Christmas in Chicago

In years past, Kasey and I have enjoyed taking a weekend trip into Chicago or down to Indy around the holidays. Two weekends ago we went into Chicago for the day and took Myla with us while Luke stayed behind with Pop and Nana. We love our little man Luke, but it was a lot of fun to have just the three of us enjoy some time together. Especially since Myla is so into all things Christmas this year.

We had fun looking at the windows outside of Macy's, had a good lunch at Weber Grill, showed Myla the Lego store, and then finished off with a trip to see Santa Claus at Bloomingdale's. The highlight of Myla's trip was probably all the escalators she got to ride.

I was having some serious flashback to my own trips to see Santa when I was little. My sister will definitely appreciate this, but I couldn't help but reminisce about when we used to head to Shilito's/Lazarus in downtown Cincinnati to walk through Santa's workshop, drop off our letters to Santa, and then get our picture taken with him. I had mixed emotions of nostalgia as well as boiling frustration with the length of time we spent in the line. I'll spare you the details, but summarize by saying that we got in line at 3:05 with about 8-10 groups in front of us and didn't leave until 4:30. This wasn't some fancy walkthrough toyland either. It was just Santa sitting on his chair talking with kids and getting pictures taken. Santa was awesome, but he took it upon himself to have long conversations with each kid and they also let you take as many pictures as you wanted both with your own camera and the one they had. It felt like we were in a portrait studio at times as parents were agonizing over pictures in which their two-year old wouldn't smile. A far cry from the days of one Polaroid and then waiting to see what it looked like as you shook the image into focus.

Anyway, we finally got up to Santa and Myla was so excited it made the wait worth every second. She went right up to him and told him all about her request for a train table. She even told Santa to make sure he brought "baby toys" for her brother Luke. Our stinker of a daughter is in this fun phase right now where she refuses to smile for pictures so despite what the pictures will portray years from now, she really had fun and even got to take home a stuffed puppy that Santa gave her.

Myla gets her day started right with a hot fudge sundae at Weber Grill!

We build some pretty cool things out of Legos at home, but nothing like Woody!

Kasey and Myla in front of a Christmas tree.

Kasey and I were cracking up when we looked over at Myla standing so patiently with her arms in front of her while waiting for the elevator.

Here is a video of Myla with Santa. Don't you love how I yell at Santa that my daughter wants a train table. Better get it right!

This video doesn't do it justice, but this is Santa's exasperated reaction when the camera and computer crashed. The man was having a long day.