Look what Grandma made me!

Grandma Whiteaker made these wonderful hats and scarves for the kids…

 

Playing Chess

I offered to play a board game with Ella after dinner.  She asked “what’s a board game?” (even though we’ve played a number of them before).  I gave examples like Candyland or Chutes and Ladders.  She wanted to play Chess.

As we pulled out the game board, we were missing a pawn (due to the kids pulling out all the pieces weeks before).  We had to improvise.

 

Despite our missing piece, we had a good time.  She really got the hang of how all the pieces move…

Photos from Christmas Eve

Below are some photos from our visit to my Godfather’s on Christmas Eve.

 

All the kids got Santa Chef Hat and Apron for helping in the kitchen…

Mom looking lovingly towards Miles…

Santa Grandpa Wyckoff

Miles was apparently not happy about something…

 

Miles with a “new” Santa hat.

Winter Snow

I (Jason) am really enjoying photography – today was a great day to get some shots.  The snow was beautiful.  The snowflakes were huge!  It was fun to go outside and photograph our backyard…

Here are some of my best shots…

 

Apparently a Small Blizzard Doesn't Keep the Wyckoffs Home and Off the Roads...

Today we braved (I felt light headed and nauseous from worry the entire drive) the snow and drove to the Chicago Botanic Garden to see the Wonderland Express.

A designer and crew was hired to build an elaborate backdrop for model trains to run through. The first room contained four beautiful Christmas trees and two towns made from candy and gingerbread which Holiday themed trains ran through.

The next, large atrium was just spectacular. I'm not sure why we didn't take more pictures. But the backdrops were all Chicago landmark buildings and structures made from all natural materials, wood, nut shells, dried leaves, etc... Many live plants were added to fill in the landscaping. The most amazing was all of the skyscrapers near Michigan Avenue and Navy Pier. Through all of these landscapes, miniature trains ran. Oh, and I must not forget... the best part of all. There were snow machines in the atrium. So it would snow on the whole scene, and you, every once in a while.

In the last hallway, yet another naturally landscaped and built train scene was set up with landmarks from near northern suburbs.

There was also a room showing a looping film of the making of the exhibit, including a snipet from a PBS show narated by Jason's former improv teacher, Geoffrey Baer. The library had a cute exhibit of figures from childrens books, which were made of felt. And yet another area had a little cafe, gift shop and area for kid's activities. The kids (and maybe us) made "tree jewelry" for the birds to eat outside as well as paper snowflakes. The third generation of kids at the holiday party we are going to on Christmas may or may not be getting all train themed gifts. Hee hee.

It was a scary drive (for me), and Jason drove not me, but ended up being a good family event.

Snowed In

Ella demonstrates activities for a snowed in weekend:

Learn a new instrument

Jump in, Play in and Eat the Snow

Ella's 5th Brithday

20081212_EllaBirthday_0061
Originally uploaded by thewyckoffs

Ella had her Kid party...

More photos can be found at our Flickr account.