Christmas day

We hosted Christmas Day again this year. First of all, the girls woke up super early (around 6:00am) and came downstairs and opened up their gifts from Santa and their stockings. We had cinnamon rolls then played all morning with their new things. At noon Grandma, Papo, Uncle Brian and Great Grandpa George came over for Christmas lunch. I usually make a brunch but felt like doing a lunch this year. We had roast beef sandwiches, ambrosia, greek salad, roasted teeny potatoes and a ton of cookies/sweets for dessert. The girls opened up their gifts and the adults did our annual book grab bag. We hung out all afternoon and everyone left late evening. It was a great Christmas...the only thing that was missing was SNOW!








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Christmas Eve

We traditionally spend Christmas eve with the Castaneda side (my mom's). This year uncle John and aunt Emily hosted at their house in the city. I love going there because they live in the neighborhood I grew up in.
We had lots of fun. The girls received so many great gifts; pj's, play doh, Brave, books, clothes, necklaces, ornaments, necklace maker, sticker books, craft stuff....and more. Uncle Brian put together a slide show of family memories for all of us and that was great!!!
The girls didn't fall asleep on the way home so it was an east transition to bed to get ready for Santa!
Some pics of all the cousins, uncle John and aunt Emily and uncle Brian with the girls.























Dad and I read " the night before Christmas" to the girls and left cookies and a note for Santa with 8 carrots for the reindeer as Mia insisted on.

We went to our towns outdoors ice rink yesterday. Annie skated for the first time and loved it. Must be taking notes while watching big sissy!

Mia sang yesterday at church in the cherub choir. It was a great way to kick off Christmas.
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get together

Saturday was our Christmas get together with my oldest friends :) The girls loved seeing Miguel again - he is getting so big and is adorable! They had fun playing with the guys on the new fuse ball table at Clara's house. We had a great visit and can't believe how big our babies are getting! So good to see my friends :) The girls brought their jammies since it was a late night.

Mia sang in the all kids church service today. She did great and had fun. It was a beautiful service. In light of what recently happened in CT it was very peaceful and sweet to see the kids do this service. I think nationwide there isn't one person who doesn't have a heavy heart this Christmas.











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Jingle bells

Just learned it this morning.

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Michigan trip

Great trip to Michigan this weekend. Visited great grandma and grandpa Caporale, aunt jean, aunt sue and papa. Aunt sue treated us to see the IMAX 3-d Polar express which was great! Papa treated us to a yummy dinner in Plymouth. We had to come home early for Sophie's birthday party as Mia did not want to miss it.

















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Walnut Room +Elevator Adventure

Yesterday the girls and I meet Grandma at Macy's (the old Field's) for our annual trip to the Walnut Room for lunch then to see Santa. It was nice outside so that made this year's trip very nice. The girls wanted to take the train downtown. We saw Santa and then had a nice lunch..and the fairies visited us again and sprinkled pixie dust to make our wishes come true.
We then walked through Christkindlmarket which was super crowded and a bit touristy. But since it was nice out it was great to just walk though. Then we went up to Dad's office to visit. The girls had fun seeing lots of dad's co-workers and even met the big boss of the firm. They loved looking outside of the 47th floor view!
Then....on the way back to the lobby, we had to take the handicap elevator from the 2nd floor to the lobby. Mia somehow went ahead on the wrong elevator and as we were saying her name to get off, the doors closed and off she went. I didn't panic at first because 1. I knew she couldn't go farther than floor 8 2. We were in an office building NOT a department store so chances of some perv kidnapping her were lower 3. I know my daughter...and I know how smart she is and I knew she would figure this out. Sure enough after a few minutes, she returned to our floor. She ran right to me and cried as of course she did get a bit scared...I didn't make a big deal out of it. She then told us that she saw on Calliou how he got lost once and his mom told him to just stay where he was and she would find him...so we told her how smart she was and that was the right thing to do. She later told me that a man got on and said to her 'are you lost' and she told him nothing, then a lady got on and said 'oh she was on the 2nd floor' so I am thinking they pushed her 2nd floor button to return her. Anyway, we were glad she was ok and returned in a few minutes.....

traditions

Some of our Christmas traditions kicked off the holiday season this weekend. First of all, we put our tree up Thanksgiving weekend. We strung some popcorn this year and that was super hard fun! Tree looks great from outside at night..Mia has great grandma George's tree in her window that glows at night too.


Saturday we went to the annual Flossmoor tree lighting and Christmas carols...then to the Flossmoor Station Brewery for our annual dinner...we love going there as it's so Christmasy with white lights everywhere!

Sunday night was the Live Nativity at the church down the street. This year was so warm out, it wasn't bad waiting in line. After the nativity we went inside and did crafts and munched on Christmas cookies. It was fun!





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