Happy Thanksgiving Week!!

A whole week of Thanksgiving celebration! It began on Monday afternoon. After a super-quick workout and shower at the Y, the boys and I went to the airport to pick up Janneke/Tante JaJa. Her flight was delayed so the boys and I walked around the airport looking at all the "balls" (ornaments) on the Christmas trees.

Shortish drive from the airport, and Art met us at home for lunch. Boys down for a nap, and the three of us chat it up until they woke up. Then off for Chicago-style pizza. Sweet Gidorno's Pizza has 30% off dine-in on Monday nights. We decided to brave the coldy weather and walk there - have to burn off some of the calorie-bomb pizza. We got to see lots of Christmas lights on the way. Dinner - excellent. Even the boys were wonderfully behaved, thanks to toys and crayons and being able to walk around a bit in our empty part of the restaurant. Brisk walk back home and boys to bed. We're all pretty tired, so we skip a game and watch an episode, or two of The Office and an episode of Scrubs. Off to bed!

Tuesday: Rush to get ready. Janneke comes w/ us to take Zach to school. As a PhD Childhood Education teacher, I was glad to hear that she could see that Zach's classroom had all the elements that should be there. Yea YMCA Part-day preschool! Quick trip to the store, knowing full well that we'd be back there again on Wednesday, then back home. I loaned Janneke some of my favorite 'fluff' books, and she got busy reading while I tidied and got organized. We all, including Wyatt, sat down for a little snack, then Wy and I left to go watch Zach's swim class, while Janneke took some down-time at the house. Art met us again for lunch. Boys to bed. Art and Janneke left to go get some coffee/hot chocolate at a coffee shop 2 blocks from our house. I took a glorious nap. Once kids were awake, we got ready to head to downtown Evanston. Tonight Evanston was hosting a tree lighting in the fountain square, with carolers and other festive things, and we wanted to be there. We planned on walking again, but it started raining, then a bit harder, then harder. We piled into the car and drove downtown. So much rain. We camped out in Barnes and Noble, hoping the rain would clear. They have a cute little kids area w/ a train table that kept the boys busy for a good long while. I left to check out the situation, and indeed they were going through with the tree lighting. Lots of people w/ umbrellas standing around. It was just too nasty, so we decided to can the tree lighting ceremony. We ran ran ran from Barnes and Noble to Zoba's - our dinner location of choice. As always, so very delicious, even though I got Pad Thai instead of my usu Pad se Ewe. Yum. Back home. Kids to bed. Again, everyone exhausted, so no game playing. Janneke fell asleep on the circle chair while watching The Office and Scrubs. :)

Wednesday: Zoo day!! We packed a lunch and headed down to the Lincoln Park zoo. Not sure if Dong Won's zoo pass was expired, we parked on a side street and checked out the zoo. Pretty cold though, so lots of animals were inside. Still, we saw a good amount of stuff. Wyatt loved the Cat room. Lots of lions and tigers and pumas, oh my. Wyatt about killed himself screaming "KHAKI, KHAKI". One tiger was growling and roaring a bit, which was amazing really. So low. You could feel it in your chest. We also got a great show from the Gibbons. Luckily, we were at the Gorilla area when the trainer was going to work w/ their alpha silverback. That was pretty neat to watch. Then heading home for nap time. Art had to do some work, so I worked on our blog for a good 2.5 hours while Janneke read. So nice and quiet in the house. Dinner. Boys off to the Mangrich's for the evening, while we ran to Jewel and then to the airport to get Karl. The airport was, not surprising, PACKED. We had to wait in a long line of cars just to drive up to the pick-up area to get him. We barely slowed down and he jumped in the car. We had hoped to go see some of Chinatown and eat a bit, but the weather was still pretty awful, so we just headed back to our neck of the woods to the Hop Haus. Very cool sports bar w/ a flat screen at every booth. We got to pick what we watched. Some drinks and french fries later, and all was good with the world. We dropped off Karl & Janneke at our house and went to pick up Z & W. Report: terrible. Boys would not go to bed. They just giggled and laughed until finally they had to move Wyatt into Morgan's room where Wy cried for a bit while Morgan said "Wydit cry, Wydit cry". Sigh. Poor B & S...and Ben's parents! Back home, kids in bed, some chatting, Shayna in bed.

Thursday: Thanksgiving: Turkey Day
We had the day planned pretty well for cooking, resting, etc.  We did end up having to send Karl and Janneke to Jewel (w/ Wyatt who fell asleep in the stroller...boo) to get some last minute things.  By about 4:30, things were well under control and almost ready for the table.  Time for me to go pick up Kanesha, a NWern student who was not going home for the Thanksgiving holiday.  We didn't know anything about her b/f tonight.  Turns out that we all have a lot in common.  Her family lives in the Camp Creek area in South Atlanta.  She has a brother at UGA, and one in the military.  It was a lot of fun to have her there and chat with her.  Dinner worked out GREAT.  Everyone's dish was so yummy!  The boys even behaved themselves for the long dinner...even Wyatt who had only had that one short nap in the stroller and refused to take another one.  After dinner Zach asked if we could play a game.  He chose Hungry Hungry Hippos.  Fun for the whole family. :)  Kanesha, Zach, Oom Karl, and Janneke played a few rounds.

Zachary VERY serious about his HHH.

Zachary counting his winnings...very seriously of course.

Everyone playing!  Check out the ruthless face on Oom Karl - determined to beat Zach.

Family game of Hungry Hungry Hippos after Thanksgiving dinner.  True to Zachary's current obsession, he named his hippo Caroline.

 After the HHH game, it was time to put Wyatt into bed...he was exhausted.  Still a bit early for Zach though, so we did some Thanksgiving food crafts.  It didn't work out so well though.  I could never find any candy corn, and had to use some oversize candy corn that we got at the Jelly Belly distribution center in WI.  Not as cute as the normal ones.  We repeated Aunt Joy's craft from last year, Oreo turkeys.  Still, pretty cute.  Then I attempted a new food craft: marshmallow/pretzel spiders.  Those did not work out so great.  Tasty enough, but looked nothing like spiders.  Fun though. 

Thanksgiving Day food crafts - an annual tradition for the Chicago Counts

Then bedtime for Zach.  The rest of us played Clue, then Scattergories.  As it got closer to 10pm, we were winding down, and I took Kanesha back to her dorms.  When I got back, the dishes were nearly done.  What a treat!

Friday - Tante JaJa's departure...booooo.
The morning started off with a not-so-hot breakfast.  I had been so pleased that nothing got ruined on Thanksgiving, that I must have let all that stress go with Friday's breakfast.  I burned the pastries.  I burned the bacon.  The eggs were a bit off too.  Not a wonderful start.  Nice to have the boys in the kitchen doing dishes though:

Wyatt helping Oom Karl and DaU with the breakfast dishes.

Wyatt is thrilled to be helping out!

Oom Karl throwing Zachary in the air over and over and over

Art takes Janneke to the airport, going by NWern and to Art's office on the way.  Oom Karl went with the boys an I to the playground for a good hour or so.  Then back home for lunch and naps.  While the boys were napping, Art and Karl drove down to Lincoln Park in Chicago to check it out.  It is a swanky neighborhood full of little shops and bars and restaurants.  Not a terrible outing.  Leftovers for dinner.  Boys to bed , and a game of Settlers of Katan with Karl.

Saturday: Downtown
We decided to make it a family adventure and drive downtown.  We walked and walked and walked, showing Karl all of the stops in our "regular" foot tour: Navy Pier, Wrigley Bldg, Millennium Park, Architecture Institute's full scale model, walking walking walking.  In addition to the regular stuff, we also walked through the German Christmas market briefly, and then went to Portellos around 4:30 for a late afternoon snack of Authentic Chicago-style hotdog...recommended to us by some cops.

Sunday: Oom Karl leaves...booo....
Church, then out to lunch w/ some people in our small group to Malone's BBQ.  yum!  However, we stretched the kids a bit too far and they were both melting down by the time we left.  Art took Karl to the airport a bit early, since we all expected it to be a day of heavy travel. 

Happy Thanksgiving week to us!