Chicago Christmas

I have one day left before my Christmas break begins. One of the perks of working at a college is that I get a paid week off between Christmas and New Years that does not count towards my vacation allowance. I always look forward to this “free” week.

Hubby just texted me- it seems I will be starting my break off with a trip to the movie theater; Hubby really wants to see True Grit. I am indifferent about the movie, but I am excited to go to the theater. We used to go all the time, but then the prices seemed to skyrocket, we bought a house, I started grad school, and well… we just stopped going.

On Friday, we are going into the city. I really love the city at Christmastime; it has a special vibe around the holidays. We are of course, going to check out Macy’s window displays. Then, we are going to walk around the Chriskindlmarket, which reminds me (very fondly) of living in Salzburg. After gorging on strudel and potato pancakes, we will head off in search of some good ole Chicago fare- I am talking Lou Malnati’s people! What a great Christmas Eve. And really, this is turning into something of a tradition because this will be our second time going downtown on Christmas Eve.

The first time we went, we were trying to nab a present for Hubby’s mom. You see, my sister-in-law loves Garrett’s Popcorn (who doesn’t), so Mother-in-Law wanted to buy her some for Christmas. Mother-in-Law is always last minute with her shopping. Anyway, she sent Hubs and I downtown on the 6 o’clock train, which meant we got to the station at 7 o’clock. Wouldn’t you know it? Garrett’s closed at 4pm! As a last ditch effort, we ran to see if the Garrett’s in the theater district would still be open, but it wasn’t. It sucked because we missed the next train back home and were left with 2 hours to kill. When we called Hubby’s mom she felt bad that we were stuck in the city and would have to miss our Christmas eve church service, so to make up for it- she offered to buy us dinner in the city. We ended up having a wonderful dinner beside the tree in the Walnut Room of the Macy’s. Normally, the Walnut Room has a humongous waiting list, but because it was so late on Christmas Eve, we were seated right away. The food was so-so, but it was fun to say we had eaten there because it is a Chicago tradition.

I hope you have a very merry eve of Christmas eve’s eve! Eve is such a funny word…