who knows where thoughts come from?: christmas

As we have the past few years, we spent Christmas in Chicago. However, things were different for me. For the first time I didn't have to sleep in the closet! I know, I know, some of you are disappointed. But my sister and Michael are in a new, huge, house equipped with enough bedrooms for everyone to have a bed! It was a very different experience not spending the weekend in a closet. I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. Anyways, it was a lot of fun!

One of our first days there we went for a walk in the new neighborhood and found this on a wall.

My favorite? "Drop it like it's haaawt"

We asked Miles what he wanted to do before he died and he said wear mittens. (Rebecca had forgotten them and his hands were really cold.) Rebecca was worried people would be sad and think a homeless person put that so I had to clarify he was 2.

So Rebecca gave him her mittens. He was less than thrilled.

My favorite diapers. I don't think Miles feels the same. But he looks so cool and stylish wearing those jeans just like the commercials promised!

You knew this was coming, our typical photo shoot.

Worn out.

On Christmas Eve we always make pizza from scratch, one of my favorite traditions. Miles is finally old enough to be a part of the action. It was so much fun having him there!

Using all 6 burners because we can. Their kitchen is pretty incredible, I am really jealous of it.

Helping out.

Miles even knew that half the fun of putting the toppings on your pizza is eating them as you go. He was really good at that part.

After dinner it was time to put out cookies for Santa. Miles loved putting them down, telling us who was coming that night and how he would come down the chimney. He was totally ready for Santa....

until he realized Santa was getting all of the cookies and he wasn't going to get any of them. He was a little upset at Santa.

Feeding the reindeer with Michael.

Christmas morning we were all excited to walk down with Miles and see how excited he got about the fact Santa had come. What was the first thing Miles asked about walking down the stairs? Where are the cookies. When we got downstairs we were all ooing and ahhing about the presents Santa had brought, etc. Miles? He walked straight to the empty cookie plate and asked what happened. After awhile he finally got over it and loved playing with all of his new toys.

When we finished opening presents I looked outside and it was snowing! Not just a little, Texas snow, but a full, I think this is what they call a blizzard snow! (Now to clarify, I realize it wasn't a blizzard. But as a Texan, what happened was a blizzard.) It snowed pretty hard all day long. We of course had to go out and play in it!

Snow blowing....snow plowing...whatever Michael is doing is only appropriate with a top hat.

Dad and I had a snowball fight. Obviously. However, I think Michael won and he wasn't even playing. See that huge stream of snow for my face from his plower thingy? Yeah, that happened.