We just returned from a whirlwind eleven day trip! We were able to see a lot of family, eat a lot of food and Rog and I even got to get away for a little trip just the two of us!
December 21: Nashville to Chicago:
Flights were on time, pretzels were eaten at the airport and Portillos in the car when we arrived! Definitely not a bad travel day.
December 22: Grandpa and Deona
We celebrated with Grandpa, Deona, Uncle Randy, Aunt Nicole and Emmett in Geneva, IL. We had a fun day obsessing over Emmett, playing a fun candy matching game that Aunt Nicole made, playing several other games, introducing Uncle Randy to Fortnite, eating popcorn out of fancy glasses, opening presents and just being together!
December 23: Grandma
On the morning of the 23rd, we caravanned with Uncle Randy & Fam to Morton to celebrate Christmas with Grandma. We spent some more time loving on our favorite toddler, eating a delicious ham dinner, opening fun gifts including our first year doing adult Secret Santa, playing lots of games (seemed to be the theme of the year for us), eating yummy cookies and celebrating Jesus and Aunt Nicole's (30th) birthdays!
December 24: Milwaukee
Though we couldn't spend our Christmas Eve in Chicago like we normally do due to Covid rules, we still wanted to spend "Christmas in the city" so we went a bit north to Milwaukee! We stayed downtown at the beautiful Pfister hotel. We ate at Texas de Brazil for dinner and on our way out of town, drove the kids by Concordia where we met and got married!
December 25th:
Christmas Day is our time to celebrate with my mom's family. This was the first Christmas without Grandpa P. so that made it hard. Aunt Mar came over to Mom and Dad's house and we had a yummy dinner with my favorite hash brown casserole (thanks mom), yummy pie, good conversation and a few rounds of Password.
December 26th: Grammy & Grammy
The O'Connor Fam came over bright and early in the morning and we had a fun day opening gifts, playing new games (Scattegories, Apples to Apples Jr.), doing crafts, playing pretend games with Grampy, riding the plasma cars, eating a delicious pizza dinner and doing our adult gift exchange/gift card game after the kids were in bed!
December 27- December 31: Cancun!
Roger and I headed off for warm and sunny Cancun and left the kiddos in the care of G&G. I didn't take many pictures because we really didn't do anything and it was AMAZING. We relaxed on the beach, ate a ton, watched some movies, read, did a little shopping and just enjoyed having no schedule.
Balcony view!
This was our favorite restaurant. We went two different nights!
When we travel to different countries the kids always enjoy visiting McDonalds at least once. Its fun to see the unique, culture specific menu items.
Meanwhile.......
Back in Illinois the kids were having the time of their lives being doted on by Grammy and Grampy. Cora learned how to make her own pancakes, she and Grammy got pedicures, there was a robot creating contest, games galore, lego building and even sledding!! Cruz figured out how to complete the Rubik's cube as well!! I am so thankful the kids had this time with G&G after we missed out on our time during the summer. Thank you SO much Mom and Dad for pouring into them this past week.
Rog and I landed just in time to see these kiddos before bed and spend the last few moments of 2020 together! It was a strange year, a crazy year and a year full of learning but it had so many bright moments too! We can head into 2021 with confidence knowing that we all rest in the plan of our Savior!
