Loving this time of year...

Wayne has been working about 3 days a week the past few weeks...I think. He is using up those end of the year vacation days. This is the first year he has used up all his extra days. Usually he just lets them go, but this year he is taking them. It's been fun having him around during the week. We've done some shopping and eating lunch together. I'm going to miss him come January!

Sunday was a lot of fun. We had about 9.5 inches of snow the night before, so the kids played outside for about 2 hours while Wayne cleared the drive. We decided that we are really going to need a snow blower if we're going to stay in IL. Then we made Christmas cookies. This is the first year we've had to worry about making cookies for Santa. We have always traveled on the holidays, but we decided last winter that from this point on we want our kids waking up at home on Christmas morning. We are making a very short weekend trip to Ohio to see Wayne's Grandma and Dad and then coming right back home on Christmas Eve. My family has been great about coming out here for the holidays and I appreciate their understanding and support about having the kids home for Christmas. They have been at my parents house every Christmas morning since they were born, so this is a big change for our family.

Today, Isaac and I traveled up to Champaign to meet Laura and the girls at the mall. They had a blast playing in the soft play area after Laura and I did our shopping. The 3 of them were very well behaved.

Connor and Lindsey have 2.5 days of school left this year. Friday, Wayne is off work so I'm going to go to the school for the Christmas party. That should be fun. We leave on Saturday for Ohio.