Christmas 2023

With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year our church held services at the normal times, so we attended the candlelight service at 10:00 am! We didn't have much else planned for the day, which was wonderful! We spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies, having dinner at our traditional spot Little Italian, and putting out milk and cookie for Santa. :)

We had a fun Christmas morning at home opening presents, drinking coffee and eating cinnamon rolls and bacon!

Later that morning we packed up and headed to my parents house in Crystal Lake to celebrate with my Grandma (GeeGee) and Aunt Mar! Wish I had gotten more pictures from the day but it was so great to see both of them and to chat!

The next day we enjoyed our cousin celebration with my parents and the Baum family! Always one of my very favorite days of the year! We all missed our traditional Nick's Pizza dinner this year as they were unfortunately closed that day but made up for it at Giordano's!

Later that week, the girls and I went to tea at the Drake Hotel in Chicago with Nate's Aunt Nancy as a Christmas gift to the girls. We all loved it so much that we're thinking about making it an annual tradition!

We had our final Christmas celebration with Nate's mom and dad on the 30th! We had the best day hanging out, opening presents and eating!

December Things

 We have lots of favorite traditions in December, so amidst the crazy we were able to squeeze in our two favorites!

First up was our visit to downtown Naperville for dinner (sushi), looking at the lights and ending the evening with ice cream!

On another night we drove around Naperville looking at Christmas lights! The Taylor Swift themed house (which gained a lot of publicity) was a big hit with the girls! :)

November

Jade had her first middle school band concert! She was spoiled with both Grammy and Grampy and Grandma and Grandpa in the cheering section!

Jemma was busy this month with Volleyball! We're so proud of how much she improved and grew in confidence! She had never played before and joined a team without knowing anyone! She was deemed the "most consistent server" at the end of the session!

I had a fun time seeing Phil Vassar with friends and the newest Troll's movie with Jade and Jemma!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Nate's family! We had such a great day filled with food, family and fun!

We put up our Christmas tree and decorated the house on the Saturday following Thanksgiving! We had our traditional feast of snacks while decorating! This is always a favorite day for our family.

We had our first "snow". The girls made snowmen with pretty much all the snow in the front yard! ;)