The Start of the Holiday Season 2009

After a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday spent at our home with Grammy and Grampy, we started the rest of our holiday season with a bang on Friday, and no shopping! Okay, well that is not quite true, we started our afternoon at the Chriskindlemart (a German Christmas village with gifts and German food) where Ella got two new ornaments for the little tree that is in her room (she adores it!!) Then we headed over to Macy's to look at the windows, they tell the story of how letters mailed to Santa from children all around the world actually make their way to Santa at the North Pole. While I must admit that I do wish for the old Marshall Field windows it was actually quite cute. Then we headed inside for Ella to mail her first letter off to Santa and we decided to have our dinner in the Walnut Room in front of the big and beautiful tree. As you can see, the wishes fairy came to our table and sprinkled wishing dust all over Ella who told us that she did wish to be a Princess (what a shocker!) After a nice dinner and a Snowman Sundae dessert for Ella, we headed to Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park Zoo for its opening night. Ella had her official visit with Santa (we saw a Santa earlier in the week but when he asked her if she was coming to see him she informed him that she was going to see "him" at the zoo). While she still wasn't sure about sitting on his lap, just as we were about to walk away, she jumped up and hugged him, so cute! Then we wandered about the zoo visiting the cat house, bats and reptiles (Ella's request) as well as the penguins that she loves. The zoo was beautiful, the night was brisk but actually quite nice to be outside and after a train and carousel ride (and a peek at the ice sculptures being made) we were off for home where Ella promptly fell asleep in the car. We were all a bit tired (sorry, Mom) but it was an absolutely wonderful afternoon/evening that I hope we'll repeat often in the years ahead. Happy Holidays to all!