Holiday Cheer

We spent Thanksgiving dinner with new church friends, who turns out, are totally awesome. They're quickly becoming some of my favorite people anywhere. Not only was dinner delicious, but it turns out they're hysterical. Both Nick and the man of the house are residents who worked Thanksgiving, so dinner was late enough in the afternoon that we could be pretty sure they could attend. After dinner, their two adorable girls kept Henry entertained. I think Henry now wants an iMac.

I find it odd that at a church party, Santa Claus makes an appearance. But he was there, so we sat Henry on his lap. Henry wasn't thrilled, but it went way better than the visit with the Easter Bunny.

Guess who else was at the ward party? Dallas and my Mom! They flew in for less than 48 hours but we packed in a lot of fun. Dallas is shown here with the Tate family. Shawn is Dallas's cousin-in-law (Shannon's first cousin.) We went from the airport, to the ward party, to Portillo's to eat, then dropped Nick and Henry off at the house, then headed to hear "Maggie Speaks" at the casino in Joliet. The next day, Dallas went to the Bears game, which was crazy because it was snowing and windy (and really cold). He described the experience as being inside of a snow globe as the wind just kept blowing the snow in swirls inside Soldier Field. While he did that, my mom and I decorated the Christmas tree she brought me.

H and I went to our village (aka city) party. It makes more sense to me that Santa was here. Once again, Henry was not impressed.