Friday Recap 12/14/18 - Christmas in the City, Birthdays, Surprise Engagement Party, Coffee for the Crossing Guard

'Tis the season for all things holly jolly, Christmasy, wintry and wonderful!! Let's do this team! I'm a day late because I went to bed at 7 last night........fighting a Christmas cold. That's about the only un-awesome thing about this time of year!

1. Christmas in the City - and by city I mean Chicago

Our little girl in the big city :)

The Bug was obsessed with the Serpentine Bridge!

Lulu & I met Chris downtown for some wonderful wintry traditions on Friday afternoon! Gluhwein at the Chriskindlmarket and Caroling at Cloudgate (aka Carols at the Bean) were the best kick off to the weekend a girl could ask for! The only way it would've been a more perfect day was if there was snow on the ground or snow falling! But it was delightful. 

Lulu & her DaDa enjoying all the sights

Gluwein, beer & my daughter inside the warm beer hall tent thing :) The yawn + hat askew make it seem like she was imbibing......she wasn't!

Love Christmas traditions!

So many people out & about enjoying the winter fun in the city. The Bug really liked watching the ice skaters at the Ribbon at Maggie Daley Park as well as the rink at Millennium Park. It was quite the thrill for her! Also - the serpentine bridge over Columbus Dr. was an unexpected hit with her - she thought it was pretty much the best thing since sliced bread! 

The city's Christmas tree in Millennium Park was beautiful & striking as always. It is just SO BIG. I think that's one thing that I am still awed by, despite being a grown up. Honestly though - to see all things Christmasy through the eyes of a child is the right was to see them. Something like the Bean that I know blew my mind the first time I saw it....no longer does. You grow accostumed to the beauty & wonder around you & then stop seeing it. But then you bring your 1 year old under the Bean & watch her head pretty much explode. She was running around looking at herself & us & all the other people reflected and it felt like we could see the little gears in her mind turning, trying to make sense of something so wonderful. There is so much wonder & joy around us everyday, but especially during the Christmas season. May we all approach this most awesome time with open arms & eyes!!

2. Birthdays celebrated on the same day!

Birthday FaceTime with PopPop

Lulu's PopPop's birthday is 1 day before that of our biggest little nephew man! This year we celebrated our nephew's birthday a day early - so we had some FaceTime with PopPop and a family birthday party with Lulu's BoBo, Bump, Aunt Tara, Uncle GR, and 4 of her cousins! 

Appetizers with BoBo & Bump

The oldest & youngest siblings :)

Happy 9th Birthday sweet little man!

Someone was enjoying the cake :)

Hooray for birthdays really anytime of the year.

3. Surprise Engagement Party 

Its not everyday that you are invited to a surprise engagement party for your best friend!! Chris & I were thrilled when an evite arrived from Stacey's (now fiance, then boyfriend) inviting us to a bar in Lincoln Park to celebrate the occasion of him proposing.
How hard it is to keep such a big secret for a WEEK!! At least our other best friend lives in San Diego - so I spent a lot of time talking to Cody about all things engagement in the intervening days!!

Now that both the future Mrs. & Mr. have posted to social media about the big news.......I can share it here!! 

Chris & I are simply so excited for Stacey & Bruce - they are a wonderful couple & will have an incredibly happy life together. We will be along for the ride ;)

4. Coffee for the Crossing Guard
So we have a pretty consistent morning routine that involves Lulu, Owenn & I walking Chris to his train and then doing a wide lap around the neighborhood, stopping at a couple of parks so Lulu can get her fix.

We occasionally pop into a local treat spot Beth's Little Bake Shop for a muffin, scone, croissant and/or coffee in conjunction with the train drop off. 

Lulu had (all week long) been saying "go" "go" "go" as we walked by Beth's, so I told her we could stop on Friday for a treat. We thought we'd be able to stop with Chris, but alas & alack -  the morning rush was for naught - Chris didn't have time to join us. Lulu & I let someone behind us go first so we could fully investigate all the treats in the case. We settled on a French Toast muffin, kind of has a bread pudding consistency under a crunchy, cinnamon sugar dome. Yum. We were happy to see one of the crossing guards in line behind us & got her coffee for her. It was foggy, damp & dreary outside and I guessed she could use a pick me up. It turned out she had forgotten her mug of coffee at home on the table :( Lulu & I are loving the reverse Advent Calendar idea - it is giving us license to do random acts of kindness every day (as if we need license - maybe reminder is a better choice of words!). 

I encourage you to buy the person in line behind you a coffee - it made everyone in the tiny little bakery seem a smidgen happier. You might be surprised how much tiny little niceties can have a bigger impact than you expect! I was surprised yesterday how nice I felt for the whole morning - knowing I had slightly improved someone's day. It put a tiny spring in my step! It was a real treat for us & hopefully for one of our crossing guards too.

Christmas 2016 & a request for advice

Lizzard Loves Christmas. 

Time with family, the lights, the tree, fires in the fireplace, the snow, cozy days wrapping gifts, Chris' crazy Christmas suit,decorating the house, drinking hot chocolate, ice skating on GR & Tara's rink and the Ribbon at Maggie Daley Park, skiing, celebrating with friends, trains running around our tree, shopping for stocking stuffers, cooking, cooking cooking, and baking zillions of cookies, Owenn's Christmas sweater, homemade eggnog Chris makes, homemade treats of all stripes that everyone else makes, Lynn's cookie exchange party, the Evanston Christmas tree lighting, lots of Belle Plaine Bread, Mom reading this out loud to us on Christmas night, beautiful Christmas Eve mass at the church I grew up attending, Carols at the Bean downtown, ZooLights, Winter Wonderland Express at the Botanic Gardens, so many delicious meals made by my Mom, decorating cookies, visits from old friends, the whole kit & caboodle.

Some photos of this year's Christmastime fun, in no particular order:

Christmas Carols at the Bean (IN THE SNOW!!)

Chris' man cave Christmas tree

Helping with the decorations at GR & Tara's house

No time to cut down our own tree this year, to Anton's we went (just like when I was a kid!)

First floor decorations are up!

Inside view of our main tree

Members Only Night at ZooLights with Chris, Tara & the kids

Fuzzy ZooLights selfie

Lynn's Cookie Exchange

Evanston Christmas Tree Lighting

It is SNOWING!!!!

Owenn's first snowy walk

This dog LOVES the snow :) Its a good thing since we do too!

Skating on the Ribbon

Owenn's first cross country ski

Biscotti bonanza

Elfing :)

The boys enjoying their eggnog

O-man's Christmas sweater 

Peppermint hot chocolate with homemade marshmallow

Cookie baking with the cookie monster herself!

Skating at GR & Tara's rink #cousinlove

Christmas night fondue

Christmas Eve dressed up for church & dinner

So all of those wonderful, warm, fuzzy things said...........I'm looking for advice on this post though. It seems like I average approximately 1.5 meltdowns/ annual Christmas season. Full fledged, stress driven, crying mess meltdowns. (My poor, patient husband). As much as I love Christmas time, it always seems too short, too busy, too much. And the expectations- I dread the high expectations that I can't seem to keep in check. Meltdown could be why our Christmas cards went out after we rung in 2017......#sorryaboutthateveryone

 My ask here is this - do you have ways to handle your pre-holiday/during the holidays stress? How do you manage it all & enjoy yourself too? I do pretty ok for 90% of the season - but its a whopper of a 10% that puts a crimp in my Christmas enjoyment! 

Any/all thoughts/jokes/tips on this are most appreciated  - I have almost a full year to prepare for the next Christmas season & I need all the help I can get!!

The Chicago Marathon - 2015

Lizzard Loves running the Chicago Marathon, especially with Chris & especially whilst raising money for Special Olympics Chicago.

It was another beautiful fall day in Chicago, a touch too warm for our liking - though that meant that upwards of 2 million people came out to spectate! 2 million. Can you imagine?? It is an insane feeling having crowds of people line the course for at least 15 of the 26.2 miles of the course.

Thanks so much to all who came out to yell & cheer & give high fives. Plus the pretzels, especially the generous people with giant bins of pretzels. I partook of your generosity for the first time this year & it felt so good to eat real food out on the course.

Our pre & post race were simply wonderful thanks to Special Olympics Chicago. Our fearless team leader/coach/supporter extraordinaire, Susan Nicholl, covers every last detail so we don't need to think about anything other than showing up & running the race. 

To have family & friends take time out of their busy weekends to watch us do this crazy thing again warms my heart. It was a wonderful day in the most beautiful city in the world. Are you thinking about running a marathon? Consider Chicago. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Feeling excited & nervous prerace with the other members of
Team Special Olympics Chicago

Chris & I are ready to run!

So happy to see Timmy & Katie at mile 7ish

Hooray! Team Kearney was spectating just
before mile 10, big smiles for our family
coming out to watch.

Our 3 biggest little fans :)

SOC hosts a cheer station at mile 25.5, SO close to the finish!
We proudly carry our flags for the final push to the finish line.

Felt well enough at the finish line to take & drink (some of) the
free beer! I was in good company in my inability to finish
the pint!

We did it! #6 for me, #9 for Chris

Mom & Dad were waiting for us at our team headquarters.
So glad they came down to watch again this year.

Free Seedlings

I love free things.

Lizzard Loves 3 happy chard plants

I do try to keep in mind the phrase "just because its free, doesn't mean its good" but that does not apply in this case.

Chris & I joined a CSA this summer. As much as I've wanted to participate in a CSA, I never have. As with many fun, new things I convinced myself it wouldn't work. We like to travel quite a bit in the summer, so I needed midweek pick up; it seemed like each CSA I saw had weekend pick ups. (We can pick up our box from 6am-9pm on Wednesdays) I worried it would be too expensive. (It costs $36 per week for the box of lovely organic veggies, herbs & fruit. It is 3/4 of a bushel........which meant nothing to me until I saw the size, and felt the heft, of our first week's box. Please let it be stated that the link above doesn't answer the question super clearly - I wanted to give some sense of the size of the box. For example; 3/4 of a bushel of apples is 42-48 pounds! Though I do supplement my CSA box contents with farmers market & grocery store veggies, fruit & herbs - I buy WAY less now. So the cost seems absolutely within the realm of normal. All of this being said; I am so glad I finally took the CSA plunge.

But wait you say. Your post is about "free things" where is the free??

Well, we got an email before our first box of veggies had arrived letting us know we could come to the farm & choose seedlings to take home & plant. The list of available plants looked wonderful to us: sweet corn, tomatoes, kale, fennel, leeks, cucumbers, chard, melons, zucchini, winter squash! Yum, yum, yum. The truly crazy part? They asked you to limit yourself to 150 seedlings. One hundred and fifty! Can you imagine having a garden large enough to put 150 plants in the ground?? I can't, but it is really fun to try. The sky seemed to be the limit for my first ever vegetable garden; but alas & alack, reality set in. We could only plant our little seedlings in pots; not the ground. Not only do we share our backyard with our 5 neighboring units; but last year our building fought (what felt like) an epic battle against rats. This involved baiting/trapping/poisoning. Ew. It made Chris & I distrust the quality of soil in our little urban backyard, so we were limited to putting our plants into 3 pots.

We left with 2 varieties of tomato (zephyr & new girl), 3 chard plants, and 2 cucumber plants. We also took several plants to give to my parents & my brother's family - because they have nice soil not affected by any rodent battles!

Bottom line, I have no idea how the plants will do in pots; but its not the biggest deal if the exercise is a huge fail! I had such a great time visiting our farm, selecting our seedlings, & playing in the dirt; it will be OK if I don't eat any homegrown veggies this summer/fall. Fingers crossed that some of it works though - it would be really fun!

Lizzard Loves tomatoes (L) and 2 little cucumbers (R)

Do you garden? Do you have any thoughts to share? Do you grow from seeds or seedlings? 

Any tips for a first timer? Do you purchase anything to help you along? 

I, as a reforming brown thumb, would love any input you have!