On Sunday morning we took off for an adventure in the city. We love Chicago in the wintertime and thought it would be fun to spend the day there and to stay overnight. The first stop is always the Macy's window display. In years past it has been so cold that it's almost painful. This year it's been extremely mild so we really enjoyed being out in it.
After the windows we went in to check out the 8 floors of shopping inside of Macy's. We stopped for a photo when we got to the big tree inside of the Walnut Room restaurant.
By that time we were all hungry for lunch so we went down to the food court, also inside of Macy's.
From there we like to go across the street to the Christkindlmarkt. This year it was beyond packed. We couldn't get the stroller through the thick crowd. So off we went to Grant Park to watch the ice skaters - conveniently located right in front of "the bean".
Check-in at the hotel was at 3 so we loaded up in the car and drove to the other side of Michigan Avenue. This is where it gets good. Kevin and I called to book the room the day before. He had the phone on speaker so I heard everything. The woman on the other end of the phone was super nice and she and Kevin were ribbing each other as he booked the room (i.e. Kevin asked if they had a pool and when she said yes his reply was "Sweet! I've been waiting to do a cannonball for months!"). At the end she confirmed all of the details, took our credit card info, and got his email address so she could send a confirmation.
So we pull up to the hotel and Kevin goes in to check-in while the rest of us waited in the car. I should have known something was wrong when it took forever for him to get back. He went in and they couldn't find us in the system. We didn't have a room. When they asked for confirmation info he realized that he never received the email so he didn't have it. Griswolds. Fortunately they had rooms available....but wanted to charge us $200 more than the rate we got it at when we booked the night before. I guess Kevin looked close enough to tears that they felt sorry for us and eventually gave us the AAA rate and we ended up paying a few dollars less than what we thought we were paying the day before.
Next up? Parking. They asked if we would like to valet park the truck. When we found out that it was $20 more than self parking we decided against it. They gave us directions to the self-park lot and off we went. Turn right on one street, right on another, left on the last street and you'll see the lot. Easy enough! We found the lot easily and pulled in and the door closed behind us. When we pulled around to get our ticket we noticed all of the signs saying "residential lot, owners only, violators will be towed, etc". We realized then that we must be in the wrong lot. But easy enough! We'll take a ticket, exit, and find the right one. Not so much. There were no tickets. We were on a one-way road in a parking garage with no way to get through because we were blocked going forward and had no access in to get to the exit. I got out to stand watch so Kevin could back up to see if we could get out through the entrance. No luck. We finally found a call button to talk to someone and eventually we were able to back up (again) and get the door to open so that we could get out of there. We did find the right garage but there was a 6' limit so the truck wouldn't fit. Valet please! Griswolds.
After that ordeal we were beyond read to get up to the room. First order of business? Jumping on the beds!!!
We were in a great location, directly across the street from the John Hancock building. So we walked over and had drinks on the 95th floor. The view from up there is insane. The kids were excited to have fancy drinks and to take it all in.
We did some window shopping afterwards and decided it was time for dinner. You can imagine the crowds on the 23rd of December. We put on our patience caps and were ready to wait the hour and a half before our table was ready. At least we had some cool trains to look at while we waited. I'm shocked at how good both Reese and Talan were while we waited. I get antsy myself so I know they had a hard time but they were really great.
Happy faces after full bellies:
The next morning we took it easy and relaxed before packing up, loading the car, and heading to Aunt Hillary's apartment. She's lived there for three months but this was our first opportunity to visit. It is a beautiful space in a perfect location.
We originally planned to go to 3 o'clock mass. So we brought all of our clothes in case we were running late and needed to go straight there. That mass is one of the more popular so you have to get there by 2 to get a seat. We didn't want to rush off once we got to Hillary's so we decided that we'd shoot for mass at 5 instead. We left Hillary's house around 1:30 to head home. Once home we got in and settled and before we knew it, it was time to get ready for church. But wait! Where is the hanging bag with all of our church clothes? Oh no......in the closet.....in the hotel.....downtown. Griswolds.
So at about 4 I got back in the car and made the trek downtown to retrieve our bag. I figured there would be a ton of traffic but I was able to make it there and back in just under two and a half hours. When I got home I jumped on the computer to try to find another option for mass. This is at about 6:25. I found one, only it started at 7. So we go into crazy mode and we all rushed to get dressed and were out the door headed to church ten minutes later. We found a seat (and it happened to be in a front pew which is somewhere we would never normally sit) and I took off my coat. Two minutes later the woman behind me tapped my shoulder. "Excuse me, ma'am, your blouse is unzipped the whole way down the back. Would you like me to zip you up?". So yea, that was me....in church with my bra hanging out of the back of my shirt because I was so rushed that I forgot to zip it up. Griswolds.
We left church and the four of us were starving. We realized that in all of the craziness throughout the day, we hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning. We normally have our traditional Cajun meal on Christmas Eve but because it was already after 8PM by this time we didn't have time to cook. So we drove through Taco Bell on the way home to pick up dinner. Griswolds.
The door bell rang soon after we got home. Eric delivered the kids PJs.
We finally got the kids to bed somewhere around 10:30 only to have Reese wake up at 12:30. So we had her come into our room where she proceeded to chat us up for just over an hour before finally falling asleep. Made for an exhausting Christmas Day but also made for special memories.
