Stuffed

Is anyone else still full from their Thanksgiving feast? If not, then you didn't eat as much as I did. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast and continued to graze all throughout the day weekend.

We started off our Thanksgiving day with the parade! It was just two blocks from our apartment, so we walked over and watched for a bit. To be honest, I wasn't thrilled about getting out in the cold, but it was SO worth it, I really enjoyed it!

My first Thanksgiving meal to cook was a success! We started off with a little hitch.... I put EVERYTHING in the oven all at once and nothing was cooking, so I had to take things out and cook just two at a time, forcing us to eat a later lunch, but everything turned out just fine!

The rest of the day, we were lazy and did nothing but watch football, play games, relax and snack on leftovers - it was wonderful! With it being our first Thanksgiving away from home, we were very thankful that Denise and Delbert came to share the day/weekend with us.

After a day of relaxation on Thursday, we were up and ready to go Friday morning. We even braved the Black Friday crowds on Michigan Avenue, which was certainly crowded, but not near as bad as I had expected. We did a little shopping, mostly just sight-seeing, but the weather was great for a day of walking.

That night, we walked to the Christkindlmarket, which is a big, German holiday market surrounding the city's Christmas tree....

Of course it was filled with all sorts of German goods and food, so we had to get a bratwurst, some German potatoes and a kilometer (some sort of sausage), yum....

We weren't as fortunate with the weather on Saturday, but it didn't slow us down. We did some driving around then stopped at the Field Museum which was quite impressive!

After several hours of walking around, our feet hurt, we were tired and hungry, so we came home and snacked on more leftovers before going to Big Star for some tacos and margaritas. Now, this place is mostly tacos/Mexican food, but there was a hot dog on the menu that sounded too good to pass up. It was wrapped in bacon, topped with pinto beans, lime mayo, hot sauce, mustard and onions....

Now that's a hot dog! Hard to eat, but delicious!

We had such a great weekend with these two; so thankful they came to spend Thanksgiving AND our last weekend in Chicago with us! Love y'all!

How many Kohlers can you fit on a couch? :)

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I am thankful for many, many things this Thanksgiving (and every day of course). First of all, every single one of you sillies pictured below....

.... which certainly doesn't include everyone, but I am SO very thankful to have such wonderful family and friends.

I am blessed beyond measure and I am grateful for each of those blessings each and every day.

Found that and thought it was perfect for today! Wishing you and yours a very happy thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Sadly, we won't be making it home this year for Thanksgiving, but luckily Delbert and Denise are coming up here! We'll certainly miss the rest of the family, but it will sure be nice to have them here, we're really looking forward to it!

I wish I could tell you that this is how my Thanksgiving table will look this year.... sadly it will be far from it. It will be my first Thanksgiving to "host" and I will have zero fall/Thanksgiving decor. If I was at "home" I think it'd be a different story, but hauling all that stuff back to Greenfield, just not worth it! One day....

via

I will be cooking quite the feast though! I'll be attempting Grandma's famous dressing, Mom's sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and Denise's broccoli rice casserole. (see a trend here? casserole mania!) We didn't want to deal with a turkey, so we'll be picking up a pre-cooked, pre-sliced turkey breast from Honey Baked Ham. To top off our feast, I'll be making a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie. Doesn't get more deliciously traditional than that! Bring on the calories!

Hope you enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving meal surrounded by family and friends as well!

Weekend Recap

Well, another fun-filled weekend down. Zach and Ryan were here this weekend; we had so much fun, but boy are we tired!

Friday night we went out for drinks and some late night pizza. One of the places we went, The Lodge, was quite interesting. The ceilings were extremely low and there was tons and tons of Christmas junk decor everywhere. (Campo Verde [in Arlington] style if ya know what I mean) 

We were out super late on Friday, so that slowed us down a little the rest of the weekend, but we still did lots of walking on Saturday. We stopped for some Chicago style pizza at Ryan's favorite, Lou Malnati's, which I think has become my favorite too. It's always a toss up between that and Giordano's, but I think Lou Malnati's might be a little less doughy, so it takes the cake for now. After stuffing ourselves silly, we did more walking and little shopping, although we all came home empty handed (besides leftover pizza of course). 

Saturday night, we went to a really late dinner at La Scarola. We went here with Ryan last time he was in town and it was such a hit he/we wanted to go back for more delicious Italian. After the owner accidentally bumped into Zach's chair, he asked where we were from and upon hearing "Texas" tequila shots were sent right over. Now, I'm not one to turn down a free drink, but these were brutal. Alcohol was not even on the agenda for the night, since we were so worn out from the night before, so these tequila shots did not go down willingly, but we cheers'd anyway and took them like champs.... kinda....

We had a great weekend with these two, so glad they came!

Unfortunately, I have two sick boys on my hands today. Landon and Charlie are both a little under the weather, so I'm attempting to nurse them back to health before Thanksgiving gets here. I'm loading Landon up on vitamin C, Airborne, soup and hot tea....

And Charlie is getting homemade chicken and rice to calm his upset tummy. My poor boys!

Free Starbucks anyone?

We just snagged two Gingerbread Lattes for the price of one! From 2-5 p.m the rest of the weekend, you can too! There is no better holiday treat!

(Info compliments of the one and only Aunt Karen)

"I don't think I'm in Carrollton anymore..."

Last Friday morning, Aunt Kathy came to visit me! She arrived around noon so we had an entire day ahead of us.  After dropping off her bag and bundling up, we set out for the day, with our first stop being Macy's on State Street. I had no idea we were in for such a treat! Just walking up to the 9 story store was impressive....

But the closer we got, we saw how spectacular each window display was....

I don't think pictures really do them justice. In each display, different things were whirling, twirling and dancing all around, and to top it off, Christmas music was playing outside the store. We were in holiday heaven, pumpkin latte in hand....

We thought the outside was good, we had no idea we were in for an even bigger treat inside! Let me introduce you to a little thing called "Holiday Lane"....

This was a HUGE section of Christmas trees, decorations, ornaments, stockings, every kind of Christmas item you can imagine. You could even write and drop your letter to Santa in the mailbox....

 

After ooh-ing and ahh-ing for several hours over all the Christmas goodies, we walked all the way down Michigan Avenue to, none other, than the John Hancock building. After a drink and an appetizer, we hiked all the way back down Michigan Avenue to head home. We were absolutely exhausted from all the walking so we decided to pick up a pizza from Giordano's, Kathy's first Chicago style pizza. A bit overwhelming, but I think it was a hit.

We changed into our pj's, ate some pizza, sipped some wine and snacked on some delicious pickles we'd picked up earlier from Pastoral. Of course Charlie couldn't go ignored....he got plenty of attention from Kathy, the ultimate dog lover....

The next day, we set out on foot again. We walked all through Millennium Park, did some shopping then got ready for an (so we thought) early dinner at Frontera Grill. We headed that way around 5:00, arrived around 5:15 to a line a mile long out the door! The wait was going to be 2-2 1/2 hours, for 2 people at 5:15!!?! Luckily there was a sushi restaurant across the street that was empty so we had some wine and edamame while we waited, which made the time go much faster. By the time we walked back across the street and waited a mere 10 minutes, we were seated. Landon and I had been here before and just shared some tacos and margaritas, but Kathy and I shared a ceviche in coconut milk then for dinner we shared an amazing shrimp dish. It was all well worth the wait....

The next morning, I went to walk Charlie and came back to Kathy, who had a sneaky grin and told me she had some exciting news.... KAREN was on a flight to come play with us too!!! I was shocked to say the least, but SO excited. That little stinker had been planning it for days, but wanted to surprise us, and she did, and it was a good one!

We met her at the train stop, and after about ten minutes of "I can't believe we're all in Chicago... together!" we regrouped at the apartment and had a repeat so we could show her all we had done. We had to take her back to Macy's to show her our favorite "purple tree"

 Then back through Millennium Park....

We decided that evening we would rather just stay in, get comfy and visit all night, so that's exactly what we did. We picked up a bunch of food and just snacked and chatted all night, it was perfect.

Monday morning, before they left, we had to go admire the view from the top of our building one last time....

On our way to the airport, we drove all around, showing them all different areas of Chicago, not just the downtown bubble we had been in all weekend. We even stopped for a quick bite at Southport Grocery & Cafe for some sandwiches, soup and salad.

I had so much fun with Kathy all weekend, we did so much and had a blast together! And Karen was such a wonderful surprise, I'm so glad she did that, so much fun!!! Love my dear aunties, lots of memories I'll treasure!

(Oh, you may be wondering about the title of this post. Kathy was completely entertained just looking out the window overlooking Michigan Ave. There are always all sorts of crazy performances.... dancers, people playing buckets like drums, and while watching all of this Kathy said "Well, I don't think I'm in Carrollton anymore" Haha, nope, you're not! Too funny.)