Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

I just LOVE Christmas! The spirit of the season is so super sweet to me and of course with our family being thankful that this season always brings the reminder of the gift of our Savior, Christmas is hugely important and a midst the gift giving, Santa, talks about Rudolph, spending so much time decorating, and all the other fun stuff, it's going to be a huge priority to Craig and I, to really keep Christ in Christmas and make sure GG recognizes the true reason and meaning we get to celebrate. As we begin to focus on that and nightly in our prayers help Georgia begin to know who Jesus really is and that he came in the form of a precious baby to bring her a life that can be so full and so complete, we also are getting excited about the super fun kid stuff that we are going to get to experience all over again with our daughter. And one of those things, sitting on Santa's lap! So this morning, early, we were the 3rd people in line, we took Georgia to visit Santa Claus. How fun and utterly weird to see your first born daughter sitting on Santa's lap, kind of uncertainly, and remember it being not that long ago that it was you nestling up against the belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly!

Georgia definitely did OK with her first North Pole visit. She didn't flash one of her huge girly smiles, but she didn't scream either, so we think it was successful. After our trip to the mall, we headed over to Daddy's to help get his house looking all Christmasey and then open up gifts and have one last meal with Poppi before we head home tomorrow.

Georgia LOVED being around Denver, her Uncle Brent's dog, and he was pretty much fascinated with her too, so they were a perfect pair!

Who doesn't love opening up presents, and we all did not hesitate to get giddy over ripping off bows and tearing apart wrapping paper. Georgia especially loved it, and it was hard to keep her focused on the great gifts that Poppi gave her because she was really into all the fancy trimmings. Just some of the goodies.....new cycling sunglasses for Craig, a fabulous black dress coat from Nordstroms for me (love the huge buttons on it), some stylish baby gap jeans for the girly, a tractor that sings Old McDonald and has all kinds of barn animals with it that make their corresponding noises, of course great stocking stuffers, and then these.......


These hats were actually a gift from me to the boys. Just a little something for them to open up today before we really celebrate all together down in Florida, Brent will be there for a few days too. I couldn't resist their furry goodness, and happily, Craiger and Brentski were totally pleased and proudly showed them off! Perfect for the chilly weather we all know will eventually truly arrive.

Even GG could pull off the look well!

What a special day with family and loved ones, and a night munching on Zip burgers and chili and fries and then doing just a tad of window shopping before saying good bye to Poppi, made it perfect.

We've had such a wonderful visit in Ohio this weekend, truly a blessed time, we are so grateful. We love our family and they mean the world to us. Leaving tomorrow is going to be hard, but it's back to Chicago, and we'll be getting our home full of the Christmas spirit and spending time with darling friends there as we prepare to really celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.

Post Turkey

Our post turkey day was perfect! After getting a great night sleep, due to the effects of tryptophane, we rised and shined, had another great meal together, breakfast, my favorite, and then lounged around the house before heading out to meet up with my girlfriends Pam and Rachelle in Hyde Park. Daddy, my daddy, also came by for our lunching, so it was great to get more time in with Poppi. As usual time with my gals, was perfect! They are precious friends and I LOVE spending time with them and catching up, we have always been there for each other and haven't lost touch, even through miles and years, and I'm grateful for that, love you girls!

After bundling back up and heading out in the cold, we made 3 quick stops....1. we picked up some movies at Blockbuster to have an afternoon of PJs and cuddling while the girly took her nap. 2. Dutch's was a must stop on our list. Dutch's is this fab wine and beer dock that Jay and Pam own and it's in Hyde Park and just a great place to pick up your favorite bottle of wine, or after taking Pam's advice at lunch, we snagged some new Christmas brew that is out. Check out their website, so proud of this sweet couple of ours and what a darling pic of Pam on the website to bring in the customers, too cute! 3. We swung by Brent's pad to convince him that pulling out blankets and pillows in the basement and watching Twilight (Craig and I are seeing the 2nd one, New Moon, with Kel on Tuesday) was a definite necessity of any fun family weekend. He obliged and we carted him home with us!

We, or rather Mom, also started Christmas decorating today, love it, and we are going to put up the tree at her place tomorrow morning, and then we're heading to Poppi's for the rest of the day and evening to trim his tree and also celebrate an early Christmas together since we will be heading to Florida for 10 days and will not be coming back home for Christmas this year. It's definitely beginning to look, and feel, a lot like Christmas around here, and I love it! To officially kick off the Christmas spirit, we're heading downstairs to pop in another movie now since GG is in bed and we're totally in family movie viewing mood, we've got Four Christmases to check out, can't wait!

So Much Thanks

What a special family Thanksgiving we had! We arrived home Wednesday night, and ever since we got here it has just been family time, family time, family time, and we have LOVED it! Georgia is at such a fun age and having her be around everyone has been great for her and PRECIOUS for everyone else, no one can resist this sweet bundle of joy and laughter. And the clapping milestone came just in time for this peanut because there has been much to give applause over.

We headed over to my cousin's yesterday, Matthew, Cyndi, Kayleigh, and Kristen, for our Thanksgiving feast, and was it ever! The food was delicious. Cyndi and my other cousin Linda, and Georgia's Great, Great Aunt Elaine, did such a wonderful job! Of course some others pitched in with some sides and such, but they did the brunt of the work and it was yummy! We had a little bit of a tired monkey on our hands, but she was all dolled up in her Thanksgiving best and just looked too cute for words. It happened to be that Georgia, Mama, and Nana all wore black and grey, we all matched very stylishly, and we wanted so bad to get a great picture of the gals, but we just couldn't get a smile, or even a smirk for that matter, out of the girly!


We opted to look like Georgia instead and be feeling how she was feeling, tired, worn out, and full of turkey!

All the younger cousins together....Caitlyn, Kristen, Kayleigh, Kellie, and me.

Everyone had super full bellies by the end of the meal, and to top it off we had to die for desserts, they were INCREDIBLE! One in particular was this caramel cake that I definitely need to get the recipe for, and of course we had the standard pumpkin pie, cranberry cobbler, and apple desserts too. Georgia was so tired by the end of it all and actually didn't eat as much of the actual Thanksgiving dinner as I had hoped, but I heard everyone loud and clear when they said she would still get dessert no matter how she ate since it was her first Thanksgiving, spoiled little lady! And boy did she ever, she ate a whole slice of this caramel cake I've been raving about, and she liked it just as much as her mommy did!

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After putting GG to bed in the Pack and Play, people put on their comfys and then we headed downstairs to the media room and snuggled in on this wonderful cozy couch that could fit ALL of us, and we watched a movie, a perfect end to the evening.

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What a blessed Thanksgiving, and we have so much to be thankful for as this holiday season kicks off.......here we come Christmas!!!!!!

A Sweet Blessing Called Christy

Our family was hugely blessed by our nanny who cared for Georgia over the last 8 months, Christy. I can't even begin to start to explain what this woman has meant to us. She took amazing care of GG and leaving our precious daughter to head back to work 2 days a week when she was just 3 months old was so hard, but I never worried, not even once, because Christy was the literally the next best thing to Craig or I. She cared for Georgia like she was her own and got to be such a sweet part of a child's life as they grow and develop so much during their first year.

Wednesday was Christy's last day with our family. She will be missed like crazy, but for all the time we did have with her, and all the love she gave so immensely to Georgia, we are forever grateful. We love you so much Christy and you will not be forgotten and are still going to be a part of our family and prayers, I foresee many fun lunch dates in our future! Thank you for everything girlfriend!!!!!!

A Lot Worth Being Thankful For

So much to be thankful for this holiday season. We are praying everyone's Thanksgiving is blessed and brought in with many smiles! We love you all!

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"Give THANKS to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Psalm 107:1