Chicago

The whole purpose of my mom coming to visit was so Young and I could have a little getaway together...or at least I could have a getaway on one of his work trips to Chicago. Although, I was a little hesitant to go when I heard the high temps would reach around 18 degrees!!

I packed my warm sweaters, scarf and gloves and headed off to the windy city! I was really looking forward to seeing the city at Christmas time and hoping to see some snow. But what I was most looking forward to was doing nothing....absolutely nothing. So here is a quick run down of my three days in Chicago...I packed a lot in but still left time for lounging around. This was my first clue as to how cold it was going to be...you don't see these signs in SF!

Did I mention it was cold? This left me with no choice other than to duck in and out of restaurants/coffee shops/department stores to stay warm...oh well! Young was able to meet me for lunch one day and we had a wonderful lunch date! Later in the afternoon I had afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel. I felt so incredibly fortunate to be able to have some time to enjoy myself, I got all teary eyed while sipping my tea, listening to the live violinist and counting my blessings. I also had Chicago style pizza and drinks at the top of the Hancock Tower...that was all the first day! (it's amazing how much you can do when you don't have two toddlers in tow!)

The second day I bundled up and headed out in the cold for more exploring...but it was WAY too cold and WAY too windy. After an hour I thought to myself "what are you doing out in this weather??" I made my way back to the hotel and vegged in front of the TV for the next 5 hours! We don't have cable TV at home so a hotel is always fun for watching bad cable TV. But I did manage to get a few pics of the beautiful Christmas decorations around the city...some of the biggest indoor Christmas trees I've ever seen!

Young and I had planned on going to see the local production of "A Christmas Carol" which we made just in time! The show was so much fun! It's my favorite Christmas story and we see it in some form every year. By the time the show was over, it was a winter wonderland outside...so perfect!

We rounded our last evening together off with a stroll around the city in the snow and dinner at the Purple Pig....such. good. food! I highly recommend it to anyone going to Chicago.

What a wonderful weekend getaway I had. Thank you to my mom for watching the kids, friends that stopped in to help her out and my amazing husband that gave me time to myself and precious time with him!