Christmas in Chicago

Tim and I both grew up in St. Louis, meaning that the overwhelming majority of our family is here. Because it is much easier for us to travel to St. Louis, rather than convincing dozens to come to Chicago (which let's face it, wouldn't happen!), we usually end up in "the Lou" for most holidays. We stayed in Chi-town this Thanksgiving, so it was extra important that we spend Christmas in St. Louis with all of our loved ones.

We love traveling to St. Louis and spending our holidays reliving traditions from our childhoods, but at the same time there is a part of us that wishes we could have Christmas morning in our own home, with our own little family. If we did that though we would have to leave right away and spend the majority of the day in the car driving, and that just isn't the way we want to spend our holiday. We've tried to create a compromise and usually end up doing our own Christmas a few days before the 25th while we're still in Chicago. This year Santa sent Timmy & Henry a letter in the mail saying he heard they would be out of town for Christmas and letting them know he would be coming that evening. Timmy was super excited! We got out the cookies and milk, hung our stockings, and got ready for the Big Guy!!!

There will be another post in the very near future with some of our St. Louis Christmas fun, but for now I'd like to share photos from faux Christmas morning with our little family of four!

silly face Timmy (who will learn how to do a normal smile one of these days... lol) ready to get out the cookies

I can't handle the cuteness of this kid!

setting out the cookies & milk

silly boys enjoying faux Christmas eve

stories before bed

"Christmas" morning loot

so excited for his drum set! oh and yes, Santa lost his mind this year!!! ;)

Hen is really into the drums as well

checking the stockings

Tim's face cracks me up here. He was reacting to Timmy's CRAZY excitement over a silly robot fish.

more music supplies for Hen

Iron Man!!! and I'm dying at Timmy's face here!

So I think the pictures pretty much sum up what a wonderful morning we had with our very spoiled boys. We feel so lucky to have our little family, and are glad we were able to carve out some special Christmas time just for us. Next up... St. Louis Christmas craziness!!!