The Big Guy

Before Christmas, the kids and I met up with Conor downtown. We went to Macy's to see Santa and have lunch and yummy hot chocolate by the ginormous Christmas Tree in the Walnut Room. Lillie was so excited and couldn't stop talking about Santa all the way there, "ho, ho, ho, Merry Santa Claus!" As we rounded the corner to Santa and his chair, all that changed, and panic and fear took over. The best we could get was to have Dad hold her and get a family photo with Santa. Maybe next year won't be as scary, but perhaps we'll still get a family portrait...I didn't realize how much I missed talking to the Big Guy!

Zoo Lights

Back before Christmas, we headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo to check out all the lights they put up for the holidays. Lillie absolutely loved it, while Quinn slept through it all. Our favorite part was the area where they synchronized the lights to a soundtrack of holiday tunes...we couldn't get Lillie to move on! They do a great job of setting up a wonderland of fun, and hopefully we'll have time to go again before it closes this month.

Lillie's Purple Birthday

Back in November we had Lillie's birthday (the same weekend of the baptism.) Since purple is her favorite color, we decided to have a purple theme. Mom, Dad, and Lillie all wore purple, we decked the house in purple decor, and had a purple birthday cake. It was a lot of fun, especially the part when Lillie blew out her candles. Just check out the video!

Three Months

What a busy few weeks we've had. I'm a little behind on the posts (what's new?) but I wanted to get Quinn's monthly photo up. He's now proficient at finding his thumb, has lost most of his hair, has started sleeping in his crib in the same room as Lillie, and has rolled over a handful of times!

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Lillie and Quinn were baptized with Father Sergio at St. Andrew. It was a very special occasion since we had so much of our family in town to be present. A special thanks to the godparents, Kelly and Timmy (to Quinn,) and Moira and Mike (to Lillie.) It meant a lot to see you standing up there with our kids. After, the whole gang traveled back to our house for a little celebration and for Lillie's 2nd birthday party.

Here are Quinn's monthly birthday pictures. I plan on adding to these each month to see how our little guy is growing. At his two month check up, he weighed in at almost 15 pounds! Quinn is loving to sit up whenever he can, and almost rolled over on the doctor's table!

We had a great Thanksgiving here in Chicago! We decided to host, for the first time, both our families this year...just look at this handsome group. (Yes, that's Conor on the right running back into the frame after setting the timer on our camera.) With 16 people to feed, we had so much good food, I'm going to post the menu so that I'll know where to look in case we do it again.

For starters, Conor worked hard to perfect the brined, grilled, turkey, and it was awesome! If you've never brined a turkey, it can be a lot of prep work, but it's sooo worth it. He cooked a 12 pound bird on the grill and a 23 pounder in the oven. (Oh, and thankfully our ovens were in working order...that's a whole other story.) The turkeys were the real winners of the menu, as they should be. Our moms took care of the pies: two varieties of pumpkin and a tawny apple, all family recipes. Moira made the Berry Mallow Yam Bake, a staple at Sullivan Thanksgivings, and did a wonderful job at keeping the marshmallows from catching fire (I can't say the same for the bread I toasted for the stuffing!) The rest of the menu consisted of:

• This holiday punch. It was light and refreshing...I'll definitely use it again.
• The fondue pot had to make it's yearly appearance from out of storage, so I made this queso dip. It was a huge success based on the constant circle of people around it.
  
• Ina's buttermilk mashed potatoes. They were yummy, but I'll make more next time. Lesson learned, mashed potatoes are the first to go!
• These carrots are so easy, and I loved the subtle ginger flavor. Yes, I love the Barefoot Contessa.
• Of course there was GBC. What Thanksgiving is complete without a Green Bean Casserole! I made my Aunt's modified version of this recipe.
• And I attempted to make my cousin, Scott's, favorite cornbread & sausage stuffing. I don't think I quite pulled it off, but I did keep things exciting by forgetting to pull out the toast from the broiler!

We ended the day with our annual Christmas craft, which did involve a little sewing, but I think everyone did a great job on their Gingerbread houses. I'm very proud of you all!

So there it is, our first Thanksgiving! Can't wait for next year!