Happy New Year!

We had a lovely, relaxing holiday here in Chicago. My parents, sister and brother-in-law spent Christmas and the week after visiting with us, and we had so much fun that it is hard to relate all of the activities, amazing food, and great laughs we had. Eloise was in her element and enjoyed everyone’s company to the fullest. So did I! Many, many thanks to my family for making the time so very special. It was the perfect way to wrap up a good year, and to ring in 2016. We have so many big and exciting changes coming our way this year, and we are very ready to welcome them. Wishing everyone a happy, healthy new year!

*Christmas Magic. We spent Christmas Eve together, decorating cutout cookies and baking our Gram’s amazing brownies. The brownies had been a special part of our Christmas Eve tradition when Becky and I were younger, but we haven’t been able to make them since Gram passed away about 10 years ago. It was wonderful to include her in our holiday festivities this year once again. We had a fantastic, dressy dinner out that night downtown (also Soares family tradition), and the next morning, seeing Eloise’s joy at Santa’s overnight arrival, was magic. The whole day was relaxed, playing with Eloise and her new toys and having a big Italian meal of eggplant parmesan, stuffed steak, and ziti. We only changed out of our pajamas to don crazy holiday sweaters, which was a fun new tradition. Just a great holiday.

*Zoo Lights. The weather was mild, so we decided to head to Brookfield Zoo for Zoo Lights. We were lucky enough to catch many of the animals in action, which was cool, and Eloise enjoyed riding the carousel and the veeeeeeeeeeery slow tram around the zoo.

*Winter Fest. Perhaps the highlight of our post-Christmas activities was Winter Fest at Navy Pier. What a cool event! We knew it was something special from the first few minutes of the “mayor” counting down and opening the doors to the event area. Holiday music blared, fake snow flew all around us, and our first glimpse of the giant, colorful Christmas tree in the center of it all made everyone cheer. Eloise couldn’t get enough of all the rides, from bounce houses and slides, to a Ferris wheel, tea cups, a giant rocking horse and much more. We were there from the minute it opened at 10AM until Eloise was nearly falling asleep on her feet at 3PM and didn’t have time to partake in all the offerings. I’d definitely recommend it as a great Chicago holiday family activity (especially getting there early on a lighter day, post Christmas, pre-New Years like we did!).