I'm dreaming of a white Christmas (in Georgia)

Christmas Eve before heading out to candle light service.

Christmas morning! Who's excited?!? Luke IS!!

Luke was patient and waited all day to open presents once his cousins arrived. And boy did his patience pay off!

Miss Ella and her stack of unopened presents! One happy little girl.

Johnson, party of three!

Once Mike and Stephanie and the girls gathered up everything to hit the road, we went outside and discovered THIS! We had a white Christmas night. Beautiful. We heard that it had been 100 years since Athens had a white Christmas. Somehow snow in Georgia is so much more magical and special than snow in Chicago.

And this is what the backyard looked like the day after Christmas (my birthday)!

So, let's go play!!

Cutest little snowman made by the visiting Russian. Oh wait, that's Mike!

The entire family all together.

Luke, Anna and Makayla checking out the angel Christmas tree. Still in awe.

Eric and I celebrate our birthdays together each year. This year Luke's not sure how he feels about his parents turning another year older. :)

in awe

i love how luke loves the christmas tree. every morning we turn on the lights together and look at it for a few minutes before starting our day. one of my favorite times of the day.

(and yes, our tree is on a table this year but that's only because we didn't have anywhere else to put it in the condo!)

christmas at our condo

before leaving for Georgia, we asked Santa to come to our condo to visit Luke a few days early. well, he did visit and he even managed to get a play kitchen down our chimney! Luke loves it already!

Let the Christmas celebrations begin!

Since we're headed to Georgia for Christmas, we spent the day out in Schaumburg the weekend before Christmas celebrating with all of Eric's family.

Our happy boy in the morning.

Posing for a picture with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Frank. We had a wonderful brunch at their home that morning. Luke enjoyed the egg casserole and cinnamon muffins!

Luke and his Uncle Ryan bonding over "The Quiet Cricket" during story time.

Couch time with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Tony.

And the last stop of the day...the Orozco household for some great homemade chili and a stair workout!

santa fail 2010

this went about how we thought it would. there's always next year, but we're not holding our breath.

and this was last year's picture for good measure.

luke is 14 months old! 12.6.10

getting ready for christmas

our small condo decorated with christmas decorations (and toys)!

luke puts the final touch on our christmas tree.

fire down the street

we had a pretty eventful morning as we heard at least 10 firetrucks head down the street. since luke decided to cut his morning nap short, we headed down the street to see what was going on. and we knew luke's gramps would be curious too so we took our camera. we talked to one of the men fighting the fire and found out that a fire started in the basement of a carpet store and it took 4+ hours for them to put out. we caught it toward the tail end, but it sure was a sight to behold.

and for those needing more details (gramps), read here.