Happy Thanksgiving!

What a year, lots to be thankful for, but most of all for our family and friends! This Thanksgiving is going to be a lot different than the last couple. We've hosted Drew's family at our house the last two years, and so enjoyed having about 28 people over. This year there will be 4 of us, with my Mom and Jeff coming in today. (Hopefully there are no delays in Atlanta where they fly out from)

We have a jam packed couple of days to fill, including going to the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade in Downtown (hopefully the weather will be a balmy mid 30's it's calling for and not low 20's! We'll also be going to the Museum of Science and Industry's Christmas Around the World exhibit, where they have over 50 Christmas trees decorated from all different ethnicities representing different neighborhoods in the City. We'll do more eating, we'll have to have Chicago style pizza, Twin Anchor's Famous Ribs, and at the Christkindlmarket we'll have lot's of German delicacies. I'm feeling full just writing this!

I don't know about everyone else, but when we travel, our favorite thing is to try to find where the locals eat, and experience the city through their food. So when we have visitors, that's what we want to try to show them. I can't wait for friends of ours that love Chicago and have visited many times before we lived here to come soon - because I know they will have great places we haven't been to yet among their favorites!

I should have titled this post Happy Food - as it has turned in to more of an ode to good food. However, what it's really about are the traditions of gathering together to enjoy each other's company, catch up, laugh, and of course share delicious food. I am so thankful for a wonderful family that always made the holidays festive. My grandmothers, and mother who worked harder than anyone to cook, prepare, clean and get ready. And I'm thankful to have married into a family that also loves a good celebration! Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Holly & Drew

The Rookery

I am obsessed with the history and architecture of Chicago. The man that influenced so much of what we enjoy today was Daniel Burnham. While reading Devil in the White City (which I highly recommend to anyone who loves history, and a good true mystery wrapped in one book), the author described The Rookery. That is one of the first sky scrapers (at 11 floors, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true). It was built in 1888, and served as the headquarters to the early stages of planning the Columbian Exposition, Worlds Fair of 1893. The tour I took went through the beautiful lobby, and up into the Library where the first meetings with many of the United States best architects took place. Here are some photos of this lovely building.

 The World's Fair was the beginning of so many things, it's the reason we say the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms, it kicked off photography, and making it accessible to many. Below are some of the souvenirs available to Fair Goers. Amazingly unique, photo coins, photos in a nutshell…literally.

One of the original camera's from Kodak. 

Weekend Happenings

Baby it's cold outside! That song lyric has a whole new meaning now! We've been playing a few Christmas carols, getting into the holiday spirit. I always suspected that people up north had a better, more true holiday experience than those of us who lived in Florida. After all, the only white Christmas we ever had was if you went to the beach and counted the sand! That being said, it really does feel like the holidays this year. I was not at all opposed to the early decorations, and last week put our 11 inch Christmas tree up! 

This weekend was the coldest weekend in November since 1990. I suspect that this winter is not going to spare us, and I am under no illusions that it will be considered a "warm winter". (If that's even possible). I'm ashamed to say that we did not look up snowmageddon before we moved. If we had, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been on board. Alas, it's probably a good thing we are going into this naive. I feel like there is impending doom around the corner, because we have no concept of what to expect this winter. I will say that on Saturday night we had made plans to go to the Holiday Parade on Michigan Avenue, and then to a comedy show at UP/Second City. The weather hit 14 during the parade time, with a windshield that the reports say made it feel like 6 degrees. I have never been in single digit weather before. Needless to say, we skipped the outdoor parade, watched a bit on TV, and then walked the two blocks bundled up to the comedy show. It wasn't terrible, but there also was no wind. Today I was not brave enough to go outside, the high was 24 - so thankfully the apartment is warm and cozy! 

Friday night we went ice skating at Millennium Park, which was a lot of fun seeing the stars and tall buildings all lit up. Here's some photos from the weekend:

 Drew trying on his new 0 degree weather boots! While his feet were warm in this outdoor trial period, the rest of him was not. :)

View from a Rooftop in Downtown Chicago

Ice Skating

 This is the gorgeous Saturday weather

 This photo was taken from inside the Target, it's two stories, and you can see Downtown Chicago quite beautifully. It makes shopping at Target that much more fun! (We had to get De-Icer and an Ice Scraper for Drew)

Part of our mini tree

Water Cribs

There are very weird looking rigs/ship looking things located in Lake Michigan - I don't know if I never noticed them before when we visited, but since we moved I have been trying to figure out what they are…well a search in google the other day (weird looking buildings in Lake Michigan) produced the answer. They are Water Cribs, part of Chicago's water filtration system. Apparently, if a jet ski or boat gets to close to the buildings, alarms sound, and people live on them for a week or so at a time. If you're interested, you can learn more here:

Weird Looking Buildings in Lake Michigan

New Do, New Drink

So with a new city, new job, and new everything else, I decided to add a new haircut to the mix. We're really enjoying the city life, although I think we both agree that we were meant to live in the Sunshine. For now though we're trying to explore all of the nooks and crannies the city of Chicago has to offer. One new discovery to share, Dark and Stormy's  )perfectly named for Chicago's wild weather)- it's a drink served in a copper mug - and delicious. The best place we've found for these is the Glunz Tavern on Wells Street - it's an original Chicago bar, and is still run by family members today. The gentleman who owns the restaurant restored it recently with antiques found in the attic, and can be seen most nights helping his staff. We will take you there when you come to try these!

Wild Weather

Over the past week we've had snow, 65 degree weather, and tornado warnings! After staying in most of Saturday because of the bad weather, on Sunday we were ready for a change of scenery. So even though the weather said we were going to have extremely high winds, and possibly tornadoes, we decided to go get pizza and watch the Bear's game out. Probably not the best idea we've ever had. The game went out at the restaurant, so we ended up eating the delicious pizza from Chicago's best deep dish location, Lou Malnati's - and then hurrying back to our apartment. The game was delayed for 1 hour 53 minutes, and when the players hit the field again it was a mess. But we won - in overtime! Here are photo's from our window, taken only 30 minutes apart!

Bad weather

Beautiful, with a rainbow

In Between after another 30 minutes

You know you're a Bear's fan when….you dress like a Bear to go to the game. Actually not a bad idea considering how cold it can get :)

First Snow!

On Monday it SNOWED - for the first time this season! I was out walking with a friend, and we literally spent the day walking in the snow. It was fun - and freezing by the end of it! I'm sure we'll have better pictures to share when it actually sticks, but for now these are my first photos of the snow!

Weekend Overview

The weather here is nice and crisp, it's been a beautiful sun shiny weekend, and was great to get out and do things. Saturday we went to a new brewery, Lake Effect - it is a very small start up, and it was neat to see the beginnings of a brewery. Then we went to a place with a group of friends after the tour, and they were filming a movie…what a weird experience to be in the middle of a movie stage while eating and socializing!

Sunday we went on an "L" Tour put on by the Chicago History Museum. We went on the Loop portion of the tour, with a guide who wrote a book about the L, it was very interesting and definitely something different.

Label Maker at the Start Up Brewery:

Growing their own Hops for the beer

Filming at the Restaurant:

On my walk Saturday morning

 Through the Lincoln Park Zoo - I love that it's so close! The polar bear is very happy about the cooler weather!

 These Gibbons are our favorite, that's a Mom with her months old baby - and they are so intelligent looking, and are playful - below are all four, including the Dad, and son.

These historical buildings are sadly in bad repair, the second one is a parking garage now!