let the festivities begin.

{It probably won't come as a surprise, when you take into account how insanely adorable our child is, to hear that we took about 8,000 pictures over the last week. So I decided to cut our Christmas festivities (which are still continuing, by the way) into a few different posts. Enjoy.}

We left Lansing on the 17th. Chris's weeks from h-e-double-hockey-sticks were [mostly] complete, and the plan was to head down to Chicago for the annual extended C family Christmas at Chris's grandma's house. Now, it had not snowed for probably two weeks, and I didn't even think to check to weather. So, of course, we woke up to snow. We headed out anyway, and fishtailed down the freeway. Our 3 1/2 hour trip took nearly 5, but we made it without ending up in a ditch, which not everyone could say that day.

Chicago Christmas is always a fun event. Chris is the oldest out of a big gaggle of teenage/early twenties cousins, a majority of which are girls. There is a lot of food, and a lot of fashion. As the only little child, Carly gets a lot of attention. And I get a lot of relaxation.

[Carly checking out her stocking at Baga's house.]

[waiting for her turn to open her present.]

[checking out Baga's loot.]

After a weekend in Chicago, we headed to Indiana. We spent the week playing, sleeping, eating, decorating sugar cookies, singing Jingle Bells, and even made a visit to Santa Claus. Chris also spent a few days and a late late night finishing up a major paper, but we erased that from our memory bank.

[Despite appearances, Carly loves filling the bird feeders with Papak.]

Can I just say . . . the world is coming apart at the seems. We went to visit Santa at the mall. Now, I'm not a huge "visit Santa" person, and don't have a single childhood memory of doing so. But we got a classic picture of Carly screaming on Santa's lap last year, so I thought maybe we'd get a happy one this year. And Carly kind of gets Santa this year, so I thought it would be fun and get us in the jolly spirit. But, no. The mall required us to pay $20, the price of the minimum "package", if we wanted to take a picture with our own camera. There is something wrong with that. And the line was taking forever because the parents were making their kids pose over and over again and looking at the picture on the computer screen. I understood, because these parents were paying at least twenty bucks, but it was so commercial . . . all about the picture, not about the experience. So I decided to stick it to the man, and not take a picture. Instead, we'd just talk to Santa. But I was disturbed by the world my daughter is growing up in. 

[pictures while waiting in line were free.]

[can't wait to see Santa!]

When it was our turn, Carly marched right up to Santa with no fear. She handed him her towel and said "This is my white towel. It has red stripes on it." He looked highly confused and said "Oh!" in a very nice way. But he didn't ask what she wanted for Christmas. So I suggested she tell him.

She said, "Presents!"

"What kind of presents?" he asked.

"Christmas presents!" she responded.

And then she was done.

So Carly introduced towel, requested Christmas presents for Christmas, and then headed out. The whole thing took a whopping 30 seconds. Yay, for Christmas spirit. At least it makes for a funny story.

[Chris's sister may or may not have snapped a paparazzi picture from a distance.]

After nearly a full week of playing and waiting, by the time Saturday rolled around we were ready for the main event.

[to be continued . . . oh, the suspense.]