm so excited that Will is getting to know his cousins finally.   I'm sure his stories over the next few days and weeks will be about the fun at Thanksgiving; just like all the stories we've heard since Fourth of July that have included talk about playing with Ali and Carter and Lexi. 

Attraction Photos: Photopass

Since I have all the photos downloaded, I wanted to do this catch all post for the additional attraction photos like our character meals and rides so I can get them printed for my blog book. 

 

Although he insisted on riding each ride he was tall enough for - and we briefed him on what to expect - there are a few that Will did not want to ride again.   Tower of Terror and Dinosaur were his least favorite due to the darkness.  He didn't cry at either but he spent each ride holding on very tight to us.

His favorite ride (that he also says is scary, but good scary) was Big Thunder Mountain railroad.  We rode it at least four times.  There wasn't a ride photo for it though.  He liked Splash Mountain except the getting wet part (I hear ya on that one buddy!)

The ride we got the most photos on was the Buzz ride.  We rode it at least 6 times on our Christmas party night.  At the end of the evening, we took turns where one parent rode Space Mountain while the other did two lap on Buzz.  Check out all of our intense faces!

 

We only rode the "adult" roller coasters once each due to lack of time but also lack of interest.  At Animal Kingdom, we were ready to go back to EPCOT for the rest of the night and at Hollywood Studios we wanted to ride more times on Star Wars with Will!

As you can see, there was no wait for Everest after dark, but we each rode once and then head back to EPCOT for dinner and Illuminations (and more Test Track!).