Christmas Break Fun

Bruxen's one wish was to go to Drive Shack while in Florida. Unfortunately, this was our third failed attempt to get him here. Instead of cancelling our reservation, we let the kids each invite a friend and we invited Stacie and Patrick to join us. We had a great night with friends and family. I especially enjoyed the Build a Snowman game. You had to hit the same spot three times to build a snowman. I'm way better at that, then going for distance. 

Courtney, Kianna, Me, Izzy, Kaylee, Trace, Derek and Trevor

One of Kaylee's gifts was a gondola ride through the canals of Ft Lauderdale. Originally, the reservation was for Sam, Mike, Becki, Trevor, Kaylee and I; but instead of canceling it we decided to have a night out with our eldest. It was a beautiful afternoon, followed by some Italian food and gelato. 

I don't have a picture of it, but one of Kianna's gifts was private singing and acting lessons in preparation for the upcoming Wizard of Oz tryouts at JCS. She has had two lessons so far and is loving them! The coach is great with her and has been teaching her about the importance of breathing, positive self talk and about facial expressions. Kianna has a beautiful voice. We're so excited she's learning how to use it and has the confidence to perform in front of others.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Our Christmas this year looked a lot different than we had planned. Trevor's family was supposed to fly in on the 22nd, but their flight got cancelled and rescheduled for the 23rd. Then late on the 22nd, the flight on the 23rd got cancelled. At that point, they made the decision not to come as the entire Midwest was in a major cold front with extreme temperatures of -50 degrees and very high winds. Unfortunately, in addition to not getting to spend the holidays together, I also had already spent over $800 on groceries and Trevor had already planned our 3rd annual Amazing Race. It was definitely a bummer, but we made the best of it and canceled this year's Amazing Race. 

We went to the Christmas Eve Eve candle light service at church.

Stacie, Patrick and Matthew came over at 3 pm to go bowling with us. We played two rounds and had a lot  of fun. Afterwards, we went back to our house and had a Gingerbread House contest, followed by a "snowball fight" with giant marshmallows. My arm was literary sore for days afterwards. We had so much fun and were so glad Matthew and Patrick joined in on the fun. We also made appetizers and ate lots of yummy food. It was a really fun night!

On Christmas morning, we ate monkey bread and opened gifts. The kids did a great job of gift giving. They gave very thoughtful gifts. Later that day, Stacie, Patrick and Matthew joined us for a yummy brisket, mashed potatoes, gravy and Brussel sprouts. We had a very relaxing day and then ended the night by going to the new Whitney Houston movie. 

 

Christmas Countdown

 

Love our Christmas Decorations

The girls and I enjoyed some hot cocoa and looking at Christmas lights. This house was our favorite. It was synchronized to music. 

Every year we watch The Nativity Story to focus on the real meaning of Christmas.

I got us all silly face masks to wear during the movie. 

My work got all dressed up. I love my work crew.

Girls Weekend in Chicago

Friday, December 16th-

Stacie and I flew to Chicago where we met Mom, Bree and Shelli for the weekend. It was so cold with the temperature ranging from 25-30 degrees. I loved busting out my sweaters, boots and winter hat. Being in Chicago at Christmastime was magical. It was so fun experiencing winter for the weekend with my mom and sisters.

We had dinner at Maggiano's Italian restaurant. We ordered family style, which was so fun. We ate so much food and had a great time. Then after dinner, we decided to walk the 1.4 miles back to the hotel, which was beautiful and very cold. While walking back we happened upon an outdoor Christkindlmarket. It was so Christmasy and so special. What a great night!

Saturday, December 17th-

We woke up early and visited before Stacie, Shelli, Bree and I got our hair styled at the Dry Bar. It was my first time getting my hair styled in ages and it was so much fun! Mom decided to stay at the hotel to enjoy some solitude, while we got beautified. Afterwards, we walked around downtown, did some Christmas shopping, and got our pictures taken by The Bean in Millennium Park.

Later, we Uber'ed back to the hotel where we all changed into our Ugly Sweaters and then headed out to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. Afterwards we went to Wrigleyville where we walked through the Christkindlmarket and had some delicious hot chocolate. We then headed to Santa Baby, a bar that was dec'ed out with Christmas decorations and lots of photo ops. Afterwards, we headed to a bar called Ugly Sweater that was having karaoke. I sang, "Any Man of My Man" by Shania Twain and later Stacie sang a country song. It was really fun, despite the bar scene being completely outside my comfort zone. I love spending time with my Mom and sisters.

Sunday, December 18th-

Today Stacie and I flew back home after an amazing weekend. I'm so thankful for this time together. 

Boat Parade

 

Kianna and I spent the day together and had a great time. It felt like a parenting win, as we've had a tough few months with Kianna battling clinical depression. Trace had a soccer tournament in Vero, that I decided to skip, so I could spend the day with Kianna. Trevor took Trace and Kaylee had to work, so that gave Kianna some one-on-one time. 

We read a chapter out of a devotional together and took a three mile walk together. Then we went out to dinner at U-Tiki and watched the boat parade together. It was really nice spending the day with Kianna and getting along so well.  

White Hatter

 

We are happy to report that Kaylee is now a white hatter. This is a big deal for our girl as it is a promotion that comes with a $1 raise. We're very proud of Kaylee and her strong work ethic!

Variety Show

Kianna chose Theater as her elective this semester and that has led her to make new theater friends. Her and her new friends have joined the Variety Show where Kianna signed up to sing. She originally was signed up to sing a solo, duet and ensemble with five other people. All her songs were from the new musical, "Six", which we watched on the cruise ship.

This experience was filled with highs and lows. The lows being when her solo and duet were cut three weeks prior to the show. A high being when Kaylee, unbeknownst to Kianna, emailed her theater teacher begging that she reconsider adding her solo and duet back into the show. She told the teacher that this shows been the highlight of Kianna's week, in the midst of a very challenging semester. Three hours after cutting her song, the teacher emailed Kianna letting her know that her solo was back in the show. 

However, a week later, despite lots of effort on Kianna's part, her solo was again cut after the teacher had made her change songs. This time, it was more of a relief, since she was having a hard time getting the new song down. 

Tonight, despite all the highs and lows, Kianna gave an awesome performance. We are so proud of her stepping out of her comfort zone and singing on stage for the first time in many years. Kianna has a gorgeous voice! There's rumor about her trying out for the spring play, "Little Women". We love watching our girl use her God given talents.

Kaylee's 18th Birthday

For Kaylee's 18th birthday, we began celebrating a couple days prior with the new Black Panther movie on Thursday night. Then on Friday, we took Kaylee and her friend, Izzy out to dinner to Carmines Coal Fire Pizza for some delicious Italian food. Then on Saturday, we rented a boat and invited Izzy, Stacie and Patrick to join us on the pontoon. Unfortunately, about an hour into our ride we had an unexpected event happen to Stacie. We had just gotten out of the boat and were venturing out to the sandbar, when Stacie fell backwards into a pipe that was in the water. The pipe was very sharp as it was covered by barnacles which left Stacie with a huge 6" x 1" gash on her left calf. Once she saw her leg, she began freaking out and started going into shock. The other boaters were great and helped us get a tourniquet around her leg and get her into our boat. We headed back to our car, but unfortunately we were 40 minutes away.

Once there, we helped get her into the backseat and Patrick took her to the ER. The wait was terrible and they wouldn't let Patrick be with her. It was very frustrating for them. Hours later, she got 22 stitches.

In the meantime, we still had the boat for two more hours, so we got back on the boat and putseed around until our time was up. However, Stacie's injury was still very heavy on our hearts.

Once off the boat, Stacie and Patrick rejoined us for Kaylee's favorite pasta, Penne Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Spinach and Sausage; and favorite dessert, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Cake with peanut butter frosting and to open presents. Kaylee received a very special gold cross necklace with pearls on it for her milestone birthday. She loved it!

We're so proud of Kaylee and the beautiful woman she has become. We loved celebrating her!!! 

 

Family Pictures

 

We had our family pictures taken at Coral Cove. However, it happened to be just a few days before Hurricane Ian, so it was super windy. We didn't get any great ones of the five of us, but got some other good ones.