Santa must have known that we have growing girls, so he brought a slew of new clothes...
... along with Barbie band-aids and a few other things. 
After attending 9 am mass (we've officially given up on fighting the crowds Christmas Eve), we went over to Grandpa & Grandma Schmitt's for Christmas Brunch. Yum Yum! I could eat breakfast foods at every meal! 
Next Christmas we'll get to spend it with our little Murray cousin!!
We were especially happy to be able to celebrate Christmas this year! Dan took the whole week off to prepare for Christmas and spend some time with us. Unfortunately, we spent the whole week caring for sick kids. Monday night Madeline woke up with a fever, terrible barking cough, wheezing, and having trouble breathing. After putting her in the steam shower and getting up several times during the night, we decided that she must have Croup. Tuesday night Evelyn was in the same boat. For the next three nights, one of us was up with one of the girls at all times. What a scary illness! Finally on the 23rd fevers were gone and everyone got a good night's sleep and the cleaning, sanitizing, and preparing began.
Will & Jenny
If you didn't already know, Madeline is very much into dancing. I can't convince her to take a class, but she loves pretending to be a ballerina and wears a tu-tu whenever we are home. Right before Christmas Grandma Hay invited us to go see the Joffrey Ballet Academy of Dance's performance of The Nutcracker. (One of her co-workers has a daughter in the Academy). We were thrilled to take the train downtown, see real ballerinas, and spend the day together.
Our train got us downtown a few hours before the show, so we stopped at Macys to do some sightseeing and check out the Walnut Room. We were unable (and unwilling) to wait for hours to get a table and have lunch there, but we got to see the beautiful Christmas tree.
The Nutcracker performance was fantastic! It was a very intimate setting so we could see everything, and it only lasted about 45 minutes- perfect for Madeline. She was riveted the entire time, and when we got to meet Julia, Madeline just glowed!
After the performance we had a bit of time before catching our train home, so we stopped in at Borders to relax and get a hot drink. Madeline found a Christmas princess storybook and loved hearing the stories (multiple times!) Grandma even let her take it home as a souvenir of the day. What an experience!
Madeline helps Grandma make Peppermint Pies for Thanksgiving dinner
and cuddles with Aunt Laura.
Uncle Mark and our sick girl. Evelyn had a fever lasting Monday-Friday of Thanksgiving week. After visiting the doctor on Tuesday, we found out she had an ear infection. This made our holiday a little more difficult as someone had to stay home with her all the time. Dan and Madeline went to Thanksgiving lunch at the Hay's, then Madeline and I went to dinner at the Schmitt's.
The ear infection and fever cleared up by Friday... just in time for the stomach bug to arrive Friday night. :( Although she only had the worst of it for 2 days, it really wiped her out for the next week. FORTUNATELY, no one else in our family got it! But this was a terrible bug that wiped through our playgroup with a vengance. Blech!
The Carousel- our favorite activity at the mall!
Evie's first bike ride
DuPage Children's Museum with good buddy (next-door neighbor) Cooper
Madeline experiencing the wind tunnel
Madeline's third birthday started out with a cupcake for breakfast. (This was such a treat that she still talks about it!)
Happy Birthday Big Sister!
The afternoon of her birthday we had a big celebration with our families and playgroup friends. Big parties are a little much for Madeline, but it was a great opportunity for us to introduce our families to our friends!
My cousin Graceann was in town for a wedding, so she and her boyfriend Andrew got to stop by and celebrate too!
