Christmas in Chicago 2009

It's nice to go home for the holidays, but it's also nice to be HOME for the holidays. Over the weekend we went to Chicago to visit with my family for Christmas. It's nice to get a break from cleaning, cooking and the general stress of the holidays that seems to loom over our house like a rain cloud (or maybe a snow cloud would be more appropriate). We enjoyed getting to see lots of my extended family that we don't usually get to catch up with. And we also got to spend time with some good friends who have been missionaries in Bolivia for the past year and a half. I got to see my new nephew for the first time, and the weather actually cooperated for the most part. It was a very good trip overall. But no matter how nice of a time we have visiting, and how good the presents and food are, there's still something so nice about getting back to our own house. Stress, mess, piles and all, it's still home, and it's good to be home.

So now that we're home, and I've had a little time to get all my pictures on the computer, I can share a bit of how we spent our time away from home:

For anyone who doesn't know, I'm originally from a suburb of Chicago, called Elk Grove. It's called Elk Grove because we have elk--specifically two big ones that hang out above the police station--Gren and Barney. They keep watch over the place. Don't mess with the elk. (By the way, I made that up. Yes we do have real elk, but no, they don't have names. At least I don't think they do.)


Then we spent LOTS of time with this little guy. He's really cute, so he got his picture taken a lot. The girls were pretty crazy about their little cousin, Nathan. Emma really liked holding him and trying to rock him. Ashlyn didn't want to be left out either. "My turn!" and "Hold it?" were two things we heard from her anytime Emma got to hold him.

In the collage, starting in the top left corner and moving clockwise, we have Nathan holding hands with his momma, Emma holding him, Ashlyn holding him, then a couple cute pics of him awake, (is that a smile?), then baby toes, the snowman checking on him, another awake pic, the irresistible sleeping baby, and finally in the center is my grandma holding her 13th great-grand baby.

And below we have 4 generations of girls in my family. Then along came Nathan... we didn't have any native-born boys down this line until he came along!


Then it was back to my mom's house for presents!


One of the biggest hits was the ball house!


Then my mom devised a little Christmas guessing game. There were several containers filled with various items--ornaments, goldfish, cheerios, and M&M's. We had to guess how many were in each container, and the one who guessed the closest won it. I won the Goldfish and was only 12 off the actual number! (712) Good thing we like Goldfish around here!


Other things we did (not pictured) included attending a Christmas party at my aunt's house, complete with all of my aunts/uncles/cousins/cousins' kids... everyone who lives anywhere nearby... it was a lot of people. Oh, and before the party, we got to see the big unveiling of an impressive light show two of my cousins put together. For a couple months, they worked on rigging up countless Christmas lights outside their house. Then they programmed them to dance in sync to three different songs. Like I said, it was impressive. Only thing is, I think it set off all sorts of light bulbs in Dakota's head about what he could/would do if only he had the time... next year maybe?

So... a big thanks to my family for a fun and eventful visit. We enjoyed our time there and wish we could have had another day or two to just relax and hang out. But now on to Christmas! Emma is already dancing with excitement over the fact that tomorrow is Christmas eve! What fun it is to be a kid at this time of year!