On Our 2nd Date of Christmas...

After a week of being sick and indoors we decided we were well enough to head over to the downtown Macys to check out the story-book windows and indoor decorations. I was NOT disappointed! It was beautiful! I love the architecture of this Macys, and I especially love how big it it! We got lost a few times trying to find certain things...

Look at that ceiling!!

Christmas Trees everywhere.

After Macys we walked down State street and did a little Christmas shopping and window shopping. Then we turned the corner and saw the Daley Plaza's Chistmas Tree. I LOVE big Christmas Trees (although I do have to admit, I was hoping this one would be a little bit bigger) but it is surrounded by an awesome German Market, The Chicago Christkindle Market, so that made up for it. We joined the crowds and oo'd and ahh'd over the beautiful glass ornaments, intricate wood nativities, and everything else they had out on display. If our stomachs were back to 100% we definitely would have had a Brat, or a Feta and Spinach pretzel, but instead we just admired the nutcrackers, and dolls and clocks, and little villages. I love love ornaments and it was amazing to walk through and see so many beautiful ornaments on display. My feat of the night, however, was NOT buying an ornament from the German Market for myself. It was quite an accomplishment.

Gotta love these awesome life-size nutcrackers!

And these larger-than-life Nutcrackers.

I think my favorite part of the night, though, was walking by a church in the city and seeing this on display. A true reminder.

At this point we were starving, and the only place open was the food court in the Olgivy Transportation Center, so we loaded up on Popeyes Chicken and Taco Bell and headed home to watch a classic Chicago Christmas Movie.

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On our First Date of Christmas

my true love gave to me ...A beautiful Christmas Tree.

We went out in search of the perfect Christmas tree. We went back to our pumpkin lot and looked around there ... but didn't see anything that jumped out to us. In fact, we were in price shock (I should have known trees in the city were 2-3x the amount they were in Minnesota) so we headed over to Costco to check out the trees they had there. Unfortunately, the downtown Costco in Chicago wasn't selling trees!! Only the fresh wreaths. Bummer. So we decided to try Home Depot. While on our way, we were stuck in traffic and I saw another little tree lot, so we pulled over. We looked at lots of trees, and finally found one we liked. Lucky for us the salesman was this nice guy from Wisconsin and gave us a deal (the first time I have been successful at negotiating for a Christmas tree!) We got it home and immediately starting decorating.

Gotta Love the Christmas Tree "office" here in the lot.

The little city tree lot.

Tree on the Xterra.

Our only photo from that night. Not the best, our camera was dead, so its from my phone.

My cute husband putting the star on the tree. The Jazz might have been playing while we were decorating...

All finished! Updated photo to come soon with our new tree skirt!

Merry Christmas! Look for the rest of our 12 Dates of Christmas this month :)

Sweet Moments at home.

I just scrolled through the photos on my phone and found these amazing shots of my favorite nieces and nephews-- I had to share. These kids are so much fun & have so much personality, I love it!! I loved being around for these sweet "everyday" moments that Tarin has with her amazing kids. See captions below each photo.

Nic loves to take my camera and take lots of photos. He took over 100 on Thanksgiving day!

Nic just lost his 2nd tooth!! Such a great smile.

Caidence after dance class.

Somehow I got her to pose for me!

Classic Charlotte look. She's wearing Ashley's high heels.

She loves to dip her head back.

Caidence opening her belated Birthday present.

Caidence loves her present!

Charlotte LOVES glasses. She kept stealing Kelly's reading glasses and wearing them all the time.

The kids all have their own snuggies to wear at Kelly's house and they love them! SO cute.

Charlotte snuggling with her momma.

Watching a movie with the fam.

Sweet Family. Charlotte would kiss Tarin's tummy and then snuggle on her tummy. She was talking to Sawyer. So cute.

Action shot of her kissing Tarin's tummy.

I miss getting to see these guys more often.