Thanksgiving and Christmas 2011

The last few weeks(months) have been spent preparing for and celebrating the various holidays that fall this time of year. It has been busy busy busy! I’m always a bit sad when it’s all over, but it also is good to get back to routine. I'm going to attempt to summarize what we've been up to the last few weeks. This Thanksgiving we stayed around Illinois.

THANKSGIVING
We ran a 5K, the Frozen Turkey on Thanksiving morning. We dressed the kids up in their costumes for extra warmth and went to run. We all had a lot of fun, and Marc and I were happy with our times as well. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with Marc's extended family at Marc's aunt and uncle's home in Round Lake.

CHRISTMAS
Our Christmas festivities started with our MOM's Christmas Tea at church. My friend Kristin came and we together, provided the music for the program. That following weekend, was our Christmas program at church, which Marc and I (and Lydia) participated in. Marc was the projector guy for the program and I sang with the choir and helped with the kids, as well as helping lead worship. It was a busy night, but were blessed to have parts of both of our families(and Debbe, a long-time family friend!) attend. Here's a pic of the kids at home after the program that night.

The following weekend we went to Marc's Christmas work party, celebrated our 6th anniversary with a nice breakfast at Walker Bros., and then we drove up to WI and had a family reunion/Christmas gathering at my cousin, Jenny's house. It was so fun to see everyone, especially around Christmas. Here's a pic of all the Wise's

Here's a pic of my family (Tom Wise & Company (minus Andy & Amanda)

And here's one of our family

Big thanks to Jon's dad for taking all the photos! The next day we went to Marc's aunt Sharon's for another pre-Christmas celebration. Sharon has a kazillion Christmas decorations throughout her house that light up, sing, and move. The kids, of course, loved it! The week leading up to Christmas Lydia and Mommy did some cooking/eating in the kitchen. Lydia helped me make the peanut clusters I usually make!

At the end she got to lick the spoon!

Then the week before Christmas we had a chance to wind down before winding up again. We do our family Christmas(Marc, me and the kids) Christmas Eve day, so the night before we ate pizza, opened one gift (PJs for the kids) and then watched The Nativity Story. Joe really just played instead of watching, but Lydia intently watched it the entire time. It was so, so neat seeing her make the connections from all we had been teaching her throughout December (about the birth of Jesus)to the movie. Christmas Eve morning we did our thing (Cinnabons for breakfast, singing Christmas carols around the piano, reading the Christmas story, opening gifts, playing with the gifts). I had to take a picture of the cinnabons, as I was so happy to finally find a great recipe for these. This was pre-frosting.

In the evening we headed to Marc's stepbrother Mark's house for the Revoredo/Howard Christmas. It was a great time of catching up with everyone and being together. Then on Christmas we headed to Marc's mom's for a Woerner/Revoredo Christmas. There was lots of gifts, food, and fun! I love that we always get a family picture in.

Then later that night we headed up to WI for our final Christmas(and birthday celebration for me) with the Wise's. Was great to see everyone there and hangout together. Joe loved eatint the rolls for my birthday dinner and was "cheesing" it up for the camera!