A Taste of Christmas

Christmas was great.  I got sad a few days before Christmas because it goes by so fast and I didn't want it to be over.  All these preparations, arrangements and excitement for several weeks, and then just like that it's gone.  I know most people are glad the madness is over, but I think it's the best time of year.  Nothing beats family Christmas celebrations.  It's a time to give and say thank you to those we love, receive graciously from loved ones, take pictures, eat too much, play games, but most of all it's a time to enjoy our families and marvel at God's plan for salvation.  I love it all.

This year I started an advent devotional with Sadie.  I wanted to spend the advent season in a meaningful way and I want her to love and treasure the true meaning of Christmas.  Celebrating advent has been a tradition in my family and I want to continue that on in my children.  She's obviously a bit young to fully grasp everything but I had fun sharing the stories with her and she loved doing the craft.  But something must have sank in because when I asked her Christmas Day whose birthday it was she said Jesus!  

The three stooges showing off their muscles.

Sadie did great at opening gifts.  She couldn't quite figure out why she had to open one after the other without getting a chance to play with them. It was pretty funny.  

Toys are great, but chocolate, chocolate is her love language.  She'd do anything for chocolate. 

Juan and I were especially looking forward to Christmas morning, not only because we get to open presents from each other, but also because we bought Sadie a fish tank!  We couldn't wait for her to see it.  Here she is admiring it from a far.  "Woooooooow...fishies...."

Confession: We didn't actually get any fish until the day after Christmas...I think she was a little confused ;)

Opening some gifts

Sadie especially loved helping distribute gifts this Christmas.  She actually seemed happier to give than to receive...I hope this attitude toward gifts sticks around!

Hea you go Tio!

Love this shot

My big brow eyed girl...with a little chocolate streak on her face

We were lucky to have Yohali and Tia Fabiola visit us again

Trying out her new microphone

They have such a good time together

 Sadie is a lucky girl and will be well looked after

As I was going through our pictures, I noticed we  didn't get any pictures of Christmas with the Wesolowski's!  Sorry guys, I guess your company is so entertaining we didn't even think to take pictures.  ;)

Shedd Aquarium

I'm so excited that Juan gets every other Friday off with his new job.  We get to spend more quality time together and go on more outings without the weekend crowds.  Sadie's love for fish and water has increased greatly the last few months.  So when Groupon advertised passes to the Shedd I was so excited!  

Not happy with me about stopping to take a picture.  She got a glimpse of the Caribbean Reef and wanted to go in already.

So so happy!  This is the moment I pictured when I bought the passes.

The Caribbean Reef exhibit was her favorite.

Yup...throwing a tantrum

The touch pools in the Polar Play Zone were really cool.  Sadie got to touch different sea stars and shell fish and best of all splash around in the water.

Me and my Man ;)

The Wild Reef

Mind.  Totally.  Blown.

It was a beautiful day.

Trick or Treat

Sadie isn't quite old enough to tell me what she wants to be for Halloween, so I got to decide - though this may be the last year I get to pick the costume.  This year she was Snow White.  She got a box of princess outfits for her birthday so that made deciding on a costume easy...and cheap!  :)  My good friend Jamie came over with her son Silas who dressed up as Snow White's prince!  It was their first year trick-or-treating.  Both she and Silas were a little confused as to why we were going up to random houses and ringing the doorbell.  But as soon they realized they were getting candy they ran up to the doors themselves!  

She makes a cute Snow White, doesn't she?!

Bundled up and ready to go

Snow White and her Prince

Indian Summer, Gotta Love It!

Here are pictures from when we went to the Morton Arboretum with my family this fall...they're really old but I'm posting them anyway!  We were so lucky to have such a warm fall.  We decided to take advantage of the warm weather being that it was the end of October and in the mid 70's!  It was unlikely we'd get another warm day.

The Children's Garden was so cool!  There are streams to splash through, playgrounds to climb and giant tree roots to slide down!  Sadie loved the streams the most and could probably play in there most of the day if we let her.

And finally, I just had to post these pictures of my dad Dad acting crazy ;)  He can often be spotted doing something out of the ordinary in public whether it be stretching on a park bench at the Morton Arboretum or jogging backwards on the bike trail.  Gotta love him!

It was so fun to explore and play in nature.  Can't wait to go back!