Happy Thanksgiving! Chicago-Counts Style

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

We had a full full full house for Thanksgiving. We had, in addition to Art, Shayna, Zachary, Wyatt and Dexter, Memaw, Poppi, An Doy (Aunt Joy), and An Juicenana (Aunt Joanna) here with us.

It all started with the arrival of Poppi and Memaw on Sunday, Nov. 23rd. They drove their minivan here so they could bring us all our stuff that we had left at their house over the past 2 years we were in Dusseldorf. I could not believe how much stuff we had. Plus, a kids table and a crib, from Art's parents. It took less than 15 minutes to unload it all, but it was a disaster in our office area! With only 2 days to work on it before the arrival of Joy and Joanna. Alas, we did not 'process' it all, and some of it got stuck in the basement to deal with (Art's favorite) LATER.



The visit started off with a bang - off to Chuck E. Cheese on Monday morning. Zach was pretty overwhelmed by everything for awhile, but he finally relaxed and enjoyed himself. There were tons of ride-on toys that he enjoyed. They no longer have ball pits and the climbing/tunnel area was a bit old for him. After a mediocre lunch, he found his love - AIR HOCKEY. He and Poppi and Memaw spent at least 30 minutes at the mini air hockey table. At one point Zach, tired of waiting for his puck to score, figured out that he could walk the puck down to the opposite goal and then hit it in from there. Then for awhile he enjoyed hitting it into his own goal just so he could get it out of the return slot. Many tokens were spent there. Wyatt took 2 short naps while there, but enjoyed everything while he was there. He was intrigued by all the kids and flashing lights. Lots of squeals of pleasure. Monday night was eventful for Poppi and Art. They left the kids with the ladies and headed off to a harmonica class by some famous guy. Dad enjoyed it for the harmonica part and Art enjoyed for the live music (they had a band to accompany the harp players) and of course his night away from the boys.

Tuesday. This was Zach's last story time at the library for the fall session. I have to sign him up again in January for the winter session. This time was the most interactive Zach has been at story time. He did all the dancing, shouted out words when asked, "whispered" his concerns about some of the stories, shook his shaker like a maniac, and had an all-around good time. Usually, Wyatt goes with us to the library, but a generous MeMa said she would stay home with Wyatt while he took his morning nap. Art also enjoyed the quiet by working from home. Both boys got baths that evening to prepare for the arrival of "An Doy" and "An Juicenana". Art and I worked furiously trying to put away the rest of the stuff that was brought to us, but by 10:30pm, we gave up and put it all down in the basement.



Wednesday. Joy and Joanna arrive. I get to be the one to go pick them up! A long morning w/out the boys. Memaw again stayed home w/ Wyatt while he napped, and Poppi took Zachary on a much-awaited ride on the El. Zach has wanted to ride the trains since we moved here, but we had not yet really had the desire or the time. They stayed gone for hours. Joys flight was delayed so Joanna and I just sat around chatting. We got home a little after 12 and Poppi and Zach arrived just after. The afternoon was for napping - for everyone nearly. Zach, Wyatt, Joanna, and Joy all napped. Art went with me to the grocery store to get everything we would need for Thursday's Thanksgiving meal as well as any food for Friday. Armed with Dad's credit card (I feel slightly bad about doing that since I'm 33 after all!), Art and I took our time (like a grocery store date) and perused every aisle. After an hour or so, the place started getting packed out, and we concentrated more on getting everything we needed. Zach watched Cars (check him out with his Cars blanket, and Cars Dinoco Lightning McQueen) with Poppi, Joy and Joanna after his nap while Faye and I prepared dinner of Hackball Toscana, one of our favorite foods in Germany. After the boys went to bed, we settled in for a cut-throat game of Settlers of Catan. Perhaps cut-throat for everyone but me that is. I was doing terribly, getting bored, and finally left to go blow up the air mattress. I discovered I needed batteries, so off I was to walk to Walgreens. Sadly, they kept playing for me, or at least having me collect cards so I could trade w/ others. AND I DID BETTER. Apparently, I needed to quit playing to start doing well in the game. Sigh. In the wee hours, poor Joy realized that she was sleeping not on a cushion of air, but on the hard wooden floor. She had to get up and make a bed from the circle chair.






Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving! A full day. After Wyatt went down for a morning nap, Joy and Zach set off to make a holiday craft: Oreo Turkeys. Joanna, Memaw and I followed along as well. I was quite surprised that Zach not only really enjoyed the craft, but was able to put it all together and stayed interested the whole time. It was only after his second turkey that he discovered that the turkeys TASTE GOOD. Then he started licking the icing and eating the candy corn. Still, I was impressed it lasted that long! A full day of cooking. Turkey breasts in at 2pm (after an artful slathering by Art), followed by sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, dressing, dinner rolls, cranberry (from the can to honor Staci)and a key lime pie for dessert. While the boys were napping (and me too), we all took a walk to Starbucks, just a few blocks away. Dad was heroic and agreed to stay home so the rest of us to go. We all dressed up a bit and ate off of our "fancy" plates for Thanksgiving. After going around to give thanks for a few things from the past year (Wyatt being healthy and our safe return from Germany topping my list), we tucked into massive amounts of food. After dinner. Another rousing game of Settlers. I had a major attack on Dad which landed me in the hot seat until Faye came along and did an even bigger attack. I don't know who won, not me, b/c I finally went to bed after never getting any ore to go with my ore port which I brutally stole from Dad. Sigh.

Friday. Shopping! It takes us a few hours to get ready and out of the house, but we finally make it. Dad is out-voted and we all agree to walk the mile and 1/2 to the antique store they wanted to go to. It was a glorious day out - sun shining, mild-ish weather, kids happy. Everyone Oooed and Ahhhed at the magnificent houses all around our neighborhood while we made our way. I thought the trip to the antique store would be about 30 minutes or so and we'd keep shopping around our cute little town. The sojourn in the antique store was extensive. Someone had to stay outside the entire time b/c Wyatt was asleep in the stroller and if we brought him in, the temp difference would wake him. Art volunteered for this for the most part, seeing as how he was bored after about 15 minutes (ok, more like 4 minutes). But a huge success it was. Lots of Christmas and birthday presents were purchased there. After a quick nursing/drink/snack break at a little cafe we were off again shopping. They all found a great used kids stuff store while I was in the pet store. More walking. Then they found a store they really liked, but it was getting pretty late for our boys, so Art and I went home while they explored this store that had items from all over the world. Poor Zach. He was desperate for a nap, but hadn't eaten lunch yet. I had to basically sit him on top of the dishwasher and shovel some oatmeal and oranges into him b/c he was too tired to eat. He kept saying "I go bed. I go bed now". Cute. Once the rest of the clan got home we all settled in to watch Kung Fu Panda, courtesy of Joy. Very cute movie! By then it's getting late and I have to hustle to get things ready for Poppi and Memaw who were going to babysit Wyatt and Zachary so us "kids" could go out (Joy, Joanna, Art and I). It was really nice to see downtown all lit up w/ Christmas decorations. Joanna said Evanston and it's downtown seem like one of those 'movie towns'. I do like it. We ate at an Irish Pub called the Celtic Knot. Art got fish in chips in honor of our friends in Duesseldorf, Jake and Maddy. We had a bit of a laugh remembering the time that Maddy brought a tiny bottle of vinegar in her purse for her 'chips' when we went out once. The food was excellent, the pub was super cute. And very family friendly. We saw tons of people there with their kids and it was not at all smokey. The four of us opted to grab a movie and head back to the house instead of going out some more after dinner. We got Ironman. The 4 of us plus Dad watched it...staying up TOO LATE for me.

Saturday. Off to Chicago! Again, it takes us all about 2 hours (there ARE 6 adults and 2 kids after all) to get ready and out the door. We walk the block and 1/2 to the El stop and head into downtown Chicago. We walk to the Navy Pier and hang around there for awhile, having lunch and everyone but me and the kids (by my choice!) going on the Ferris Wheel. We walked around downtown some and headed over to the city hall which is supposed to be a famous square. What should be there but a GERMAN CHRISTMAS MARKET!! So strange. It was the same as the Christmas markets in Dusseldorf! I said to Art "it's like home", and of course got in a bit of trouble w/ Dad. :) Joy and Joanna tried, and hated, Gluwein. They ended up pouring it out, much to Art's chagrin, who would have gladly drank it. The place was wall-to-wall people, so we didn't stay long, but it was quite surreal for there to be a German Christmas market, complete with booths from Germany, run by people speaking German, there in downtown Chicago. Then the long El ride home. What is wonderful is that the platforms have heaters on them so you can stand under the heaters and not have to wait in the cold for the train. SO WONDERFUL! When we got back it was TIME FOR DINNER. What we'd been waiting all week for: Carmen's Chicago-style pizza. YUM! It took some persuading, but we got Joanna to accompany Art to get the pizza. We needed her gone so we could put up some impromptu decorations to celebrate Joanna's birthday. A nice little family party, complete with family drama, and we were all off to bed - pooped from a long day. Dad left around 4am, then Faye, Joy, and Joanna all left the next morning around 10am, with the winter's second snowfall coming down...and coming and coming. I was pretty sad they were gone, but by evening, it was just nice to have the place back to it's normal level of chaos.

I know we (Chicago-Counts) all had a great time, and I really hope that the others did too. Of course we missed the rest of the family not being there, but it sure was nice to be with the ones that were. And just a few short weeks until Christmas!

Sorry there are so few pictures. I'll have to ask Dad, Joy and Joanna very nicely if they will send me their pictures of the week.