Sunday 12/11/11: Bad to the Bone

Road trip with Dallas's crew to the Harley museum in Milwaukee. We stopped at the Jelly Belly factory on the way up, and the Cheese Palace and Bass Pro Shop on the way down (to see the fish.)

Thursday 12/8/11: Library Santa

We went to an event at the library, billed as "A Dickens Christmas." Truth in advertising would have required it to be call, "One man show with a few small magic tricks, bad puppetry, and a worse toupee." Henry enjoyed himself, but was sad and kept saying "My turn," when kids would get pulled out of the audience to help. It ended with a visit to Santa in the basement of the library. We lost our place in line because Henry insisted on using the drinking fountain, and then taking the elevator. As a result, we were nearly the last family in line for pictures with Santa. A moment later, I looked down and Henry was gone. By the time I found him, he was getting his candy cane from Santa. I didn't want to wait 45 minutes for a picture with Gigi, so I snapped one of Henry alone on Santa's lap and we took off. I think Henry's just in it for the candy.

Saturday 12/3/11: Church Christmas Party

This Santa is a member of our ward. He and his equally kind wife regularly volunteer to hold Gigi at church. Unlike most Sundays, she didn't spit up on him when he held her this time.
Henry got to visit with Santa twice. The first time he had pushed his way to the front of the line and we were looking for him out in the hall. By the time we found him he already had a candy cane. The second time he waited with me an Gigi an we took a picture.

Friday 11/25/11: A Visit with Santa

I met Nick downtown after he finished his work at Northwestern. We went to the Christkindlemarket, but it was so crowded it was like being at Walmart at midnight the night before (which I also did.) Since it was not any fun, we decided to walk over to Xoco, a Rick Bayless restaurant. We ate there about 7 months ago, but at that time I accidentally ordered soup and it was spicy. The menu is in Spanish terms and comes with no glossary. We decided to go look at the lights on Michigan Ave, and on the way we decided to go into Nordstrom on a whim. By whim, I mean we needed to use their beautiful and clean bathrooms. We stumbled onto this Santa event sponsored by Windows 7 and Southwest. The kids got their pictures with Santa, they demonstrate photomerge (Santa's head on Gigi's picture is from a different shot) which was very cool, they printed a picture, then email them to you. FOR FREE! Great Santa, right? That's a real beard. However, because we were surprised by this, my kids were dressed for comfort and warmth more than looks. If I had known we would have taken their Christmas outfits, and now that it's colder I probably won't take them downtown again before Christmas.