Prelude to the Holidays

We decided to kick off the anticipation for the holidays this weekend with a packed agenda.  Friday evening Gabi, Lina, Emma and I checked out Breaking Dawn Part 1.  We have made it a tradition to go to the Twilight Movies as they have come out so we couldn't let this one pass us up.  We went to the 4:25pm show and glad we did.  When we left the line was out the door for the 7 o'clock show.  Great movie and said the same thing we did with each one..."better than the one before."  Can't wait for Part 2 to come out next year.  This has even inspired Gabi to start reading the books.  She has already finished Twilight and has started New Moon.  Fun times for the girls :)

Next up...a trip on Saturday.  The original plan was to leave out of here after lunch and head on to Chicago for the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival.  Tyler and Abby went to this last year and at the last minute, we backed out of going.  According to Abby, we made a bad decision.  They loved it.  So we decided to check it out this year.  Since Ben ended up not going hunting, we loaded up, hit IHOP for a brunch and headed to Aurora (Premium Outlets) to do some Christmas shopping, grabbed up Trenton for lunch at Potbelly in Naperville around 2pm ish and headed on to Chicago around 3 pm for the parade. 

It was our first time doing it so we learned from our mistakes...(ie which side of the road to get on, what time to get there, where to park, etc etc etc).  Good to know for the future.  But, it ended up being cool. 

I know Gabi had a GREAT time.  She was able to see Lemonade Mouth

and China Anne McClain from Ant Farm (Disney Channel).  The floats actually stopped where we were standing so we were able to hear and see them perform. 

A big surprise that Gabi caught was seeing Hailey Reinhart and Casey Abrams from American Idol!  She was the one who figured out who they were!  That was the cool deal for me!! 

The floats were neat and the lights were magnificent.  Some things we would do differently, but definitely glad we went.  Good family time together and it got us ready for the holidays!  An extra...we were home and in bed by 10 pm!  Whooped....but glad we went.