Hello, hello! The new year is officially here and the holidays are OVA! (And our elf has flown back away to the North Pole… don’t have to worry about him hiding in the refrigerator and scaring me first thing in the morning). Once I document all of our holiday happenings, I’ll be all caught up on 2018. Each year and season zooms by faster and faster, doesn’t it? Anyway, here’s the things we did during the last half of December.

We spent the weekend before Christmas in St. Cloud with Joe’s family. Our kids loved hanging out with their cousins, I enjoyed hanging out with all my sib-in-laws, eating all the good food, and drinking the good mimosas (thanks, Dano!). I feel like being at Grandma’s with your cousins was always my favorite memories of Christmas as a child and I think my kids feel the same way too!

As mentioned in the previous post, we spent Christmas Day all cozy at home. And we also had a few impromptu visitors! Joe’s parents popped over along with his sister Rachel and so did Mike and Kenzie! I just love those boo-boos. Please come over every Christmas.

The day after Christmas I packed up the kiddos, gifts, fueled up on coffee, and we headed to Illinois to see my family. Also, I had to post this pic of my fierce (press-on) nails and lips because I was feeling fancy and most days I look like I crawled out from under a bridge.

First things first, the kids opened up all their gifts once we got to my mom’s and Cece basically lost her mind as she finally got the Instax mini she’s been dreaming of. Now we just have to teach her to ration her film supply.

I have so many pictures of them doing weird things at my Mom’s house. Maybe I’m not the right person to teach Cece about rationing her camera film…

We spent one day with our friends Sarah, Will, and Evelyn. We had lunch together and visited the Oak Lawn library. Cece even got her picture taken by a reporter for The Reporter (a local paper in Oak Lawn) as she was coloring a picture for the troops. If you’re in Oak Lawn, let me know if she made it in the paper!

We managed a trip to Chinatown to hang out with the Yuens and visit my Grandma. I’m so glad we were able to get together and catch up for a little bit. (We also had an awesome dim sum spread!)

That same day we swung by my Mom’s family (Aunt Gina, Uncle Pete, and Grandpa Pete). As promised, I took photos of Gina’s dogs for her. The kids also had a great time opening gifts, hanging out with the animals, and being all sorts of rambunctious.

Our last full day in Oak Lawn was spent hosting a baby shower at my mom’s house for Lauren and Jake! More pics from that celebration soon. Cece, I see you about to take a mini cheesecake.

That’s basically the end of 2018 over here! We drove back on New Years Eve. We encountered some snow as we were driving and I felt like I was in an episode of Ice Road Truckers: kids in the backseat edition. It’s been great to be back home with Joe (and Zuzu of course. I think they kind of missed us), but part of my heart definitely is and always will be on the South Side.

I truly hope your holidays were wonderful and you’ve had a great start to the new year!