Merry and Bright

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."



A dream come true. Well, not really...snow in December in Chicago isn't all that wonderful, or wanted. But I guess it does add to the Christmasy atmosphere...and it sure was cute watching Leila stare out the window at the snow falling.


We started our Christmas celebration Christmas Eve morning. Since we planned to spend the rest of the weekend out in the burbs with Matt's family, we told Santa to send his elves a night early to deliver Leila some presents at our house.



Santa must have known what a big fan of Sesame Street Leila is...it's Big Bird!



Uncle Nick sent a stuffed, talking bacon strip! "I'm Bacon."



She also got a feeding set for her doll...and Bird.



Matt and Bob watching Leila enjoy her gifts...




Leila seemed to feel fine, but woke up with a fever...so as most things planned with a child, we had to remain flexible. We headed out to Grandma and Grandpa's as planned, but decided to stay home from church this year because a. Leila's fever, and b. Leila was too excited about Christmas to take a nap.

She had a blast decorating her very own giant Christmas cookie!





And liked eating it too.


Helping Daddy decorate his cookie...



Surprise! We couldn't hide Leila's big gift from Grandma and Grandpa until Christmas morning...a little kitchen just for Leila! It will stay at Gma and Gpa's house until our kitchen is bigger than her play one...




Christmas morning she woke up at 5:30! Not so much out of excitement for what Santa brought, more because she woke up pooping. (You don't hear that sentence much I bet...) And here I thought we'd have at least one more Christmas of "sleeping in" until 7:00.


It was a Sesame Street themed Christmas for Leila...she also got Abby Cadabby! When she opened it, she said, "Abby!"



A Derrick Rose jersey from Uncle Doug!



Just the three of us...oh, and Leila's loot.



Dressed, and ready for the rest of the family...



More presents later on Christmas with the rest of the family!


Another Sesame Street favorite...Cookie Monster!



Usually somewhat shy in front of a crowd, Leila shed her shyness for a few moments as she modeled a few of the scarves some of us got as gifts...




The day after Christmas was a day of relaxing and cheering on the Division Champion Bears. Super Bears, Super Bowl? Leila, Uncle Steven, and Abby Cadabby took a Sesame time out...