Merry Christmas!

The boys set their alarm clocks and woke us up at 6:30 to start our Christmas Day festivities.  We had our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls and bacon while the boys took in all the gifts under the tree.  We always open our stockings first and the boys were excited about their new books, lotto tickets, candy cane spoons, batting gloves, bug zapper racquets, among other things.  Then we moved on to gifts and slowly opened them.  We didn’t finish up until 11:30 or so.  Since it was 50 degrees out, we walked to the park so the boys could try out their new golf clubs.  We played a new board game in the afternoon, played knee hockey, and watched Elf before bed. 

 

Christmas Eve

We had a very fun Christmas Eve.  We drove up to Grand Rapids and celebrated with Grandma, Aunt Mara, Uncle Ken, Katie and Will.  We had good food and drinks, opened gifts, and played a few games (Bingo and Saran Wrap Ball).  Then we went to Grandma’s house to open more gifts.  When we got home, the boys played with their new street hockey sticks and ring game before watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”  Then we put out cookies for Santa before sending them off to bed.

 

Christmas Traditions

We checked off the final items on our “Christmas Traditions” list.  The boys had their snowman breakfast, we drove around to see Christmas lights (and used fun 3D glasses), and baked/decorated gingerbread cookies.  

 

Chicago - Day 3

On Wednesday, Phil and then boys went for a train ride (they still love the train!).  Then we went to JoJo’s Winter Wonderland for milkshakes and hot chocolate.  The boys had the wonderland shake which was a peppermint shake

with buttercream and sprinkles on the rim, a present marshmallow, Christmas tree sugar cookie, snowman cake pop, and a candy cane.  I had the salted caramel hot chocolate which had a toffee covered marshmallow, toasted marshmallow fluff, a chocolate covered pretzel, and a star marshmallow.  They were delicious but we couldn’t finish them all! 

 

Chicago - Day 2

On Tueaday, we got up early for breakfast and walked to Millennium Station to take the Metra to the Museum of Science and Industry.  We spent almost 6 hours at the museum.  The boys were the most interested in the U505 submarine.  It took us about 1.5 hours to walk through that exhibit because they watched every movie and ready almost every sign/display.  After the museum, we had dinner at Eataly before walking to Zoo Lights.  

 

Chicago- Day 1

We were excited to head to Chicago for a holiday visit after missing our annual trip last year.  Due to hockey, we decided to go over winter break.  On our first day, we did some shopping (the boys got new shoes from the Nike store thanks to Grann), the boys rode the train, and we had a delicious dinner at Weber’s.  Both the Walnut Room and the Skating Ribbon were sold out, which was a bummer, but we still had a fun day.