The Reese Family: Getting Ready for Christmas!

We are excited for Christmas! Ainsley especially. Now that she is three years old, she understands Christmas much better than in the past. She asks how long it is until Christmas everyday. After watching, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" she was concerned because we didn't have a fireplace in this apartment. She asked, "How is Santa going to get inside our house?" We told her he could come through the door. Since then, she informs us that on Christmas Eve when Santa knocks on the door, she will get out of her bed and open it and say, "Hi Santa." She is also concerned about the reindeer and has reminded me several times that we need to leave carrots out for them as well as cookies for Santa. Everyday, Ainsley changes what she wants to ask Santa for. When we go to the store, she will see a toy she wants and tell me, Santa will get it for me for Christmas. I had to remind her that when she sat on Santa's lap this year, she told him that she wanted a "Mermaid dress" which had already been changed from a "Married Girl dress." She couldn't change her mind now, because she had already told Santa and he wouldn't have time to get her the new present because he was still having to get other presents for other kids. She always seemed ok with that....so hopefully she won't be disappointed on Christmas morning:) Sam is oblivious to Christmas. He does seem fascinated by the tree though and has rolled over to it several times and tried to play with the ornaments. I have a feeling he will like the paper more than any toy he gets...I know Ainsley did for her first Christmas.

Since we aren't going home to Utah for Christmas, we are having our own little Christmas with just our family. For Christmas Eve, we will make some of our traditional Christmas foods such as toffee, Magic Cookie Bars, and cheeseball. But this year we decided to break away from either family's traditional breakfast of Apples and Sausage or Strata and try something new. We decided to make Panera's Spinach Bacon Souffles. Hopefully they will turn out and we won't be disapointed. We are also going to make cinnamon rolls, and have a turkey dinner. We are excited. On Christmas Eve we are going to make Chinese food and then go to our downtown area to see the Christmas lights. Then we are going to come home and watch "Its a Wonderful Life" and have a Christmas devotional. We are excited!

This Christmas, Sam is going to look a bit wounded...he has three major scratches on his face. Two from his long nails and one from the wall. Poor guy, right for all those Christmas pictures!

Sam's First Christmas!

December, we celebrate Tom and my birthdays. This year we went out to dinner for our bdays at Frontera Grill in the city. It is Rick Bayless' sit down Mexican restaurant next door to Xoco (0ur favorite restaurant in the city.) It took us almost two hours to drive downtown due to the traffic, but it was worth it. The food was amazing and delicious!

We took Ainsley to Toys R Us to pick out a present for Sam. She had seen a cell phone at another store and wanted to get him one too. We searched the store to find one. She was pretty excited to come home and wrap it herself.

For preschool this week, we studied the letters M and N, so we did M is for Manger and N is for Nativity. We made gingerbread nativities as our activities. The girls had fun! Ainsley spent the whole time asking me if she could eat the treats, more than actually decorating them though. She loves candy!

Last Saturday we went downtown to the Chicago Christkindl Market. It is a German Christmas market patterned after one in Nuremburg, Germany. Since we are moving to Germany next month, we thought it would be fun to check it out and try some German food. It was really cold so we bundled up and headed downtown. Sam got to open up a Christmas present early. He got a new backpack baby carrier so that when we go sight seeing in Germany, we don't have to always take a stroller. He was pretty snug in the backpack and was happy most of the day until he accidentally got wet. When we got to the market, it was packed! We could barely walk through the crowd and we were immediately grateful we didn't bring a stroller. We walked around the market once looking at all the stalls with ornaments and German souvenirs. Then we headed to get some food. We got some German potato pancakes with a side of applesauce and sour cream to dip in it. We got aKilometer which is footlong Hungarian sausage and roasted pork loin sandwich with sauerkraut as well as some German potato salad on the side. We got Ainsley a traditional German pretzel. As we were leaving we bought a apple strudel for dessert. We loved most of the things we tried....except for maybe the potato salad. Hopefully this is a light sampling of what we will enjoy in Germany! After checking out the Christmas market, we walked around the financial district and the base of the Willis (Sears) tower. Then we caught the train home so we could go to the ward Christmas party that night.