First off the travel home was enough of an adventure on its own. A completion of the whole “planes, trains, automobiles” thing was necessary to make it home for Christmas. I even met a funny harmonica musician at one train station. Nice thing is that my sister and I were on the same flight back. So I left cold and snowy Idaho for a “spring time” Chicago. I couldn’t complain.
The next day after all the travel was Sunday, So a before church family selfie was a must!
Family Home Evening done right as a chocolate fondue party (this was later repeated in the week because #chocolate.) You would never think you could feel so sick of chocolate but its a thing. But so good! This is one thing I really wanted to make sure happened while I was home.
We also have this favorite family tradition of going to help organize/ weigh/ stock food at the bishops storehouse for a few hours then after we go to eat at cracker-barrel. Yumm. This time I was on the bag tying duty while these other little kids bagged and counted tomatoes and pears.
Another day our family decided to try out a new place on 3rd st. in Geneva- its called Doughocracy. Think of the line up in Chipoltle or Subway… but in a pizza place. You get to make your own personal pizza down the assembly line then it is cooked at like 520 degrees for 3 minutes.
Bam. delicious.
On Christmas Eve we all took the train downtown Chicago to go to the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza. It has many venders that sell things from around the world. Mostly out of our price range, some ornaments were more than 50 bucks a piece. But its one of those things where you soak in the experiance; the sounds, smells, and pretty colors. We also walked around the annual Macey’s display windows and up to see the tree in the walnut room. I don’t know what it is, but the city/ train experience always tires you out.
Later on that Christmas eve we did our little family devotional. This helps us to remember the spiritual side of christmas. We watch the “Joy to the World” video from the church and read the nativity story in Luke 2. Then we went on a little drive around the neighborhoods to admire the Christmas lights and decorations. Upon returning home from the drive us girls opened one gift- PJs of course!
Christmas Day was beautiful. My mom always does a great job at decorating the house, it has a warm and festive feel about it. So when we woke up there is always a magic feeling about the place. It was our last christmas that we would have just as the Koch family for a little while, so I knew it would be a special one.
Funny story, when I was 5ish years old alllll I wanted for christmas was a remote controlled T- rex dinosaur that growled and walked around. I thought it was the coolest thing. Well I got it for christmas that year. I always played with it around my sisters dolls, it kind of became the family joke. Well it somehow resurfaced this year in a new box. That was my joke gift. It caused some good laughs….
That was followed by my real gift of a sewing machine! Yay! I’m so happy.
The day after christmas we all got dressed up and went to a chicago musical production of “White Christmas” at Drury Lane. There was a pre- show dinner dinner too. We all felt so fancy.
We also did lots of baking. Mostly Rebecca, because of her famous cupcakes! She made mint oreo, candycane redvelvet, and gingerbread cupcakes for a Sunday gathering.
New Years Eve we have another fun tradition; it includes a movie marathon, random junkfood dinner, and to end it all…….. the Balloon Drop! Our movie selection this year was: The Cokeville Miracle, Ant Man, and the new Cinderella. Follow this post to get the recipe for my chocolate peanut butter balls we had as part of our spread.
Our home style balloon drop (116 balloons) falls with the new years count down.
Happy 2016! This will be a great year!
Not a Perfect Knowledge 
