That evening, we celebrated the Benetti Family Christmas. My sister, Jodi, hosted this year. This was fun because she and her family moved into my parents' old house a couple of years ago; so it was just like old times.
There were munchies out and my mom made lasagna with her special sauce. It was a hit!
Ava looks especially cute with her glasses on.
The kiddos had a blast playing together.
Another beautiful Christmas tree!
It's almost gift opening time!
And go!
Excitement over gift cards to Urban Air. This was followed up with even more excitement about getting actual money!
Some of my gifts from my parents: a planner, sweater, and a Scentsy warmer (not shown).
Lori and Pat were sitting right next to me during the gift opening, so I took many pictures of them.
C-Man!
More presents! They have so many aunts and uncles that they are all lavished with so many gifts each Christmas!
Gift opening with a group this size can get a little chaotic and loud, but it is so much fun!
Time for our parents to open their gift from the kids: cleaning supplies and a gift card to Lowes. They are going to be buying some new kitchen appliances in 2019, so we wanted to contribute to that. When there are seven sibling units to pool money together, we can actually come up with a substantial gift!
Part of Lori's gift. We all got some really great stuff!
Gift opening is done. Laser tag is about to begin.
This is serious. They mean business.
The next day, our large group ventured down to Chicago. We decided to take the train.
Our first event was to attempt an escape room. The room capacity was 10 people, so my parents, Mary, and Andy went to Eately while the rest of us tested our escape abilities. I must admit, I was a little skeptical that a group our size and age would be successful. My memory was fresh from the escape room I completed with Bella and my parents from earlier in the month. The puzzles can be pretty tricky and I just wasn't sure that we would be able to pull it off - especially with a lot of little kids. This room contained SO MANY locks and combinations to solve. Every time we'd open one, I'd think "we must almost be there" only to discover that we still had way more to do to get out. As the clock ticked down to the last couple of minutes, I was almost ready to admit defeat. But, we unlocked a password that we typed into a computer and that was it! We were out! We escaped with only two minutes to spare. We were elated! Such a fun group experience for all of us!
After the escape room, we went next door to eat lunch at the Safe House. The kids got to be spies and roam around the restaurant on a scavenger hunt.
Bella opened a door that she thought was a bathroom only to discover a brick wall!
A photo booth from the scavenger hunt.
Since Graydon's birthday was the next day, we wanted to get him a little birthday surprise. Boy was he!
His excitement made my day!
I don't know if he actually blew the flame out, or if it just eventually died out on its own. But he's never had a candle that big before!
We sort of lost track of time and, when the birthday celebration was over, ended up sprinting to the train station. We had about twenty minutes until our train was about to leave. If we missed it, we'd have to find something else to do for another two hours. In order to get to our train, we needed to first exit the restaurant. Only this restaurant was not a typical restaurant. Our server needed to lead us to the secret exit that took us through a tunnel of lasers and staircases. During our exit, a few from our group were lining up Ubers to drive us to the train station. When we got out, our particular Uber canceled on us, so we needed to get another one! The drive to the train station was probably about 10 minutes. Upon arriving at the train station, we ran through the lobby, up the stairs, across the platform and made it onto the train with literally 90 seconds to spare before the train departed! Talk about adrenaline! I think that everyone was exhausted from all of the excitement as we headed back to Kenosha.
That evening, we had a cousin sleepover at my parents' house.
My mom brought out her treasure box of prizes and the kids played charades. Curtis won these socks.
The kids like to play each other on their tablets in a game called Roblox - so of course there was some of that.
Ava quickly lost interest, so she, my mom, and I played a few games of Uno.
We brought two air mattresses into the living room and the kids all slept in there.
We had a movie night and ended up choosing "The Nutcracker". It was the 1993 version with Macaulay Culkin and the New York City Ballet. About ten minutes into the movie, I think it was Graydon who said, "So, I don't think this movie has any words." I thought there would be some complaint about changing it, but they all watched it!
Throughout the beginning of the movie, I was putting up some decorations. We had a big birthday to celebrate the next day!
