We spent the remainder of our time in Chicago with my mom (and of course Aunt Jenny!). We had a blast. In our family, we always opened up our gifts on Christmas Eve, so we kept that tradition going with our girls this year. We had a FABULOUS dinner of beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, green beans, and my mom's awesome caesar salad! It was delicious! For dessert, I made a frozen peppermint cheesecake (which was GREAT I might add!).
After we cleaned up, we decided to dive into the present with everyone. Payton was so excited with her first present, she lost all interest in all of her other presents that my sister got her :) So we let everyone else open a present, one at a time like we always did, and it was a great time. Payton was very patient, helped people open their gifts, helped open Jordyn's gifts for her, and thanked everyone very politely! We were very proud of how well behaved she was all week in Chicago.
If Aunt Jenny was around, Payton was sure to be close by her side!
My mom loved holding and watching Jordyn. She kept Jordyn on many occasions so that either Halley and I could have alone time out, or so that we could spend one on one time with Payton. Thanks mom!
Halley and his youngest blessing!
We love being in downtown Chicago! It is so nice to be back to where I grew up, knowing where everything is, and enjoying the sites I enjoyed everyday in high school. Although I love visiting Chicago, and seeing this beautiful skyline, it is always nice to be back home in Des Moines - where traffic isn't a problem, and life is a bit "slower"!
On Christmas morning (and every morning we were there), Payton would always turn on the Christmas tree so we could all enjoy it. She also had some cute Christmas PJ's!
On Christmas Day, we also got together with my whole Lynch family (well most of them), and had dinner and enjoyed each others company. It was great to introduce many of them to my two beautiful daughters, and to catch up on life. Unfortunately, I didn't take one picture all afternoon long! On Christmas Day night, Halley, Payton, Jordyn, and I all took a carriage ride through downtown Chicago. Payton enjoyed listening to the horse walk on the street, and had such a blast. Jordyn did well too and took in all the lights that we slowly walked past. It was a great treat for us all!
All in all, Chicago was a blast! We were so happy to spend Christmas there this year, and look forward to doing it again in 2013 (wow, that seems SO far away!).
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