Chicago Christmas

We took a day trip to Chicago yesterday to visit Aunt Bridget and Uncle Ryan and have the "its Christmas time in the city" experience.

We started off by picking up Bridget and Ryan...complete with a rousing GOOD-MOOORNING-NEIGHBORHOOD honk. Then off to Storytown , a children's improv show. The girls got to help pick the setting, create the story as things went along, and be in the show! The performers clearly just loved having fun.

Tim laughed until he cried, so not just the kids had a good time.

Below the girls are pulling a lever to send a kid down a super big and scary water slide.

Here they're being serenaded on the Lazy River. The tickets were VERY reasonably priced and the girls are still talking about the show, so it was a morning well spent!

We had lunch, drove downtown, walked by St. Peter's just as confessions were happening so we squeezed that in during Advent, then headed to the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza. This used to be a favorite activity for Mommy and Daddy around Christmas, but this year it was a complete zoo. Mad house. Could not see anything and could only smell weird bratwurst smells. We didn't last long in the crush of people. Next time, we'll probably skip this and actually go to the zoo.

But we did run into this lovely Christmas Princess. We still don't know exactly who she is or what she represents but the girls thought she was magical.

Felicity finally passed out so we walked over to the French Market which improves on every visit. This time we did a cheese tasting and ate treats. Mommy and Daddy shared a caramel-cashew-goat-cheese gelato, Miriam had a blood orange gelato, and Vivian and Felicity shared a HUGE chocolate and peppermint cupcake with a macaroon on the top. So yummy and the best pickmeup before hoofing it back across town to Millennium Park where we took in the Christmas tree, ice skaters, and of course, the Bean.

Aunt Smidge made us dinner so we went back to their apartment, watched Elf, and ate. Daddy packed us into the car and drove the three hours straight home. It was a long day, but we had so much fun together!