Downtown Festivities

We traditionally go downtown the weekend after Thanksgiving to dive into the holiday spirit. We lucked out this year and had great weather and very little crowds. Every year we have gone, it has been super cold and brisk. This year it was in the 40's and not very windy; tropical for Chicago this time of year. We headed straight for Marshall Fields, I mean Macy's, and put our name in to eat at the famous Walnut room. I have always wanted to eat there but never got a chance and I was determined to do so this year. We had about an hour and a half wait for lunch so we decided to go downstairs and wait for Santa. Marshall Fields, I mean Macy's, does a nice job of having something to entertain the kids while they wait. They wind you through their Cozy Cottage and there are a lot of interactive thins for the kids to play with which makes the long wait go faster. Paige was not interested in sitting with Santa alone as you can see from the photo below. I started out with her and then slipped away and she started to cry. We all joined her and then she decided to smile. The photographer gave her a stuffed polar bear to hold which was nice but she didn't want to give it back. Santa was watching so she did.

All of us with Santa. Same Santa as last year and he is a bit creepy looking. I wouldn't want to be alone with him either.

Paige and Daddy looking cute while waiting for Santa.

The tree in the Walnut Room. It is three stories high and beautiful. Right after we were done with Santa, our table was ready for lunch. We got to sit right next to the tree so it was a nice treat. The food was fantastic and not nearly as expensive as I had anticipated. We even topped off our meal with a Frango Mint Ice Cream Pie. Marshall Field's is known for their Frango Mints and ever since Macy's bought them out, they decided to keep the mints. A bit of a piece offering for us Chicagoians that aren't happy that Macy's now owns the historic landmark of a store.

The Walnut Room had two fairy princesses walking around and sprinkling fairy dust on the little girls. Paige was enthralled from the moment she spotted her from across the room. She thought she was Cinderella for a while there. She came over and spent quite some time with Paige and even let Paige sprinkle fairy dust on her since she could tell that Paige was a princess herself. Boy did she eat that up. The princess still sprinkled fairy dust on Paige and she was thrilled. If you ask her about it, she will tell you, "Princess said close your eyes and sprinkled it on me!" So cute.
After all that, we went outside to look at the windows. A big disappointment I must say. Marshall Fields used to choose a holiday story every year and tell it through the window decorations. Now, Macy's just puts up a few things and calls it a day. So sad. I'm sure they will recieve their share of complaints this year. People in Chicago really look forward to that. We were happy to let Paige take part in the giving that goes along with Christmas. She enjoyed donating to the Salvation Army while we were there. We think it is important that they know Chirstmas is about giving too.

After all that fun, we headed up the street to the Chriskindlemart to shop and get mulled wine and roasted nuts. It was fantastic and not that crowded. We couldn't have asked for a better day downtown. Now, off to decorate the tree tonight.

So much to be thankful for

This year, we had a huge family Thanksgiving. Oddly enough none of my siblings were around since they were spending them with their in-laws, but there were so many others, you never would have guessed it. We had my parents, James (Ryan's brother), the Sullivan's (Mandy's cousins) and a few of their friends, the Sundberg's (Ryan's cousins) and their sister Chris, Josh and Pamela (my Dominican family) and then Ryan, Paige and I. That brought the grand total to 21. We enjoyed sharing the tradition with those who aren't from the US, Josh from the Dominican Republic and Mary Jane from Australia. We were impressed with our ability to all squeeze into the dining room to have a family dinner. As you can see, everyone enjoyed their meal. It was so nice to have extended family there. Paige enjoyed all the attention since she was the only child. She sure has a thing for her cousin Elaine and I know the feeling is mutual. We are so thankful for having such great family and friends. 21 this year, who knows how many next year! Happy Thanksgiving!

Paige and Granny (The birthday girl)

Ryan took over the turkey carving duties. My Dad had hernia surgery last week and was still recovering. Ryan did a great job tackeling both the 18lb turkey and the 7lb turkey breast.

Stephanie, Ryan and Elaine. We were very excited that Ryan's Aunt Lori, Uncle Jeff and his cousins Stephanie and Elaine along with their Aunt Chris, were able to join us for Thankgiving. It is hard being away from Ryan's family so much so the fact that they live near by really helps us feel like we are all together.

Another view of the whole group. Well, most of them. It was hard to get everyone in the same shot. I needed a wide angle lens. Ooo, Christmas present idea ;)

Lighting of Michigan Ave

We attended the Lighting of the Magnificent Mile this past weekend. We did this last year and had a great time. When we told our family we were attending this year, they all thought we were nuts because their experience wasn't as pleasurable as ours. We were sure to go to the same spot as last year since we didn't have any problems. We went down early with hopes of getting some Chicago pizza first and then heading over to the parade. We were bummed to find out that even at 3:30pm, there was still a 2 hours wait for a table. We weren't willing to take the risk of missing the lighting so we headed to a near by shopping center and got California Pizza Kitchen. Not at all what I had hoped for but it worked. We weren't going to have much luck getting anything but pizza since we had been telling Paige for days that we were going to get pizza and then see Mickey in the Parade. The parade is put on by Disney so all of Paige's friends were there. Mickey leads off the parade and waves his wand at the trees and they all light up. That Mickey, he is just magical. It was a bit cold but totally worth it. Paige just loves Mickey Mouse and all his friends. She didn't seem to mind the cold one bit. Of course, no Christmas parade would be fit without Santa. He was at the end and Paige was very excited to see him. She keeps telling everyone that Santa was dancing as we went passed her. I don't recall him dancing but it might have been the Christmas music that made her think that. Now I can't wait for to head back downtown after Thanksgiving to see the windows all decorated. A fun yearly tradition for us.

Paige waving to Mickey as he goes by on his float.


Part of Michigan Ave all lit up. So pretty!

Big day for my niece Tessa

This past weekend, I had the honor of being an honorary Godmother for my niece Tessa. Since I am not Serbia Orthodox, I was unable to truly be her Godmother but I was happy to be asked to be an honorary one. I was happy to join her other Aunt, Rachael, who was able to fill the official role. Tessa did a great job. The poor girl was naked for quite some time in the cold church. The ceremony was beautiful and was a good length. Poor Auntie Rachael's arm probably still hurt from holding Tessa for well over 30 minutes. Tessa looks cute and little but for all of us who have held her, she is not the lightest of babies...and I mean that with the sweetest of affection. Lilly and Paige were under the impression that there was no need to be quite during the ceremony. They brought quite a bit of entertainment and laughter to a serious ceremony. Everyone did their best to keep them somewhat quite but it isn't an easy task with a 2 and 3 year old. The funniest moment probably was when he was dipping Tessa in the holy water, Lilly looked up and said "what are they doing to Tessa? That is silly." Of course Paige agreed and since they got a few chuckles from the crowd on their comment, they continued to giggle and say how silly it was. We all can't wait for Tessa to grow up a little bit and start to join in on the banter. I'm sure it will get even more amusing.

Sweet moment between Tessa and Jamie.

Tessa and her Godmothers.

The girls enjoying their books before dinner was served. This is also before they were running around like crazy. We were all amazed that no one got hurt, wait, I take that back. Poor Ava was just the right height it hit the top of the chairs as she was running around. So a few bumps and bruises among the girls. They all had a blast to say the least. That is bound to happen with four little girls all between 2 and 3 years old.

Honoring our Veteran's with paint

There was no daycare on Veteran's Day so Auntie Mimi and cousin Lilly and cousin Tessa came over to play. They spent most of the morning playing with the new dress up clothes and making a huge mess. They eventually spotted Paige's art easel and decided they wanted to paint. After they cleaned up, Jamie and I prepped for the painting. Clearing the space and moving everything out of the way that we didn't want paint on was a bit of a process but ended up working quite well. They had a great time painting and checking out each others work. It was fun to see the differences in how they painted. Paige was all about painting lines and Lilly would paint in different sections of her paper. We even got to see Lilly demonstrate how to write her name. We were even more impressed when she was able to write Paige's name too. The g was the only hard part. Tessa opted to take a nap instead of paint. Probably a good idea since the paint fumes got pretty strong near the end. I have to say, they ended up being much neater than I had anticipated. No stray paint anywhere.

Lilly peaking around the art easel. Notice Lilly's paintings hanging up on the right and Paige's are hanging up on the left door.


Paige looking proud of one of her paintings.


Paigey really wanted to hold her cousin Tessa that day.

Cousins.

The Greatest Show on Earth...

At least that is what they tell us; I'm not sure if I agree. We took Paige to the circus this past weekend because she loves clowns. We are happy that they don't scare her because clowns can have that effect on people. We were taking a big risk going to the circus during nap time. No matter what time we chose to go, it would somehow mess with her nap. We met up with Papa and Grandma and Paige did well for the most part. I remember the circus having a lot of stuff going on at once and never a dull moment. This circus, however, was quite slow; especially for a 2 year old. It had some exciting parts but a lot of slow spots too. Ryan said that it was because we were seeing a one ring circus rather than the traditional 3 ring circus. She spent some time running around at the top of the stadium. Paige loved to elephants and the clowns. If you ask her what her favorite part was, she will tell you it was the clown that had bubbles that sounded like farts. Whenever the clown popped a bubble it made a tooting noise and she thought it was hysterical. Apparently she isn't as girlie as we thought. Maybe Santa will have to bring her a whoopee cushion for Christmas.

The three of us arriving at the circus. They let you go onto the floor and meet some of the people. Paige wasn't warmed up enough yet to sit with the clown. Waving from a distance was good enough.

Paige not wanting to take her eyes off the clowns.


She really enjoyed the trapeze and was practicing her moves with Grandma. Poor GaGa got quite the workout hanging on to her.

Fun with Dress up

Paige is a girl who LOVES to play dress up. We thought that there was no better time to stock up on our dress up attire than right after Halloween. Nothing like catching a great sale on some fun stuff. We were able to get Paige some princess dresses (Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty), fire fighter outfit, cowboy hat, doctor scrubs and her favorite, the sombrero. The best part is that Paige keeps telling us it is her cowgirl hat. She puts it on and runs around saying "Yee Haw!". We tried to tell here that it wasn't a cowboy hat but she doesn't believe it.

So Mexican cowgirl it is.


Yee Haw!
It's a perfect fit...well, maybe.

Paige's 2 year old photos

Here are Paige's 2 year photos. We had some great ones taken with our friend Pete, they just ended up being more expensive than we had anticipated to print. We will probably get a few for ourselves but these are the ones we had done for the family. We got a very serious, innocent looking Paige and a very posed smiling Paige.

What a great Dad

I have to give my husband kudos for a moment. Take a look at the photo below. This is Paige's pop-up house that she just loves. She brings all her dolls and stuffed animals in there as well as her blanket and Elmo chair at times. Lately she has been wanting people to play in there with her. Notice the legs sticking out the door of the house. Those belong to Ryan.


She keeps inviting Daddy into her house and playing with him. She LOVES having her Daddy in the house with her. Even though her house is too small for him and has no air conditioning, he goes in without complaint. These are the images that I feel the need to capture for her so she can look back on them one day and see how great her Daddy is. It is so important for Daddy's to play with their little girls, whether it is dress up, dolls or having tea parties. I am proud to say that he has never turned her down.

Now, to help keep his masculinity in tact, I will say that her home was relocated that afternoon so we could watch the Purdue football game out the front door while playing with her. Nothing like a compromise. Ryan still has dreams of watching Paige play basketball someday. The hoop has been up in our house before she could even walk and the kids sure can dunk...even though she would rather sit on the sidelines and cheer on Daddy.

Peeking through the windown on Paige and Daddy playing