To continue with our holiday celebrations, we traveled down to Chicago this past weekend to visit Monica and Glenn. They invited us to come down for their second annual Christmas party, and we are so glad we went! Their house is B-E-A-UTIFUL, and it was decked out in Christmas decorations. When we walked in the door, a miniature Santa and his bell choir were playing carols for Max- what a welcome!
Glenn made a divine breaded pork dinner for us, then we put on Polar Express for Max while we cleaned up the kitchen. However, a few minutes into the movie, when the train pulled up in front of the house, the noise drew us all into the living room and we ended up watching the whole movie with him. I have never seen him so entranced by a movie before! Usually, he gets distracted after about 45 minutes, but this time he could not take his eyes off of the screen. I had forgotten how cool the visual effects in that movie were. After Max went to bed, we played Hearts until 1:00 in the morning... late night #1.
Saturday, we had a yummy breakfast, then Monica and I went thrift store shopping and to her favorite local coffee shop, the Metropolis. No visit anywhere is complete without sampling the local brews! We picked up some amazing bread from their grocery store (baked fresh 3 times daily) and went home for pork sandwiches. After lunch, the men went out to do a driving tour of the area, and we stayed in with the kiddos. Then the party preparations began! I was able to squeeze in a catnap before the guests arrived (the late bedtime plus a cranky baby meant little sleep for me, and exhaustion hit around 4:00).
It was so fun to meet friends of Monica and Glenn- some of them were quite interesting characters, and all of them were super nice! Most people at the party are in choir with them, so we had some fun caroling toward the end of the evening. Max was the star of the show until he finally fell asleep, running around in his jammies and chatting up all the ladies. Amazingly, Lucian slept through just about everything! Honestly, I had been a little worried about how the party would go with two kids, but my worries were totally unfounded. Everything was smoooooth sailing. With a long drive ahead of us the next day, we finally had to go to bed at 2:00, even before the last guests left... late night #2!
Mass in the morning, lunch, packing, then back on the road! The trip was short but VERY sweet. Thank you for having us, Gerardis! It was wonderful. We miss you already!
Saturday, we had a yummy breakfast, then Monica and I went thrift store shopping and to her favorite local coffee shop, the Metropolis. No visit anywhere is complete without sampling the local brews! We picked up some amazing bread from their grocery store (baked fresh 3 times daily) and went home for pork sandwiches. After lunch, the men went out to do a driving tour of the area, and we stayed in with the kiddos. Then the party preparations began! I was able to squeeze in a catnap before the guests arrived (the late bedtime plus a cranky baby meant little sleep for me, and exhaustion hit around 4:00).
It was so fun to meet friends of Monica and Glenn- some of them were quite interesting characters, and all of them were super nice! Most people at the party are in choir with them, so we had some fun caroling toward the end of the evening. Max was the star of the show until he finally fell asleep, running around in his jammies and chatting up all the ladies. Amazingly, Lucian slept through just about everything! Honestly, I had been a little worried about how the party would go with two kids, but my worries were totally unfounded. Everything was smoooooth sailing. With a long drive ahead of us the next day, we finally had to go to bed at 2:00, even before the last guests left... late night #2!
Mass in the morning, lunch, packing, then back on the road! The trip was short but VERY sweet. Thank you for having us, Gerardis! It was wonderful. We miss you already!
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