Christmastime in Chicago

Fair warning.  I have a lot of pictures to share.  All I wanted for Christmas was to spend some December time in downtown Chicago.  And so we did it!  And it was the best Christmas present ever.  I have such good memories of going downtown to "see the windows." Which everyone in Chicagoland understands to mean the Marshall Field windows all decked out in a new theme every Christmas.  Now that Marshall Fields has been bought by Macy's, they don't do nearly the same amount of windows, and they just aren't as magical.  But they were still magical enough for our littles!

We met our friends and their kids early in the day, and spent the rest of the day having fun with them.  After the windows we went inside to see Santa!  I had never done the Marshall Field/Macy's Santaland, and I was somewhat disappointed to find it did not exactly live up to the David Sedaris Santaland Diaries.  But there was the long maze of vignettes for the littles to look at until we made it to Santa.  And Santa wasn't disappointing.  He was pretty great, actually.  And luckily my kids love Santa.

They were not shy about telling Santa that yes, they had been good, and letting him know the exact toys they hoped to find Christmas morning.  After Santa we took a look at the big Christmas tree inside the Walnut Room, the restaurant inside Marshall Field's.  It is 3 stories high, and really pretty.  I've never been disappointed in that tree!

After we had some lunch, we headed over to Millennium Park to see The Bean and to ice skate.  The Bean (officially named "Cloudgate") is one of my favorites.  It's really pretty to see the skyline reflected in it, and always fun to take pictures of ourselves.

Rowan and I sat out iceskating.  Rowan simply was scared, and Brian reminded me I was pregnant.  Ooops!  Maybe next time.  Fletcher was really wobbly, being his first time on skates, but just when he was getting the hang of it, he called it quits.

I left the camera behind after our ice skating excursion.  We went back to the hotel to relax a bit, and then went to the Christkindlemarket that night.  It's one of my favorite things to do at Christmastime, but the kids did not agree.  It was mighty cold, so I can't blame them too much.  The next day we spent most of the day at The Museum of Science and Industry.  I also didn't take my camera there, but they do about 60 large Christmas trees decked out in decorations from all over the world.  Each tree represents a different country.  The littles were more into the other fun exhibits, but I loved seeing the trees.  That night we went up to the top of The Sears Tower (now the Willis tower) to look at the city lights.  I hadn't been up to the top in years, but Brian had taken Fletcher a couple years ago.  Right when they had opened the new glass platforms.  Yikes!  But Fletcher had NO fear, even scared some others by jumping and stomping on the glass.  And by some others I mean myself.

Our last day in Chicago was spent shopping and dropping off a little mail for Santa.

And when it was time to leave, Fletcher was so sad, he sobbed.  He said he wanted to stay in Chicago forever.  And I cried a tear or two with him, and agreed.

We'll be back, Chicago.