Chicago, COLD, and could it be true i'm 40??

And we are off....our flight took off at 6:50am and arrived in Chicago around 8:45ish. When we landed it was 12 degrees....how fitting for 12/12/08! Very cold would not really do it justice...but we persevered. We got an early check in and then off to check out the town.


Our first stop, Gino's East for some yummy, yummy Deep dish pizza. It was spicy, cheesy, hot and good! We didn't realize that a Chicago pizza takes about an hour to cook -- so our next meal at Oprah's chefs restaurant ( Table 52) that we had reservations for 3 months ago -- was not as appealing as it should have been. The food was good but not the best meal of our trip.
After dinner we had tickets, great tickets, to see WICKED. It was enjoyed by both of us and highlight of the trip.

Taken in the theater right before the production started.

The next day we went to the The museum of Surgical Science (being a surgical nurse) and some great eateries and we did some shopping. Because of the cold we didn't do as much as we would have in better weather...but it will give us something to do the next visit. Just a few more pictures from Saturday... First to Lego World and a visit with Lego Man....

The Bean







John???

Birthdays....Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Just a few quick pictures of a happy, happy birthday girl as she turned 4! Wow, how the time does go by fast. Macy had a great birthday that really started at Thanksgiving and then ended on her actual birthday, December 8th. Thank you to all who made her day----dayssssssssssss special! We first had the family (my brother and his family) over for dinner. On Monday we went to "jumpy-jumpy" as Macy calls it to celebrate with some of Macy's sweet friends. It's all about Ariel...Ariel, Ariel.
Our trip to Chicago and celebrating Christmas will be to follow....soon I hope.

My size barbie and me...

Please read the post before this one to help this video make sense! Enjoy.

Thanksgiving and the 4th Birthday starts early....

John and Sandy cooking Thanksgiving turkey


Macy & Aunt Sandy

Thanksgiving this year was in St. Louis, Missouri. To try to be fair to the families we have this every other year holiday thing going. This year away for Thanksgiving...home for Christmas. Next year home for Thanksgiving away for Christmas.
We had a really great time this year staying with Sandy, John's only sister, as we always do. Not only is she a great sister-in-law but I consider her a friend as well. The food was great this year, seeing everybody was wonderful (even better that they all came to us!) , but my most memorable moments came from the Friday after starting at about 3:50 a.m. for our all day shopping extravaganza! Not only were Sandy and I out and about our other s.i.l. was out with her sister, son and one of his friends. It was like I had 4 personal shoppers all going to different places which insured me getting everything I had on my list and then some. SO much fun. We had brunch together and then right before delirium hit...or maybe a few minutes after we called it a day around 2:00 just in time to get a back massage from a long, hard day of shopping.
Macy's birthday is tomorrow, December 8th, but the birthday gifts started rolling in while we were in St. Louis...thanks family. Mimi gave her a great barbie furniture set/barbie doll. Aunt Sandy....sweet Aunt Sandy gave Macy the "My Size" Barbie. Yes, it is almost Macy's size just an inch or two shorter. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!
Love you guys..if we could just convince John to move back :)