We headed up to the Windy City for a something new we had never done before...the Lighting of Mag Mile. They have a parade down Michigan Avenue to light up all of the store fronts and the official Christmas Tree. Needless to say it was cold, I mean really cold. We carved out our space at 2:00 and the parade started at 5:30 and we were at the end of it. We had to work hard to keep our space and when I say work hard, I mean I thought I was going to have to throw down and a police officer was almost involved. I believe my line was "You don't show up at 5:15 and get front row seats to the show!" It may not have been a shining example of how to be a gracious human, but I blame the cold and parts of my body being frozen. We had a thermos of hot chocolate and it was so windy that when we poured it the wind blew it out of the cup. Now at this point I would love to be able to say it was all worth it and it was a great time. It was a great time because we were together as a family, but the better seat was probably at home in front of a TV (with the fireplace on!) It was very much a TV production and we had groups rushed by us to make it to the red carpet in time before they returned from commercial. In particular the Garrett's Popcorn people were told to run to the carpet, there for no time to toss us a bag of popcorn! It was really cool to see the inflatable, Macy Day Parade style floats. Apparently they are harder to control then what it looks and the wind proved to be troublesome which really just equalled extra entertainment for us. Let's just say we saw people taken down trying to hold onto a rope!
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| This is just a classic sidewalk pose that we like to capture when we are in Millennium Park |
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| On the way to the Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Aunt Sandy teaching the art of the perfect apple pie and it was delicious! |
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| It's December, it's Chicago, it's cold! |
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| Pretty sure I was just trying to capture this pot arrangement and EB thought she needed to pose! |
Sunday morning Aunt Sandy asks what we want to do and I had seen that the Rodin exhibit was at the art museum. I saw Rodin's work on a field trip in Geneva and I thought it would just be a really good cultural experience. To my surprise no one balked so off we went. Now I did have an extensive conversation about the nudity that we would see. I tried to explain that the human body is a work of art and that some artists may express it in different, vivid, unexpected ways. "So when you see boobs and other privates, giggle once, get it out of your system and then let's move on." The Art Institute did not disappoint, there was plenty of nudity and opportunities to point and laugh but the kids handled it in stride.
I was very impressed with the Art Institute and can hardly wait to go back - maybe as a girls trip though. I think the boys may have checked that box!
We always love our time in the city!
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