1466 Miles for One Last Time.....

Ever since I read Lisa Beamer's book "Let's Roll" about her life before, during and after the fated Flight 93 that her husband, Todd Beamer, was on, I have wanted to make it out to the Memorial Sight.  But it is literally in the middle of nowhere and 3 hours away from where we live, so not easy to get to.  Fortunately, it is only about 25 miles out of the way when one is driving from Annapolis to Chicago, so we planned it into our trip and I'm so glad we did.

At the end of a long walk, there is a large marble wall with each victim's name engraved.  I am standing in front of Todd Beamer's name.  He is one of the men who led the charge to take the plane down, exclaiming "Let's Roll!" as they fought back and saved countless lives while sacrificing their own.  He left behind a two very young children along with a wife who was pregnant with their third child.

It was the first time we really talked about and explained the events of 9/11 to our children and I think it was an important lesson for them.

Such a blessing the plane, with over 700 gallons of fuel on board went down in this wide open field.

This large stone is now a marker of where the plane made impact.

The 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93

So, I didn't take pictures of this, but because of this detour and because of the rain, fog and the fact that it gets dark at 4:30, we decided to break up the trip.  We spent that night (Saturday the 21st) in a hotel with an indoor pool and hot tub in Sandusky, Ohio.  The kids LOVED it!

We arrived in Chicago (Naperville) on Sunday.  After spending some good quality time with family, we headed out the next morning to visit one of my best friends from high school, Kelly, and her cute kids.  I have been friends with Kelly since the 6th grade.  I looked at her while we were taking this goofy picture and commented, thinking back to our 11 year-old selves, "Can you believe we produced all these kids?!"

One of the things we did while home was to make yummy, traditional treats.  Here we are making French Dudes.  Yes, that is their official name :)

Maret and Mom ready to put the "Dudes" in the oven!

On Christmas Eve, we decided to take our kids to Bouncetown in Oswego.  My brother and sister-in-law (who sadly were not there :( ) introduced us to this place two years ago and we make a point of going back here on a regular basis.  The kids love it!

As you can tell, the velcro wall was a big hit!

After Bouncetown, we ate at Portillos, one of our all time favorite Chicago joints - in fact we ate there 3 times during the week.  Then, we took the kids to see the movie "Frozen".  We went straight from the movie to Connie's Pizza, shown here.  It was a Mitchell tradition for many years to have Christmas Eve dinner at Connie's Pizza, so we decided for our last and final (more on that later) Naperville Christmas, we needed to stick with tradition!

Introducing Tanner to Deep Dish!

Then we came home and got in our Christmas PJ's

And woke up to a White Christmas!  A beautiful tree, surrounded by gifts with a back drop of white falling snow.  Perfect!

Funny to think that last Christmas Maret hadn't even met Peter and now he is officially a part of our family!  Tanner is a big fan since Peter is an artist and was willing to take drawing requests :)  Peter gave Tanner his own sketch pad.....

and got him started with a race car :)

Massage train

Christmas breakfast

We spent many wonderful hours surrounding this table this past week enjoying wonderful food and company!

My Christmas baby.  Last Christmas, we didn't even know if Ella was a boy or a girl, much less know her name or anything else about "her."  And this year, her very first Christmas, she is such an intricate, wonderful part of our family.  

11 Months old on Christmas Day!

The day after Christmas, we took the kids to the DuPage County Children's Museum

And the next day (Friday), we took the kids to Danada for a horse-drawn sleigh ride.

My dad came with us and we all had fun!

So....... why in the world would we drive 27 hours in a car in the middle of winter with 4 kids, ages baby-6 to go to a place we just were two months ago???  Well....... months ago, after my brother and his family moved away, followed by my sister and her family moving away, followed by my dad retiring, my parents decided they were going to put their house on the market and move.  They put the call out to each of us 5 kids saying that if we ever wanted to have a Naperville Christmas again, this would most likely be our last chance.  We all committed to going.  Then Maret started dating Peter, things moved quickly and they were married in October!  So, we decided to make that the last Naperville family get-together.  But, I guess the three of us sisters couldn't quite shake missing out on our last Naperville Christmas, so once my two sisters committed to going, we jumped on board too.  There were 14 of us plus a dog staying in a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bathroom house for a week.  It was close quarters and my parents were troopers putting up with the "Strom tornado" in addition to all their other guests.  The car ride to/from wasn't easy.  We knew it wouldn't be.  But, we managed and are so glad we made the trip.  In addition to doing lots of fun family outings, we had a wonderful, memorable week with family in my childhood home - the home I have spent 30 of my 38 Christmases.  So many memories......

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Monday night, it started snowing and we woke up early to a phone call announcing school was cancelled.  SNOW DAY!

It's a shame Lacey wasn't around when I took this picture because she did a lot of work on this snow man.  And I have to document what I did Monday night.... shop for snow mittens!  The kids had gloves, but they weren't water proof, so in the last couple of "snow drifts" they would come in after a couple minutes complaining about their hands being cold and wet.  I knew a big snow fall was headed our way, so after spending a long exhausting day taking care of kids and making dinner, I headed out to the grocery store, where I spent an hour.  I was plum out of energy, but I forced myself to go to Kmart and get the snow gloves.  They were out.  So, I drove all the way to Target.  They had ONE pair left of boys mittens and were completely sold out for girls.  So I then drove all the way to Walmart..... success!  It was a long exhausting night, but when we woke to the snow fall Tuesday morning and the kids put on their new gloves and stayed outside for hours, it was all worth it!

Then on Saturday, we drove to my work, where we had breakfast and pictures with the REAL Santa Claus!  The kids were all so excited!!

Tanner proceeded to tell Santa his list (some real life army guys who stand outside and protect our house, a remote control jet with real fire coming out of the jets, etc) and Dave and I exchanged a worried look.  We're really hoping Santa pulls thru because so far Mom and Dad have not a single thing on the list he provided Santa!

After meeting Santa, we took the kids back to my office so that they could see where Mommy goes every Tuesday and Thursday.  Lacey loved trying on my lab coat and Tanner loved playing with my food models!

We came home from Santa and got busy making Christmas cookies.

We have the worst possible church time ever.  1:30-4:30.  And.... wait for it.... we NEVER rotate!  I have been taking young, napping babies and toddlers to 1:30-4:30 church for my entire 7 years of motherhood.  It's HORRIBLE.  And we live half an hour away, so by the time we get home at 5pm after dealing with whiny, crying, cranky, should-be napping kids for 3 hours, we crash.  But today, we sucked it up and drove to DC after church so the kids could see the DC Temple and the beautiful lights.  As usual, Riley was less than thrilled.

I am not going to lie.  I am not going to sugar coat it.  Riley was HORRIBLE.  Every second of the entire evening, she was a complete disaster.  She whined, cried, threw tantrums, and pouted NON-STOP.  We were kicking ourselves that we didn't get a baby-sitter for the younger two and have a nice, enjoyable evening with the older two.  Especially because Jenny Oaks Baker, a world-renowned concert violinist gave a concert while we were there.  Tickets were free, so I convinced Dave we should go.  I grew up playing the violin and I absolutely love to see accomplished violinists perform. During the first song, Riley was getting all up in the baby's face and making her cry, so Dave took the baby out.  Then Riley proceeded to get in and out of her chair over and over again, lay on the floor, sit on my lap, throw the baby's blanket over the person in front of her, talk incessantly, etc, etc.  By the second number, I knew it was hopeless and we got up and left.  It killed me that I was there and that I couldn't see the concert.  Oh my gosh, this child is so, so hard.  

But the lights were beautiful.  The temple was beautiful.  And hopefully at least our older children have memories of us making the effort to bring them here.

Let's go to the City!

Dave here, posting about a great daddy-daughter date that Lacey and I did last week. The opportunity arose to go on a day trip to NYC to see the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes in their annual Christmas Spectacular. NYC is one of my favorite cities in the world and I never tire going there. However, this time I brought Lacey. She's been to the city before when she was two to see the Thanksgiving Day Parade, but this time she would be able to remember her visit. I was excited to show Lacey this city during the Christmas season and see what she would make of it. We got up early and took a bus ride to make it into the city by 10:30. First order of business was to get this girl a pretzel and go see the biggest Christmas tree around!

Our timing wasn't great as we were the day the lighting ceremony was to take place at night, so we never saw the tree lit up but Lacey was still impressed.....with both the tree and the pretzel! ;)

Next it was to the American Girl Store. Unfortunately, of fortunately, depending on how you want to see it, but Lacey wasn't all that impressed. She liked seeing all the dolls and the clothing, books, accessories, etc. but she wasn't begging me to buy anything or even insist on staying when it was time to go. She just casually said she would like one and that was that. Glad I didn't spring to have lunch there.

What this girl was excited about was getting cupcakes at Magnolia's Bakery. That's more down her alley!

We walked around mid-town and just soaked in the uniqueness of this city and the unexpected photo ops that are lurking around every city block. Lacey wasn't intimidated by all the people, the skyscrapers, or anything really. She honestly loved holding my hand, skipping all over the place, and going to the next destination in the itinerary I had in my head.

We made our way to Times Square, the heart of Manhattan. Lacey loved all the electronic billboards and climbing the red steps to get a better view of the craziness.

And she was ready for her close-up as well. What a ham!

We spent a bit of time in the big Disney store and the Toys R' Us store next door. Lacey loved seeing all the Disney princess stuff. This was the reaction I thought she would display in the American Girl Store. Looks like she's still about the princesses. And in the Toys R' Us store we rode the Ferris Wheel and marveled at all the goodies they had there as well. Then it was time to make our way to Radio City to catch our matinee. 

I have actually never been inside Radio City so I was looking forward to that. Lacey didn't know what to expect but for the next 90 minutes she was thoroughly spellbound and enchanted by the show and the dancing girls. The show also had Santa, which Lacey was convinced was the real deal. The show was great and definitely a great way to kick off the holiday season. For the rest of the day, instead of skipping down the streets of Manhattan, Lacey was kicking her way down them! She now wants to take dance again to become a Rockette! 

We indulged in some cheesy NYC pizza after the show and decided that after all the walking that we had been doing we deserved a candy break. So, on to Dylan's Candy Bar. Do you see that face? She was in awe! This girl cares more about that sweet tooth of hers than any stuffed doll! :) I let her get whatever she wanted. Luckily she didn't go crazy! 

Upon leaving Dylan's, night had fallen on the city and that's when the city's energy really comes to life, especially during the holidays. Building after building was decorated for the season and there were more lights than normal. We both loved seeing all the lights and clever ways each store decorated their windows. And we made our way to another toy store, because this isn't any old toy store. This is FAO Schwarz. First stop, the big piano. You all know what I'm talking about. Shockingly there wasn't a line so Lacey got right on and danced, ran, skipped, kicked to her hearts content for 10 minutes until I pulled her off it! 

Here she is with the FAO guard. And we did leave with a parting gift - a stuffed flamingo that Lacey had to have. This girl loves her flamingos! 

Our time in NYC was coming to a close but we took a nice leisurely stroll down 5th avenue to see the crowds, the buildings, the shoppers, etc. We made another stop at Rockefeller Center and Times Square to see those places at night and then grabbed some snacks/drinks for the bus ride home. 

Seeing NYC with a kid is a different experience but it was so fun to have one-on-one time with my Lacey girl and show her the city. Lacey was an absolute champ: no whining, no complaining, no begging, no tantrums, no crying (except for when she thought she had lost me!), etc. I asked her on the bus ride home, while watching Elf, what was her favorite part of the day. She thought for a minute and said, "The whole day!"

Yes!