not bad for city living!

Daddy scored MAJOR points with the kids by flooding the back yard and building them a skating rink!

preparing the ground

flooding the yard

practicing with boots and chairs

let the real fun begin!

christmas 2014

I'm not sure when the Christmas season officially began, but St. Nick's Day seems like a good place to start the recap.

For Christmas Eve, the day began with a festive brunch in Lake Geneva with James' siblings and all the Kelly nieces and nephews (minus Pat and Laura's crew this year).  

Later on at Nana and Papa's house...

Christmas morning lived up to its hype and brought about a few themes: princesses/dolls (Whitney), star wars/superheros (Max) and cars/trains/trucks (Anders).

under the big top fun

This busy time of year also marks when The Greatest Show on Earth comes to town.  Daddy scored some amazing tickets that included some fun pre-show activities.

I love this picture because if you look closely you see the mirror captures Max looking on.

christmas tree, o' christmas tree

Christmas is a big event in the Kelly household which we very much look forward to every year.  Our main tree in the family room was a behemoth and needed to be delivered considering it stands over 9 feet tall and pretty much 9 feet wide!

We tried something new this year and the kids picked out their very own tree for the basement.  This is not a staged photo... Whitney helped carry the tree over 3 blocks, while Max helped out with Anders!

On a mission to have a festive day/evening, we set out to visit Santa and see some of Michigan Avenue's finest Christmas trees.  Here the kids are eagerly waiting in line to meet the Big Man himself.

Bloomingdales 4 story Christmas tree

Hancock Tower Christmas tree

Drake Hotel Christmas decorations

This day was such fun we decided to make it an annual tradition.

On a different day, in a different state, we checked out the Wisconsin state capital tree with Nana. We were on our way to see Cousin Bridget dance in the Nutcracker but unfortunately don't have any pictures of her impressive performance.