Midwest Christmas!

After driving for 14 (plus) hours in the car, we finally arrived in Northern Illinois and found the winter wonderland I always miss during the holidays. We arrived Sunday morning and stopped by Hope in time for me to visit Lydia's Sunday School class and get in a hug (or two) and then to stop by Hopefulls for a quick visit with old friends. Our time up north is so busy and goes by so fast that we don't have a chance for the kind of visits we'd like, but a quick hug tides us over until our longer visit in the summer time.

I think if I had to choose a favorite moment while I was up north, it would be the night I got to babysit while Shannon and Josh went out to dinner and a movie. I took a bag of Christmas books and crafts that I had been saving and while Grandpa and Joshua were watching "Cars" (for the umpteenth time), Lydia and I had a craft night. She LOVED it, and when I mentioned making her mommy and daddy a gift, she was so enthused, I thought she'd explode with joy!

One thing I love to do at Christmas time is visit the mall, but I wasn't sure the kids would enjoy it because they don't go out to "shop" a lot, but it was much better than I expected! We mostly did fun "Christmasy" things so they didn't get bored or frustrated. Lydia's favorite thing was jumping on the big tramp, but Joshua like the puppy in the pet shop best! Great Grandma went along too and even Shannon got a chance to do a little shopping for herself. All in all it was a great day!

We took the last night before Christmas Eve to have dinner at Stacey's apartment. She has the cutest place now and it was the perfect spot for us to call "home" while we were there.

I loved this picture of Holly....looks like she's saying "Aww Mom...when's Christmas?"