Well, I was meaning to do this as soon as we got back, but…here’s a brief recap of our break!
We left Christmas Eve morning for Missouri…5 stops and 7 hours later, we got there in time to light the advent candle as a family at the Christmas Eve service. Derek and Tommy got lots of compliments on their matching outfits. =) Here’s the whole family afterwards, minus Cammy, who was with her parents. (I guarantee she’ll be in the family photo next year, but that’s another story…)
Grandpa had a surprise for Tommy on Christmas morning–a working train circling the tree! Tommy loved it so much that he kindof wasn’t into the presents that much. He’s still saying “Ba-Pa choo-choo” whenever he sees a picture of a train, which leads me to think that he can’t wait to go back to Grandpa’s and play with the train set again!
After a busy few days, we headed back to Chicago to discover that our foot of snow was gone. We just had time to unpack before Seth and Leann came up to spend New Year’s with us!
Seth was a real sport, escorting Leann and I around downtown (and doing most of the Tommy duty) while Derek was at work. We spent almost a whole day at Watertower Place, culminating with a pleasant half hour in the American Girl store. Seth and Tommy were bored, but they patiently followed Leann and I around as we exclaimed over all the additions since our pre-teen days. The only real bummer about their visit was that we didn’t get to see a show (one of the main goals of their trip). I couldn’t find a babysitter, Derek had to work late, and I was stupid and thought we could buy tickets the day of for any performance except Wicked. Oh well. We consoled ourselves with Settlers of Catan and totally missed the New Year playing Clue. (We’d stayed up on purpose, but we totally forgot about watching for midnight until we heard fireworks going off and realized it was 12:05.) It was certainly a ladies’ night–Leann won once and I won twice!
So it was a busy but sweet holiday season for us, complete with lots of quality time with family and friends. Mom and Dad Muller and Nona Tata are coming over on Friday to do the Muller side Christmas, so we’re leaving our tree and Christmas decorations up ’til then!