Mootsie sent my parents into town with a gingerbread house. Reese, Talan, and my parents went to work on it a couple of nights ago. It's very surprising that there was any candy left for the actual house because most of it only made it as far as one of the kids' mouths.
They did a pretty good job!
This is what they woke up to the next morning. Eric is one crazy dude!
My parents are leaving early on Sunday morning. We've got a packed schedule on Saturday with a basketball game and celebrating my Mom's birthday. We couldn't figure out where to fit in going into downtown Chicago so I made an executive decision to keep Reese home from school yesterday so that we could all go. I made the huge mistake of telling her on Tuesday night. I asked her to please stay quiet about it because I didn't want her teacher to know that I was keeping her home for that reason. She asked what she should do if someone asked. I assured her that no one would ask if she was going to be absent but if, for some extremely odd reason they did, not to lie but to simply say that she was staying home to celebrate Christmas with her grandparents because they were leaving town in a couple of days.
On Wednesday night I had a feeling that Reese had spilled the beans. I knew she was no good at keeping things to herself. I said "Reese, did you tell Mrs. Eischen what we're doing tomorrow" and she said "No Mom! She asked if anyone was going to be absent next week so I raised my hand and said that I wasn't going to be gone next week but I am going to be absent tomorrow but my mom said not to tell you where we're going or what we're doing". Uh.....
I ended up sending her teacher an email to tell her what we were doing to try to make up for it. It was all worth it in the end because we had a really nice time downtown. We went to the Christkindlemarket and to see the Macy's window displays (which were a huge disappointment this year. Boo!). Afterwards we headed over to Michigan Ave and had lunch and visited the American Girl store.
My Mom loves driving around to see Christmas light displays so after the (2 hour) drive home we went on a hunt for lights. We found some pretty spectacular displays. It was a great end to a great day.
Kevin's parents had to leave town this morning. Last night they let the kids open up their Christmas gifts. Talan was thrilled to get a remote control truck and Reese was ecstatic to open up a Barbie that comes with a salon where you can change her hair color. Enter Eric........
When Reese auditioned for the solo (just three short weeks ago) and found out she got it, she had never heard the song "Santa Baby". We sat in front of the computer and looked for songs using Google and Youtube. When she heard Taylor Swift's version of Santa Baby her eyes lit up and she knew that it was the perfect song. By the following day she had most of it memorized. She has really worked her little butt off, practicing over and over again to prepare for yesterday's show.
We were up at 6:30 to shower and get her ready. We had to be at rehearsals at 9. I couldn't believe how relaxed she was or how nervous Kevin and I were. When it was her turn to hit the stage, I was having a hard time breathing and my heart was racing. I could see the sweat dripping down Kevin. She had never been on stage by herself before yesterday....much less to sing behind a microphone to a theater filled with 250 people. She was so poised and so confident up there! I had tears streaming down my face watching and listening. She's so amazing. Here is the video from her rehearsal:
I wish I had taped for just a little longer. Everyone was cheering so loud afterwards. It was such an awesome moment. After rehearsal was over we had a couple of hours before she had to be back for two sold out shows; one at 2 and one at 4.
Her good friend, Brooke, was dancing in the show so we went out for a quick lunch with she and her Mom before it was time to be back for the real thing.
Even after seeing her nail it the first time, I was so nervous for her to get up there. I don't know why because she was even better in front of the full crowd!
Her grandparents, Aunt Heather, cousins Sophia & Olivia, and our friends Jennifer and Annika were all there for the 4 o'clock show. It was so wonderful to have so many familiar faces in the audience. It was such a special day for her.
We were so busy this weekend but it was all so very worth it! With both sets of grandparents in town, we though it would be fun to visit the Santa House in downtown Naperville. It really is a magical experience. When you go in to see Santa, he knows your name and surprises you by knowing exactly what you want for Christmas and a little bit about you. He spends more time than normal and really talks to the kids. We waited over an hour to see him but seeing Reese's face when the kids walked in and knew them by name was worth every second we waited:
It was fun to see them so excited but also great that our parents could be a part of it.
The next morning we woke up to Eric who had set up a ziplining course in our kitchen!
I'm always nervous to see what he will come up with next. After a quick breakfast Reese, Kevin, and I headed out the door to go and help load toys for Toys for Tots at her school. We rushed home for lunch and then it was off to Reese's basketball game. Reese was pumped to have everyone there watching and it showed.....because she scored not one, but TWO baskets. That was the first time she's ever scored. It was so exciting!
After her game she rushed off with Kevin and his Dad to a guitar lesson. When she got home from that we had enough time to quickly change before the four of us girls were off to see The Nutcracker.
It was so special to be there with Reese and both of her Grandmothers. When it ended I was once again rushed to get home because Kevin and I had a trolley party to go to that night. We got home late, slept for a couple of hours and then it was time for a full day of excitement centered around Reese's first solo singing performance.
