My favorite memories with Addison this Christmas are all the activities/events we were able to take her to. She's at such a fun age to take her out and show her all the fun Christmas has to offer - and makes for some great photo opportunities, too!
So, here's a recap of all the fun the O'Neills had in our last Christmas as a Party of 3 :)
Grandma Weekend
The first weekend of December was VERY busy. Both Tim's and my company holiday parties were that weekend (Friday and Saturday, respectively) - so that meant lots of Grandma time for Addison! I took the whole day off on Friday to play with Addison and Grandma Simon came down in the late morning to go bed shopping for Addison. Then I headed downtown to meet Tim for his holiday party at the Museum of Science & Industry and Addie got to stay up late watching movies and reading books with Grandma.
The next morning Addison, Grandma & I got up early to go see Santa at the mall. Stratford Square had a free Breakfast w/Santa event in the food court that I thought would be fun - and hey, it was free! Addison was excited to see Santa, although she was a little timid when he came by our table for pictures.
Later that night was my company's work party, so we took Addison over to Grandma G's for the evening. She got to help them decorate their Christmas tree and had fun running around as usual.
Picture with Santa
The next day, I was determined to get Addison's picture with Santa taken as I needed to get our Christmas cards completed and out in the mail. I was dumb enough to think we had a chance to accomplish this feat at Woodfield Mall on a Sunday morning. The line in the Winter Wonderland set-up winds around and the starting point is at least an hour wait. Well, that line was full and then started again across the walkway and spanned all the way down and around the entire Woodfield play area (which is about the length of 5 mall stores). We got some muffins, let Addison run around in the play area and killed a good 45 min til we realized we had barely moved. So we gave up, since we guessed that the total we would have waited would have been like 4 hours.
On that, we left and vowed to come back on Monday evening straight from work. That worked much better. It was a little hectic since we met there after work, so Tim had to get Addison all ready to go and then meet me at the mall. The line was only the windy 1-hr wait time so we were hopeful. We grabbed some Jimmy John's to eat for dinner in line and Addison enjoyed running around with some other kids in the Winter Wonderland set-up. She was very hyper and in good spirits, but even so, it was difficult to keep the anticipation up to see Santa. When we were the next ones up, she was having so much fun playing in the fake snow she didn't care all that much about seeing Santa. But we riled her up just in time as we were walking out to see him. She was so excited to see him, but only from 10ft away. As soon as we walked up to put her on his lap, she shrunk up and clung to me.
Since we got a classic crying baby with Santa picture last year, I didn't want to do it again by forcing her on him. So instead, I sat on a little stool next to Santa and Addison sat on my knee, and they just cropped me out. What we got out of it was a truly precious little picture. The uneasiness around Santa up-close was a trend all through the Christmas season with Addison. While she was excited to see Santa anywhere, she was always a little timid when getting close to him and always wanted us to hold on to her.
Pre-School Sports Night
I love finding local, cheap/free events to take Addison too. She's at the perfect age for these events to introduce her to all new things, and she loves going to all these parties and classes.
This specific event was a free event on a Thursday night. Set up in a gymnasium at the rec center, there were a bunch of little sports stations set up throughout the gym. There was baseball, badmitton, basketball, jump rope, hula hoops, etc. Addison had a great time running around and playing with all the various balls. That does seem to be her sport of choice - catchy ball or kicky ball or basketball. And, I must say - she's got a pretty good arm!
The Nutcracker
I was a little worried about how she would do sitting quietly in a dark auditorium, but she was really great until the last 15min or so when she got restless and wanted to go home. But even then, she didn't have a meltdown, I was just trying to make it to the end of the show so it was hard to contain her.
Our seats were all the way over to one side, but in the 3rd row so we could really see the characters up close. Addison's favorite part was the fight between the Nutcracker and King Mouse. She was really excited throughout the whole show, pointing things out and clapping. It was really a special memory I will always have and I'm looking forward to this being an annual tradition for Mommy & Addie :)
Storytime with Mrs. Claus
This event was another working parent friendly one in Elk Grove on a weeknight. It was very crowded, but there was a little spot for making crafts - picture frames and ornaments and a hot cocoa station. There was a little dance floor set up where some youth dance groups were putting on performances. Super cute! During all that, Santa and Mrs. Claus were available for pictures. Addison was excited to see him, but again a little timid to go up to him. This time, Daddy had to hold her. However, she was enthralled with Santa the whole time she was up there, while holding on tight to Daddy.
After the pictures, Mrs. Claus read all the kids a few Christmas stories. At first Addison was just precious and sat right up in front of the group and listened to the story. But then she got the nighttime rips and kept standing up and running around. She wasn't the only kid to do so, but it was still hectic trying to not cause a scene chasing her around when everyone was supposed to be quietly listening to Mrs. Claus story. But, how much more can you ask from a 2-yr old. She had a great time and in the end, that's what matters!
Breakfast with Santa
This year, our Breakfast with Santa was at Rainforest Cafe in Woodfield Mall. It was a ton of fun and even though Addison was still a little timid around Santa - she adored Cha-Cha the Frog who also walked around from table to table. She was much more about the frog than Santa at all. Her favorite part about the breakfast was walking around to see all the big aquariums throughout the restaurant. When we first arrived for breakfast, Santa was actually swimming in one of the tanks!!! Funny! There was also a balloon artist, story time with Mrs. Claus and a craft table. We hit up all of those but by far we spent the most time looking at all the aquariums.
Cookie Exchange Party
Every year a friend of ours hosts a Cookie Exchange Party. This year, I brought Addison for the first time. There were a couple other babies/little kids there and Addison was very well behaved. She even "showed off" for Mommy and ate more broccoli than cookies!
I love taking Addison to events like this even if she's not a perfect angel, she's learning how to act in social events and that's very important for us.
Simon Family Christmas Eve
After weeks of anticipation and events leading up to it, the big event finally arrived. Christmas was here! We started our celebrations up in Wisconsin at Simon family Christmas Eve at cousin Paula & Dale's house. Addison had so much fun playing with her cousins and the other Simon cousins. In total there were 8 kids ranging from 2 to 12 years old. This was one of the first gatherings where we didn't see Addison for most of the night. She was happily running around with all the cousins, and upstairs playing in their rooms. We'd go check on her regularly and she'd just tell us she was fine and we could leave her alone ;) Funny how so many times we've urged her to play independently and not need us at her side at all times, and we get it for an evening and it's weird!Addison as usual was spoiled with tons of great presents from the whole family, and this year was much more involved in opening them herself than last year. She lasted pretty late into the night. We headed home, a good 90min drive back to Chicagoland, and Addison passed out within the first few minutes of the drive.
Christmas Morning
Around 4am on Christmas morning, Addison came into our room. But not for the reason most kids come wake up their parents on Christmas morning - she simply wanted to sleep with us, as she does many other regular nights.
Around 8am she woke up but was still a little groggy from the night before. I actually had to coax her into going downstairs! I told her how I think I heard Santa moving around in our living room the night before, and reindeer walking around in our backyard. She was interested in my story, but still content to just snuggle in bed. Finally after several minutes of Santa and presents hints and stories, we all went downstairs.
Santa had left all of her toys out on the ottoman in front of the couch, we saw everything right when we got to the bottom of the stairs. All her presents were smaller so they were all scattered across the ottoman. There was no burst of excitement, she just walked right up to the Pop the Pig game and started feeding him. We came to look at all the toys with her and then she started playing with everything and was really excited and kept yelling, "Look what Santa got me! Santa got me this!!!" Very fun!After the dust settled on those gifts, we opened the wrapped presents under the tree to each other. She was ripping open the presents and continued to get more and more excited and she opened more and more presents. It was probably becoming overwhelming with how many toys and gifts she got!
Once all the gifts were open we continued to play with several different ones, then tidied up, got dressed and headed to church! Addison was very good at church, pointing out Baby Jesus and really liked hearing/singing all the Christmas carols during the pre-mass portion. She sat quietly for most of mass, but hit her limit right around Communion, so we had to slip out - but all in all, not a bad trip to church. Definitely have to get her to church more often though!
Christmas with Grandma G et all
The next celebration was Christmas afternoon/evening with Grandma G, John, Bob, Nick and Uncle Ed. We sat and visited for awhile while dinner was cooking and Addison showed them all her new gifts. We ate a nice big dinner and then continued to open all our gifts. Addison was of course the center of attention and played lots of games with Uncle Ed and Grandma G.
O'Neill Christmas
Since we missed the traditional O'Neill Christmas on Christmas Day, we headed up to Grandpa O'Neill's the day after for a nice dinner and to exchange gifts. As usual Addison fell asleep for the last 15min of the 45 min drive, so was a little shy when we first got there.
It was fun for her to see Baby/Uncle Sean again. I like watching her interact with babies as a little preview of what's to come with Baby Punkin.
Isabella's Birthday
The family gatherings just kept on rolling the very next day with cousin Isabella's 8th birthday party. I had the day off so Grandma Simon and Rick came down a couple hours beforehand to hang out. Addison showed them all her new toys and her new big sister room which was just about finished.
Then we headed over to the party and Addison was so excited and just started running around with her cousins - as this is basically her home away from home. I love being able to see Addison play with her cousins at these gatherings because normally I only get to hear about it in stories from Auntie Lorie. But it's great to see how much they all really have fun together and love each other. I know she will miss them when she no longer is over there everyday!
Big Sister Room
In early December John came over to paint what was our spare room a green and brown (similar to how Addison's room at the condo was). Grandma Simon's big Christmas gift to Addison was a big sister bed (twin bed) and that was delivered shortly after the painting was done. So that's when we started telling Addison that this would be her big sister room. She was just fine with that - which was our goal to have the transition of her room becoming Baby Punkin's. So that's one less thing to worry about with the introduction of a new sibling into her life.
By the day after Christmas, we had her room set up and she spent her first night in there easily and willingly. It was a little weird for us to walk out of that room after putting her into a twin bed. But just like when we originally set up Silly Baby's room three years ago, it has become our favorite room of the house. She's been loving it too and for the first few nights she slept all the way through 'til morning without coming in by us (a trend that had become all too regular of an occurrence for the couple weeks before). Itsy Bitsy New Year's Eve Countdown
We rounded out the holiday season celebration with yet another park district event in Schaumburg. From 10am-Noon at the rec center, Addison got to go in a bouncy house, ride on various bikes, play all sorts of sports, play with a parachute and just run all around like a crazy little kid. It was a ton of fun and enjoyable for us too! At noon they gave out noisemakers and had a big countdown and balloon drop which all the kids went bonkers for!Afterwards we went out to lunch and Addison was such a little grown-up and even ordered her own drink and meal unprompted!
This holiday season was crazy busy but we have a lifetime of memories (and pictures) to show for it. It was very important for us to spoil her and take advantage of all these fun activities this last time of it just being the 3 of us. Addison certainly got her fill of Mommy & Daddy time - and now it's just a couple months until she'll be getting a ton of Addie & Baby Punkin time. Can't wait for next year to do all the events again with my Silly Baby and Baby Punkin in tow!
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