it's the most wonderful time of the year...

It's also the busiest time of the year, LOL! Last week was pretty much a blur for me, but I did manage to take some pictures in the middle of all the busy-ness.

Dec. 7th, between church in the morning and taking Em to Confirmation in the evening, George and I worked on hanging all of our outside Christmas lights. My fingers were too cold to take a picture of that, but I did snap this one later that night, of our favorite holiday drink. All 5 of us LOVE egg nog, and especially AE eggnog (from Iowa) ~ thank you to Mom and Dad for bringing this for us at Thanksgiving! It is the best eggnog evah!: Dec. 8th, it had been snowing most of the day, and the kids couldn't wait to go out and play! They went out in the afternoon, and again after supper, when I snapped these pics:




Dec. 9th, just a *few* of the snowmen from my collection... I think I have over 200!:


Dec. 10th, I took the kids to see the fun lights at North School Park in Arlington Heights:



We then went to church so that Nick could attend his drama practice. As soon as that was over, we hurried to pick George up from work, grab a quick supper at McDonald's, and then we went to Nick's school choral concert:
Dec. 11th, lots of people know that I LOVE snowmen and collect them, but did you know I collect Santas, too? LOL I think I have around 50 of them:

Dec. 12th, in the evening, we dropped Emmalie off at a school dance, and then the rest of us headed for a ride on the Polar Express! We started out at this train station:
Here comes our train:
Ben loved the ride to the "North Pole"... aka Elgin:
Once there, we got in line to see Santa. Ben hid out under my coat:
But did finally agree to go up and see Santa, as long as I was with him:


We made crafts at the train station, ate a snack, and sang carols. All the kids were given a jingle bell from Santa ~ Ben took his outside and tried to make a train appear by ringing it, LOL, but for some reason, that didn't work:
Around 10:10pm, we got back on the Polar Express and headed home.

Dec. 13th, we all drove to church right after lunch. Nick had a dress rehearsal for the nativity play, and Em and I were busy helping with scenery, costumes, and props. Meanwhile, George and Ben joined in on a gingerbread house activity:

The 2 of them made this awesome house!:
At 3, it was time for the play, Follow the Star. Nick was a shepherd (he's the one at the microphone here): All of the little kids are encouraged to be shepherds or angels, as well, and to join the big shepherds on stage during their big moment. Here is Shepherd Ben:
All the kids did a great job!:
Here's Nick, after the play (with the sheep he received from my friend Katy when she was visiting from Scotland!):
Dec. 14th, we were at church all morning because Nick was in yet another play that he and the drama team performed at both the 9 and 10:30 services. (I forgot my camera, ack!) I did get this photo of some of our Christmas decor back at home, though:

Thank goodness this week should be a little less busy....