December 2022 Catch Up

 

This post comes super late, but I will try my best to capture these memories. Life has just been non-stop busy and with a few ice days, I kind of have a chance to catch up in a race where you are already 3 laps behind....but you have enjoyed the run so far. That basically sums up my life right now. 

So this post will be all from December, and because blogger uploaded my pictures starting with the photos take later first, we will work backwards starting from New Years Day 2023. 

I can't think of a better way to spend New Years Day than at the Field Museum. Perhaps many people thought it was closed, but we had an opportunity to use our science center membership to get into the field museum for free. 

Field Museum New Years Day 2023

The last time we were there was 15 years ago! I found this picture and I thought it would be fun to post it to see how we have changed in 15 years. 

       

Field Museum Spring 2008

We saw and learned about the famous Sue. Since scientists don't know if Sue was a male or female, they are giving Sue they/them pronouns. I thought that was super fun update. 

All 3 of you had a pretty good time at the museum and it was an educational day. 

On Christmas eve, we got some yummy Chicago style deep dish. I requested my favorite with both meat and veggies. 

We explored a preserve/park that we had never been to before. They had a fun outdoor play area with just a bunch of random stumps and a stage. You guys spent a lot of time playing pretend. 

 

The playground was also super fun and had things for big kids and smaller kids to play. 

You guys spend a lot of time in the basement at grandma and grandpa's. Sometimes you guys put on magic or dancing shows which are pretty entertaining to watch. 

And then a few days after Christmas, we got together for the annual broom ball game with all the cousins. 

We also went to my favorite Children's museum in Milwaukee, but you 2 big kids seem to be outgrowing the place.  

On the first few days of arrival, it snowed for a little, just enough to gather all the snow in the yard to build a snow man. 

Snow angels had to be created carefully, to avoid all the deer poop. 

We visited great grandma and had a fun time visiting with cousins and playing board games. 

We took a hike through the snowy woods. Can you see the hoof prints on the fallen tree trunk? It's like the deer were walking on it like a balance beam! 

There was just enough snow for 1 day to go sledding. 

I finally remembered to snap a picture of the famous Christmas party at the Great-Grands. There's always pickled herring, a wild white elephant gift exchange, real gifts, and my favorite, the limited appearance of the Christmas band. 

We flew to Chicago Christmas eve and almost got stuck in Nashville during the Southwest scheduling fail of 2022. Luckily a pilot volunteered to fly us out of Nashville and into Chicago, otherwise, we wouldn't have made it! 

Before we left Texas, we decorated the house and opened a few presents the night before we left. 

School holiday parties happened before school got out and I was able to attend all 3 of your parties. 

We decided to be tourists in our own city and we went to the Thinkery for the first time in a long time. It's been so long that Hailey doesn't even remember ever going. 

Ok, going backwards still, we spent one afternoon decorating cookies. We had baked and created a bunch of gingerbread houses (you'll see later) and had a lot of extra candy and decorations, so we baked a bunch of cookies and ya'll went to town with the decorations. 

Hannah, you had a gymnastics winter show where you got to practice a routine for your upcoming competitions. 

Nathan, your lego robotics club is doing well. At this point, you guys are almost done with everything and are getting ready for the big competition. Since September, you guys have been building robots, coding, working on a research/innovation project and really learning about how to work on a team. This competition actually happened today, the day I wrote this post, but I will share more about it in the next post that I write. 

We meet Fridays after school at our house.  6 boys on a Friday after school can get kind of crazy...but for the most part, all the boys are really sweet and are a joy to work with. 

We also got the baby party back together for our annual Gingerbread house competition. There were lots of candy and sass as many of our older girls approach the tween stage. 

Steve and I actually got a chance to take a day date in San Marcos. We experienced a special virtual reality Alice in wonderland event and then afterwards, we got rolled ice cream. You kids were so jealous! 

And then the first thing we did in December was to actually go watch the Nutcracker. The boys were not super excited about it, so we made it a girl date. We went to McDonalds for dinner and then off to the theater to watch the show. 

And that's all for now. I'll be updating January soon... I promise. 

Love, 

Mommy