Chicago, Chicago!

Today, Holly and I braved the overflowing crowds to watch the Mag Mile Lights Festival first hand.






What I learned:

1.) Make sure you know which hotel you are staying at. Don't ask me how I know.






2.) Be prepared to be in the biggest. Crowd. You. Will. Ever. See.

3.) Don't drink a lot of fluids before waiting 3 hours for the parade to start because you will be blocked in a sea of people. Poor Holly and Little Amanda (Holly's niece) were practically in tears because they literally couldn't get out of the crowd.

4.) Sing Christmas carols with the radio Disney teenyboppers. It will be worth the humiliation.

5.) Take pictures of the guitars embroidered on the pillowcases at the Hard Rock Hotel. Even though you live in Chicagoland, you're allowed to be a tourist in the comfort of your hotel room.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Team Edward!

Yes, I admit it.  I went to go see New Moon tonight.  It was insane.  There were a lot of people.  There was a lot of pushing (mostly by 40 year-old moms, surprisingly).

And Alice Cullen was there.

Aside from my insanely embarrassing breakdown during the saddest part (The waiter even asked my sisters if I was okay.  It was that bad.), I LOVED IT!!

And even despite the fact that this movie was heavily peppered with a shirtless Jacob,  I am still only on Team Edward.  As Bella said, “It’s Edward.  It’s always been Edward.  And it’ll always be Edward.”

“Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian.”

As I was picking up my adorable nephew’s birthday present from the DG toy store tonight (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE COLE!!), I noticed something in the window of one of the stores.

For those of you who have seen A Christmas Story, you will recognize this little beauty:

I even noticed that I subconsciously kept my distance from it because I was afraid of breaking it!

_________________

[Mr. Parker reads a side of the box with the leg lamp that he won]
Mr. Parker: Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian.
Mrs. Parker: Uh, I think that says FRAGILE, dear.
Mr. Parker: Oh, yeah.

Too soon?

I want to start decorating for Christmas.  Already.

Don’t hate me.  I know that the thought of this might just make your blood boil, but hear me out.

Normally, I am vehemently opposed to putting up anything related to Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. 

Last year, we were so busy planning the wedding that I never got to decorate for Christmas.  It is my absolute favorite holiday.  I can still remember going with Stephen the first year we were together to get a Christmas tree…he actually let me play Christmas songs the whole way as opposed to his screamy music.  Not being able to decorate last year was a major bummer for me (I might still be upset about it).

Earlier this month, Mrs. Chen and I went to a Holiday  Decorating seminar at one of the stores in downtown DG.  Aside from showing us all sorts of useful ideas (and making a chunk of my paycheck disappear), it totally psyched me up for Christmas decorating.  Seriously, people, it is taking everything within  me to not decorate right about now.

We’ll see just how much longer I can hold out.  Until then, I have already plugged in my mini USB Christmas tree into my laptop at work. 

You heard me.  USB.  Christmas.  Tree.

Tasty Book

Last Christmas, I surprised my family by giving them a cookbook containing some of our most cherished family recipes.  I had originally planned to create a website with all of the recipes, but then I discovered TasteBook.

TasteBook allows you to create a beautiful personalized cookbook, complete with your own pictures for each recipe and a dedication page.  You have the option to add personal notes and introductions to each recipe, which I used to write our memories of each meal.  The quality is amazing – thick pages that I have spilled on multiple times without permanent damage, and a hard cover of your choice.  Cardstock dividers separate the cookbook into categories for easy searching.  You can even order recipe pages after you’ve ordered the cookbook binder, meaning you don’t have to wait until you have enough recipes to fill the cookbook.  Each recipe has a section at the bottom where you can add the contributor.  That way, you never have to wonder if the recipe came from Grandma or Mom.

Armed with a stack of recipes from everyone in the family (I used the excuse that I needed them for the website I wanted to create), I entered 100 of our favorite recipes and a few photos into our own family cookbook.

The fam absolutely loved it.  In fact, the cookbook is proudly displayed in all of their houses (including mine) and I’ve been told that it is the cookbook they use the most.

Luckily, I decided to name the cookbook with a “Volume 1” as a subtitle in case we wanted to keep building the tradition…which we did!

I’m happy to say that Volume 2 is officially underway.  This weekend, my mom gave me another stack of family recipes.  She even included the meal plans she used every week for the family, broken down by day with a grocery list for ingredients.

The cookbooks are so much more than just a collection of recipes.  They contain memories of our childhood that we can pass down to our children one day.  Hopefully because of these cookbooks, we’ll never have to wonder how Grandma made her famous casserole that she never had a recipe for…because now we do.  Plus, it drastically cuts down on the amount of times we have to call Mom for a recipe!

Spoiled: Day 2

Our second day down south was just as awesome as the first. After spending a few hours attempting what is now known as "the world's hardest puzzle," we headed back into Springfield for some BBQ ribs at Smokey Bones.



Since we were pretty stuffed from the delicious food, we decided to go for a drive around Lake Springfield (uh, yeah, Springfield has a huge lake. Who knew?).

We then stopped off at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden for a walk around the lake...



...And a visit to the gift shop. They even had the candy sticks we always got at Dutch Village when we were kids.



The trails were goregous even though most of the leaves have fallen.


Lake Springfield was calm and provided some great photo ops.





Our next stop was The Apple Barn. Mom has been talking about this place since the day she moved here, and is even on a first name basis with the employees!



The first thing that caught my eye were some delicious caramel apples.



I'm lucky I made it out of there without purchasing every last apple fritter and apple muffin in sight!

Back at home, mom made us one of our favorite meals ever - Dutch Ham Buns! I would have gotten a picture of them, but I was too busy stuffing my face with their melty goodness to remember.

After dinner, we went right back to that stupid puzzle. This thing was the single most frustrating and difficult puzzle I have ever attempted. I won't even go into how the colors were way off and the shapes were definitely not typical puzzle shapes.



Hours and hours later, we FINALLY finished it.



I won't be attempting another puzzle for the next 10 years.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Spoiled: Day 1

It's a well-known fact that any time any of the kids visit my parents "down south," you can expect to be spoiled rotten. Breakfast is made, lunches and shopping trips abound, you name it.

This weekend has been no exception (already). Mindy and I have traveled down to get our fill of feeling like kids again.

The morning started out with a fulfilled request for Dad's Dutch pancakes, which are pretty frilling amazing. If you've never had a Dutch pancake, you are missing out!



Once we spent our sweet time getting ready, the girls headed out for lunch at a quaint little coffee house/antique shop in Verdon (yeah, I've never heard of it either) called The Front Porch.


Let me tell you, this place had the most amazing chicken salad sandwich ever. Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, we ordered the chocolate Snickers latte.



Seriously? This town has a population of under 800 (765 of which are probably cows) but they have definitely put our fancy coffee shops to shame.

Next, we headed into Springfield to visit the local Goodwill store. Just one question - have you ever seen a full coffee bar in a Goodwill store? Didn't think so. Allow me to blow your mind:



A quick (as in 1 hour) trip to Hobby Lobby later, we headed back home for dinner and a puzzle. After spending 35 minutes in the puzzle aisle at Hobby Lobby, we were determined to actually start it. Apparently Chloe wanted to make sure the bottom of the puzzle was up to snuff.







Now, it's off to bed in preparation for another fun-filled day down south!

-- Posted from my iPhone