Tis the season to do everything Christmas in Chicago

We kicked off the holiday season with decorating the house before we headed out for Dallas.  The season is far to short in my mind and I like to come home from traveling and be in the holiday spirit.  With now two little guys we knew we were going to have to take a new approach with the tree.  We tossed anything breakable and went for cloth ornaments only.  It was so cute to see both boys so excited - we knew this was going to be the best Christmas yet!!!

Next up was the CTA "Santa's Express."  When we were explaining to Will we were going to ride on a train that was all decorated in Christmas lights with Santa he was convinced he was going on the Polar Express.  Poor guy just didn't want to take no for an answer so in Will's mind we truly rode the Polar Express.  We all bundled up and raced to catch the train.  We jumped on the jam packed train and took in as much as we could.  We only rode the train 2 stops but it was cute.  Kinda a blur.  I think Will had just as much fun riding the normal brown line 2 stops home :).  The funny part was when Jason and I went out for a date night we happened to catch the holiday train too!  

Next up was the trains at the Botanical Gardens - a favorite of all of ours!  We jumped in the car early and took a nice relaxing ride out to the burbs.  

Sam loved watching the snow fall from the ceiling

Will explaining to anyone who would listen how the train was going to come back "Hey guys it will come right back.....SEE IT CAME!!!"

Then one morning I took the boys to Navy Pier for the Christmas Fair.  I can't remember the name.  I had never been and we got free parking with our Childrens museum pass so I thought we would try it out!  There was a train so obvi that was the first thing we did - 4 times straight!!  Sam was actually super into it too!  Looking out the window and standing up on my lap.  I felt so lucky to have two awesome boys to have such fun outings with.  

Mom and son selfie on the train!

And then we met the big guy!  Actually funny story we went to see Santa at shops at 900 but he got sick and after waiting in the line they sent us all home.  LUCKY for us Macy's was right across the street with no line.  Phew!!  He was a nice Santa but looked tired and probably had high blood pressure from all the annoying parents.  We were a low key family.  They kept asking us to try putting everyone on his lap and Jason or I didnt care.  Will just wanted to talk to Santa and Sam sits where ever we put him.  It was sweet.  Will told us "he held Sam's hand so he wouldn't be scared."  Melt me!  Will was a bit scared by the whole thing but was very brave when we got there and asked Santa for the CTA trains.  Santa looked at me like "hope you can find those because I just said he was gonna get them."  It was a big hit for Will and we talked about Santa alot in the coming weeks.

Will 2.75, Sam 10 Months 

Other notable holiday activities was cookie backing.  I hope I read this post next Christmas before I start the cookie backing.  BUY SLICE AND BAKE!!  By the time Will and I made the dough, chilled it, rolled it, cut the cookies out, baked them, cooled them, made frosting, died the frosting and decorated and iced every single one I wanted to roll over take a nap and not wake up for a week.  Also please note we started this whole process at 4:30pm.  Yikes.  But it was a hit.  Will had a ball and the cookies were super good!