Finn's Inaugural Visit to America! - Part I

We were super excited to bring Finn to American for Christmas time celebrations!  It was a long trip (almost 10 hours flight) but well worth it to spend such great quality time with so many people!  Finn got to meet cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Great Grandparents and many many dear friends.  We tried to squeeze in visits with as many people as possible.  For the first part of our trip we stayed in downtown Chicago while we all got over some rough jet lag.  We visited with Tom's family and celebrated a lovely Christmas!  Finn was more entertained by the boxes and wrapping paper than any actual gifts themselves.  He also LOVED watching and playing with his cousins.

Ready to go in the Warsaw airport

My own private bassinet for the flight

Reading books at 2am with Uncle Aaron thanks to jet lag

Sweet Home Chicago

Finn's so happy to play with his cousins!

Someone loved Santa's Winter Wonderland

"What do you mean its 3am and time to sleep?  I'm ready to party!"

Finally meeting his best buddies - Hudson and Ayden

LOVE

Enjoying the Chicago Christmas lights with the cousins

With jet lag....pjs are allowed at breakfast!

Cousin love...

This Christmas thing is fun!

A Special Day...

We took advantage of having the Sullivan Family all in Chicago to get Finn Baptized by the family Priest, Father Charlie.  Father Charlie married Tom and I too....so it was really special to have him perform Finn's Baptism as well.  We had a nice intimate ceremony in a small chapel in the city.  Tom's Sister, Elizabeth, and  Tom's Brother in Law, Mauricio, are Finn's Godparents.  Finn wore the Baptismal gown that Tom wore when he was baptized as a little boy.  After a nice and special ceremony we celebrated with a family lunch together!  We were so happy to be able to share this special time with family while we were in Chicago!

Finn with his Godmother and Godfather

Finn's First Santa Experience!

In Poland kids celebrate Christmas with Santa bringing them gifts, but you cannot go "visit" Santa at a mall or store like you can in America.  So, when we hit the ground in the US a "Santa Visit" for Finn was at the top of my list.  We were staying right downtown....so we naively headed over to Macy's on State Street a few days before Christmas and found a line that was 3.5 hours long to see Santa.  Apparently this Santa is one of the best and a lot of Chicagoans have long family histories of  visiting Santa here.  So, we tried again the next morning when he arrived at 8:00 am.  Finn was up bright and early due to jet lag so it was perfect!  We were in line by 7:45am and got to see Santa shortly after 8:00am.  When we left 20 minutes later the line had grown to a 1.5 hour wait.  I was thrilled to get Finn's first pic with Santa...and this Santa even spoke a few words of Polish!  

Happy Hanukkah!