Thanksgiving in Chicago

Now that it's time for Christmas, don't you think it's time I finally share our Thanksgiving with you? Sheesh, sorry I made you look at that picture of the turkey for so long. We had a great visit with all of John's relatives that was long overdue. We started with a trip downtown and remembered how much we love this city. Especially John, since he grew up there and doesn't get back much. Any visit there is just not long enough.

We started with John's all-time favorite, Gino's East.





Then we just walked around the city.







Hey! I made it into a picture! Disregard my weird beehive-ish hair though. I'm not really sure what's going on up there. Blame it on that Windy City wind. Or something like that.

We always go to this German Christmas Market (Christkindlmarket) at Daley Plaza when we're in town for Christmas. This time it was all set up, but not opening until the next day. Bummer! The big tree wasn't even lit up yet, but Jane still loved it.







The next thing we saw is still a sore spot. Stinking Macy's. Which used to be Marshall Field's, a Chicago institution. Now it's Macy's...so sad. It still sort of feels like Field's. I still call it Field's anyway. Macy's sucks. But they kept the Field's Christmas decorations, so I'm happy about that.





We wanted to show the girls the Marshall Field's Christmas windows. The theme this year was "Letters to Santa" and they told a story about what happens to your letters after you drop them in the mail.



















Then we went inside.















Here's a window from the other side of the building:



And the American Girl Store window was cute too:



More sights:





In front of the Chicago River:







These are all real Christmas trees in front of the Wrigley Building. And they were HUGE.



Water Tower...so pretty:



The tree in front of the Hancock building was so pretty, these pictures don't do it justice. There were billions of colored lights.









Wednesday we went to another one of John's favorite spots, Weiner Take All. He used to ride his bike here when he was little.





If you've never seen a Chicago hot dog, this is what it looks like:



After lunch we visited John's Grandma Cookie, but precisely at that moment the battery in my camera ran out. I was *really* MAD. So I didn't get any pictures at her house.

We stayed with John's Aunt Nancy, Uncle Dick, and cousin Megan. Jane and Kate loved it. They were ready for us and had tons of toys, books, crayons, etc to keep the kids busy. They are the best houseguest hosts you could ever wish for. Thanks so much for everything, guys! Here's Uncle Dick coloring with Jane:



They did a very fancy Thanksgiving dinner and, as always, everything was perfect.





Our wonderful hosts and chefs:



in the kitchen:





Grandma Huffy (Uncle Dick's mom) and Grandma Cookie:



Blurry pictures:





Everyone had surprises for the kids.





Jane with her new BFF...Aunt Megan:



We spent Friday with Grandma Fang. She had crayons and coloring books waiting for Jane at her house. I'm sure the coloring books would be considered "vintage". They were so cute. First, we went to lunch.



Then we stopped at John's Uncle Gary's house where he was preparing his Clark Griswold-style Christmas extravaganza. SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!









And later, Grandma had everyone over her house so we got to see all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.



It had been three years since we'd seen most of these people and we were so happy to get to spend some time with them and for the kids to meet them. Jane loved everyone and is still talking about the trip. We hope to not wait so long until our next visit.

I'll be back soon to post on Christmas stuff...only 5 more days and it's here!!!!!!!