A few things we did in the Naperthrill.

This Christmas, we went out to my family's house for Christmas. Trevor stayed for two weeks, and Thompson and I were there for three weeks. Thompson basically forgot he used to live in a small house with only two other people, and got completely accustomed to having constant attention and seemingly endless space to explore. We are now all going through withdrawals after spending so much time together as a family. My little brother says he wishes there could be an earthquake that would somehow move Salt Lake City and Naperville right next to each other. (Or maybe you could just move here J.)

It wasn't too cold while we were there, but we did have to bundle up a little bit more than usual.

My parents waited to get a tree so we could go help them pick it out and decorate it. We helped get the perfect one. J named him George.

We also went to go introduce Thompson to Santa for the first time. We thought it wouldn't be busy because it was near the end of the day, right before the little Santa house in downtown Naperville closed. We were obviously crazy for thinking that. Not only was Thompson exhausted by the time we got to Santa, but while we were in line, he messed his diaper and I forgot to bring diapers/wipes, so we were stuck. The scowl on Santa's face in all the pictures is probably from the smell.

At first Thompson wasn't too sure what he thought of the whole situation.

But he was so tired that he snuggled up and almost fell asleep laying on Santa's beard.

A few days before Christmas we went and stayed in Chicago. We walked along Michigan Avenue and saw the lights, we saw the train at the John Hancock Building, and we went to see the gingerbread village at the Drake.

And we shopped of course. Oh, and while we were out shopping, my family accidentally led a protest. We were walking and as we were crossing the river, they came up right behind us.  We heard chants of, "Hey Ho, Egyptian Generals have got to go!". We turned around and there was a huge crowd with signs and flags right behind us. We couldn't let them pass because the sidewalk on the bridge was too narrow, so for awhile, we were forced into leading the protest.  For the rest of the day, Ethan kept chanting "Hey Ho, Egyptian Generals have got to go!"  At least they successfully converted one person to their cause.

After Christmas, Trevor and I got to go on a childless New Year's Eve date, we played too much Wii bowling and Donkey Kong, and ate way, way too much food.

We also took the kids to Airtastic, a play place with tons of jumpy houses and mazes. Thompson loved it.

And that's about where the fun stopped. I kid. Kind of. A few days after Trevor went back home, Thompson got sick and had a fever. He also couldn't sleep at night, so we became more familiar with the all night shows on Nick Jr. that week than we would ever like. After an urgent care visit, chest x-ray, bad reaction to an antibiotic, and very long flight home, we were finally back home. And then Thompson got stung by a wasp. Not a good week for us. Little T was upset for a few minutes, but he was back to his happy self pretty quickly, even if smiling was a bit more cumbersome.

Besides, why be grumpy when you have a fun new fat lip to play with?