On Saturday, my cousin Allison, her husband Scott, their kids Elizabeth and Freddie, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Fred all joined the baby viewing party. They all made the drive from Minnesota to meet Abby and it was GREAT to see them! Everyone got a chance to hold the new member of the family. Here are just some of the pictures...
Saturday night we had an "interesting" dinner out at Patrick's Pub in Aurora with cousin Joanne, Jim, and Jim's daughter Lauren. Patrick's is advertised as being an Irish pub but...they were out of Guinness and didn't serve Harp?!? Jim and I have decided that besides Walter Payton's Roundhouse we are going to avoid Aurora restaurants when ever possible! Just ask Allison if you want more info on why Patrick's was our final straw.
Here is a picture of Aunt Kay from Christmas. Unfortunately, Kay was feeling under the weather on this visit so she didn't want to hold Abby but we will be back to visit her soon!
It was sad to see my parents go and I know it was sad for them as well. My dad said that there will a bit of a whole in his heart now that he has met Abby and will not be able to see her as much as he would like. Mom and Dad you are welcome to visit when ever you would like!! 
She has been a very calm baby so far except for one thing...she DOES NOT like baths!
The one thing that she did like about her first bath time was getting her hair brushed. 
So even with it being -32 degrees with the windchill it was time for Chewy to get his haircut. Here are the results...
We were not so happy with the initial results...I think it was the severe blow dry...a little to poodle for our liking but as the days have gone on it has definitely gotten better!
I hope everyone is staying warm! I know Jim and I are counting down the days until spring...61 days.
My parent's flight was delayed 4 hours in Seattle and when they finally got to Chicago they had to wait on the plane an additional hour before there was an available terminal. But...they still got here! 
The hand-dad-made baby bassinet... 
The animals got some presents too..
The rest of Christmas we relaxed and continued the movie extravaganza with The Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation. For Christmas dinner Jim made us a DELICIOUS turkey and we had fun with our traditional holiday crackers with the paper crowns...
Unfortunately, I had to work on Friday but Jim and my parents went to explore Wheaton, a local town. In Wheaton they have a Dupage County Historical Museum that my dad was interested in exploring. A lot of my dad's relatives grew up in Dupage county including his parent's and grandparents and he was hoping to find some information out about them there but...no such luck. 
On Saturday the weather took a crazy turn and the high of the day was 63 degrees and it was raining cats and dogs all day. This caused almost all the snow to melt and we had some flooding. Unfortunately, Saturday was the day that we had decided to tour Aurora with cousin Joanne. Aurora is the town where my dad, my grandparents, and many other relatives were born. Since the weather was so awful we did the driving tour where we saw all the old houses where my relatives lived and we even went to the cemetery were my great-grand-parents are buried. The highlight of Saturday was visiting my dad's Aunt Kay. Kay is 92 but is as quick witted as anyone you would meet.
On Sunday morning my parent's and I got up and headed to the city. Our first stop was the holiday windows at Macy's. I had not been to the downtown Macy's and it is an amazing building!
The holiday windows were a lot of fun. They were full of mechanics and whimsy. The theme throughout all the windows was to believe.
The next stop on Sunday was the Sears Tower...the tallest building in the United States.
When we first got into line to go up to the sky deck we heard that the wait was about an hour well...NOT TRUE. We were in line for a good 2 hours but once we got to the top the views were almost worth the wait...
