Saturday, July 11, 2020

#91. Christmas in July?!?

The blog may be behind, but the blog will go on!!  In the back of my mind, I always knew (totally joking of course) it would take a pandemic to keep me from the blog and, well here we are!  Here are some highlights from the twins' past winter (coming to you in the middle of the summer!).

As soon as Thanksgiving ended, the Christmas season began...with our annual trip to the tree lot!

It didn't take long to find the right one...

...and it was quickly decorated and became a fixture in our household!

The Christmas season always kicks off with Papa's birthday (Dec. 1)...and what a perfect gift an advent wine calendar makes!

This year, we trekked down to the Lincoln Park Zoo in the city...

...to see the spectacular Zoo Lights display!

No, this isn't Clare & Luke climbing in the trees, just a group of monkeys outfitted with lights

This (lights changing to holiday music) was so cool!

Here's to hoping Santa's good to us this year!

Speaking of Santa, and the Mrs., no holiday season would be complete without paying them a visit (this year, Santa was wearing Crocs!)

We'd like to think we started a tradition...the twins hosted a fun Holiday Party with some neighborhood friends

Everyone had a fun, goofy time!!

To celebrate Christmas, we 'flew' the coop and headed down to Florida

This poor boy was so sick on our trip down...

...but that didn't dash his spirit on Christmas morning!

Good things come in BIG packages!!

Christmas '19 family photo...oh Papa, that shirt!

Christmas morning with the cousins...nice pose, Luke!

Grandma Steffie and Grandpa Dan and four happy/spoiled grandchildren on Christmas Day!!

The trip to Florida included a lot of fun with cousins...

...and the karaoke was EPIC!!

Before heading back north, we made a short trip over to Daytona Beach

Coming from a cold winter in Illinois, it was nice to enjoy lunch outside...especially when it comes with cool frisbees!

Who's ready to hit the beach?!?

Wow, the ocean goes on forever!

Our two beach 'babies' sure have grown up a lot...

...since their first trip to Daytona Beach!

Before heading back to the airport, we made an important trip to spend a few moments visiting the twin's great grandparents


Sadly, when we returned home from Florida, we headed to Eureka to say goodbye to another great grandparent, Great Grandma Knapp...she lived a wonderful life of 93 years (here was our last time together back in November '19)

Losing family always means bringing family together and this time was no exception.  Everyone enjoyed Grandma's trademark peppermint ice cream in her honor.

Clare found a nice lap to sit on...Great Auntie Barb!

A great looking group of 2nd cousins

Lucky for the twins, cousin Keira was visiting central IL from Germany, so these 1st cousins had time to 'catch up'...

...which sure made Grandma and Grandpa Knapp happy

The rest of winter was filled with fun activities, like seeing another play...

...and collecting more autographs

These happy theater buddies!

Living so close to the arena, we had to catch a couple of basketball games

We saw both a men's and women's game...

...and the Wildcats won both!!

Go 'Cats!!

In late winter we took a one-night family vacation downtown.  Coming from Evanston, it takes a bus ride...

...and L train ride, 

but it was worth it for the hotel pool and city views!!

Back home there were snow angels on the ground,

snow angels in the air,

and another fun winter in the books!

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