Collierville Choo Choo

Craig and I took the boys out to Collierville, a suburb of Memphis... In the little town square, they have several old trains that you can climb on/in, and we did just that. So Fun.

We also got to play with trains at the toy store AND meet up with Aunt Priscilla for lunch!

Great morning!

HO HO HO

Blast from the past :)

Here is sweet Bill wearing a Christmas outfit that Ashleigh made Robb Harrison... TWENTY YEARS ago!

More Santa!!

Ok, back to memphis!

We went to the Enchanted Forest again this year. The trains were, once again, a big hit.

This year, though, ALL of the cousins were able to make it into the picture with Santa Clause! How fun?!

Please excuse the quality of the photos, they are just pictures of the originals :)

Chicago Christmas

A bit out of order, but I want to include a few pictures from before we left for memphis...

We went to the shedd aquarium (in basically a squall!!) with friends to see the holiday spectacular. We also went up to the Chicago botanic gardens for their Christmas train display.

All the while, our new friend Thomas the elf came to visit from the north pole! Don't you like his name?

Bill also took time out of his day to play Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, courtesy of some accidentally - though well-placed - sweet potatoes ;)

How precious?

Our first morning in Memphis, we went to the U Club with Gee, Poppy, and the McDonalds to visit with Santa. They and Robb were sweet enough to let the boys borrow some Christmas fancies to wear... Below is sweet Hank all dressed and ready to go! Don't you love the enthusiasm?

The Big Picture turned out so cute!!

Cookies!!!!

So this is my first attempt at blogging from my phone... We shall see how it goes :) Since one of my nieces (Mary Carson?) borrowed my phone to take pictures one morning, I am starting my Christmas posts with those pics...

The boys and I had been in Memphis just a couple days when a lot of the fam gathered together to bake cookies! In Gee and Poppy's new kitchen! We had so much fun. We made delicious sugar cookies to decorate as well as yummy Rockies... Rockies are a family recipe - basically a fruit cake cookie. You either love 'em or hate 'em... I love them and it turns out Hank does too!

Without further adieu, le pics, courtesy of MCL...

Santa came twice!

We had an amazing trip down to Memphis for Christmas and New Years. I still need to upload pictures (and finish laundry and put away decorations and...), but I had to share this fun little video immediately.
We got home yesterday afternoon. While driving into Chicago, Craig and I mentioned to Hank that Santa may have come to Chicago in addition to his trip to Memphis. That he may, indeed, have left something at our place for him and for Bill.

After coming into the condo, I beelined for the sunroom so that I could catch his reaction when he saw what Santa had left for him.

For those of you who don't speak "Thomas" = "Bust My Buffers" is something that the trains say. Normal English translation being something along the lines of "oh my goodness!" or perhaps "I'll be darned!"

Priceless!