December

 This year we decided to split up our annual night of driving around looking at Christmas Lights into two separate nights!

The first night we started by walking around Downtown Naperville looking at their light display. We grabbed ice cream from our favorite spot, Cookie Dough Creations, and ate it in the car while we drove around looking at all our favorite local houses! There were several houses that had their lights programmed to music, those were definitely the highlight for the girls!

Our second night was our more traditional night, where the girls get in their pajamas and we drive around looking at lights while eating fries and milkshakes from McDonalds! There were some pretty impressive light displays this year. Even some where people were getting out to look around!

This year, Santa drove through our neighborhood on a float! The girls loved it! Such a fun idea and alternative to visiting Santa in these COVID times! :)

We had our first Christmas celebration with Grandma and Grandpa on December 23rd! We had a fun day of opening presents, playing games and enjoying yummy food. We all spent the night there too, which was extra fun for everyone!

We had a fun day at home on Christmas Eve. We relaxed, watched Christmas movies, made cookies for Santa, had pizza for dinner and watched church online. Our Church was planning to do an outdoor service, but because of super cold temperatures it was unfortunately cancelled last minute.

Christmas Day of course began with presents followed by cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast! Later that morning we headed out to celebrate with Nate's extended family! We had such a fun day seeing family!

One of Jemma's gifts (a remote control American Girl car) was delayed, so she received a letter from Santa saying it would be delivered in early January.

Our last celebration was with Grammy and Grampy and the Baum Family on December 26th! The cousins had the best time playing together, and I loved catching up with my sister! There was lots of presents, laughs and food! We did however miss our annual tradition of Nick's Pizza for dinner (because of COVID). 

Our last celebration is typically on December 27th with my extended family on my dad's side. Everyone is pretty scattered throughout the US and it didn't make a ton of sense for us to all to try to gather together due to COVID. Instead, earlier in December the kids all participated in a Zoom Scavenger Hunt event together and the adults had a catch up Zoom together! We miss you all and can't wait to see you in person SOON!

November

Grammy's Birthday

We started out November with a fun weekend at Grammy and Grampy's house celebrating my mom's 60th Birthday. My sister and her family came in from TN, too. The weekend was definitely a 2020 highlight for me as it was the first time all of us were able to be together. We enjoyed delicious food, beautiful weather and just being together.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my parents. Due to COVID it was just the 6 of us, but we had a blast together. My mom prepared an amazing turkey dinner and desserts! 

 

Putting up the Christmas Tree

We put up our tree and began decorating the day after Thanksgiving along with our traditional feast of snacks. We unfortunately said goodbye to our old artificial tree that Nate and I got the year we got married. With the addition of a large sectional in our family room this year, and not wanting to move a lot of furniture around, we decided on getting a smaller artificial tree to use this year instead. It really came to life once Nate straightened the branches and we put on the ornaments! ;)

October

October was a really good month for us, and possibly the most "normal" month we have had since COVID. The weather was still decent for most of it too, which helped immensely.

All our added park time helped Jemma conquer the monkey bars. She didn't even start trying them until the middle of September. Here's a little clip of her from early October!

We had Grandma and Grandpa over for a day of crafts and pumpkin carving!

The girls got to have a sleepover with Grammy and Grampy that included parks, culvers, a trip to the Pumpkin Patch and A LOT of playing!

We went on a fun family hike to Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in Lemont to soak up some fall color. The waterfall was completely dry, so the girls enjoyed walking through where it normally runs! 

Jade's Girl Scout troop was able to meet twice this month for a hike and pumpkin painting. It was SO nice to see the girls having fun together and not over Zoom!

Jade was able to have a complete season of soccer as well. Her team was paired with one other team and they were allowed to practice together twice a week and scrimmage with each other on Saturdays. One of Jemma's friends has a sister on Jade's team, so it worked out so well for them to play on the playground together during practices and games! Jade improved so much this year, and has really come to love playing soccer. Indoor seasons have been postponed because of COVID unfortunately. :(

(I was able to catch a video of Jade scoring a goal. She is in a yellow jersey with hot pink socks.)

Halloween was a blast! Jade and Jemma dressed up as Mal and Uma from Descendants 2. The weather was perfect and we had the best time trick or treating with our neighbors! So many people had very creative and socially distant ways of passing out candy! We trick or treated for about 2 hours taking a break in between to take a quick break and empty round one candy.