The day before we got home from Chicago, we had a storm that dumped 25 inches of snow at our house! It didn’t matter that we weren’t here to see it fall, because there was PLENTY left to play with when we got home! Even Emily enjoyed it a little more this year!
-Abby & Emily
Before we left for Chicago, we left some cookies and a glass of milk in the fridge for Santa, and he came to our house and found them! This is what we found when we got back home:
Emily’s favorite Santa gift this year was her new baby stroller!
My favorite Santa gift this year, and the ONLY thing I asked for for Christmas from ANYONE was my new electric toothbrush like daddy’s!
When daddy asked me what my favorite part of our trip was this year, I thought about all of the family we saw, my date with Drew, the fun places we went, the hotels we stayed in, seeing my cousins, Christmas morning and all the presents, celebrating Jesus’s birthday, and TONS of other things we did, and I finally settled on:
The eye drops I get in my eyes three times a day for the pink eye I had while in Chicago…
Since there were so many people at Mor-Mor’s house, Aunt Jenn’s family & our family got to stay in a hotel for two nights! We had so much fun hanging out with our cousins… especially in the hotel pool!
Emily was NOT liking the pool…
… but she was LOVING watching us while she ate her feet! Babies are so weird!
We had so many people at Mor-Mor’s house this year for Christmas, that we could hardly all fit! Mommy’s cousins were even there, and one of their family’s flew in the night before to surprise everyone! It was a full house, but we had so much fun!
Surprise!
Mor-Mor gave all the guys special t-shirts (my daddy’s was my favorite):
Even mommy & Aunt Jenna got matching sister shirts:
Daddy gave my Mac “obsessed” Uncle Aaron some special PC gifts as his grab bag… He took it well
Finally, Mor-Mor gave everyone a special “pig” gift in honor of my cousin Julia’s favorite pig, Wilbur, at the Critter Barn who she loves to tell the story about how he “got chopped up to bacon”… There were A LOT of pigs in the house!
We finally understood what mommy went through as a child when she had to stay out of the living room until everyone was awake on Christmas morning… it’s really hard to do when you’re a kid!
All the kids lined up, youngest to oldest, to head in and see what Santa left!
He ate the cookies we left him (Abby & Julia were the only one’s to notice)!
The gift of the year was a Pillow Pet for all the kids! Abby loved her purple hippo, and Emily loved her “Woo-Woo”:
Emily was a little under the weather that morning, and couldn’t get past the wrapping paper stuck to her finger to keep opening gifts…
Abby’s favorite gift of the morning was her Rupunzel wig from Mor-Mor:
Emily LOVED feeding her new baby:
It was a crazy, noisy, chaotic Christmas morning, but we all had a blast! Thanks Mor-Mor!
On Christmas Eve, we let Mor-Mor open a special gift, and inside were matching pj’s for all the kids! After a lot of screaming & dancing around by the grown-ups, we finally got a couple of cute pictures together!
Aunt Jenna helped us fill up the manger so it would be ready for Baby Jesus’s birthday in the morning:
Julia & I picked some good cookies to leave for Santa:
Emily kept stealing the carrots we left for the reindeer:
After putting out the cookies for Santa, the carrots for the reindeer, and the cheese for “Santa Mouse”, we were ready to head to bed to see if Santa would come!
Mommy & Aunt Jenna put together graham cracker houses for my cousins & I to decorate together! We had tons of candy, and even a little bit of it ended up on our houses!
-Abby
I finally got to hang out with Drew again, and I was thrilled to find out that he thought it would be ok if we got married! Woohoo! We even went on a date together at the Shedd Aquarium! We had so much fun together even though mommy, daddy & Emily hung around too. Drew taught me so much about sharks… he’s such a smart boy! Now that the date is over, I can start planning the wedding (although most of that is done already 
-Abby
For Brian's birthday this year, Nannie & Grandpa came for a quick visit and we went out for one of his favorite dinner experiences.....
