Happy new year!

Trying to ring in the new year on a healthier note, but so far Clara has an ear infection, Pete has a fever and Frederick has the hiccups.

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning...

 And Christmas afternoon...

A Message From Frederick

Christmas Eve

Here are some of the things we've done leading up to Christmas...

Gingerbread house: 

 Sugar cookies:

 Santa foot rattle:

 Christkindlemarket:

 Treehouse decorating:

 Henry's Winter Sing:

 Solstice/End Of The World party:

 And tonight...we went to church, then to a party, then watched The Grinch and read Christmas Quiet and The Night Before Christmas. Now we're watching Christmas movies, trying to keep a fire going, and waiting to make sure the big kids are truly asleep....

Merry Christmas!

Pajama day

We were all up a little late last night. We had some friends over for a party (pictures to come). So this morning we declared a pajama day. Now we're watching Miracle on 34th Street.

Santa!

Clara points to Frederick and says to Santa "he has you on his shirt!"

In a few years I suppose this will be wrestling instead of cuddling.

Braces!

Despite the fact that Henry's expander didn't want to stay cemented in, it seems to have done its job. Now we're on phase two!

Bosch!

Dad installs our new dishwasher while Pete supervises.

Christmassy

We're trying to squeeze every Christmassy moment we can into the season. There are so many wonderful things to do! A few nights ago we made salt-dough ornaments and last night we painted them. We tried to do a hand and a footprint of Fredericks. When Pete pressed Frederick's little foot into the dough, it left behind a bit of toe fuzz. It was cute because he's a baby. 

 This morning we got up early and went downtown to the old Marshall Field's (now Macy's) to try to get into the Walnut Room for a meal. I say 'try' because the wait can get up to 3 hours long. We were there early enough to get a table almost immediately, and right next to the tree!

 On our way out, we dropped some notes to Santa into the special mailbox.

 Once we found our way outside we wandered around to look at the windows. It's really the first time we've taken the kids down to see them. Henry was there once when he was a little baby...either his first or 2nd Christmas, I'm not sure which without look back. It was still Marshall Field's then.

Today is the first day of Hannukah. We're going to cook a brisket, make some latkes (we do live in Northbrook, after all...) and maybe watch Elf and eat Christmas cookies!

Clara reads to Frederick while Henry takes his bath and we wait for Dad to get home from work. It's a pretty good time.

It was a mild-weathered trip to the tree farm this year, but Frederick bundled up none-the-less.