We spent most of today enjoying the treasures in the Art Institute. I'd never been to this museum during my previous two visits to Chicago. They have so many wonderful pieces! I was only slightly disappointed in that Nighthawks was on loan to another museum.

Dragon for Sam

We decided to skip the usual overpriced cold sandwiches found in museum cafes. I had seen a couple locations around town for Nando's peri-peri chicken.

Have you ever been cold and tired and hungry, then sat down at a warm table with delicious food? Soooo satisfying.

Now well-fortified, we admired the Bean from the street as we went back to the museum. We amped up our pace and managed to take in most of the other half of the art galleries. With a laugh we decided to "take a peek" and the paperweights and "miniature rooms" collection on the lower level. The paperweight exhibit was a head scratcher, as in, what makes these worthy of a dedicated space in this otherwise top tier museum? The miniatures, on the other hand, were delightful! I wonder if there's a book about their creator, because you have to be at least a little kooky to do what she did.

I dragged an exhausted Ben to the only yarn store in the city. Yarnify was adequate for supplies but nothing outstanding. Their shop was lacking in charm, and they didn't seem to care about presentation of yarns or samples. Still, I got a beautiful green skein from a local maker as a souvenir.

After a quick respite at the hotel we walked to Gyu-Kaku for dinner. It's a chain restaurant with over 600 locations in Japan. They bring you assorted meats to grill right at your table. I was pleased to find that it doubled as a hand warmer. Very toasty!

Michigan Avenue still has its lovely Christmas lights on display. We ambled up to the historic Water Tower and passed some time shopping (including Uniqlo for slippers-who decided hard floors were a good idea in our hotel room? My tootsies are too cold for that!).

Right across the street we found the Lookingglass Theatre, where we saw The Steadfast Toy Soldier. Amanda raves about this company and I can see why. It was a charming retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson story. They performed mutely, all in pantomime with a four musicians playing the score. We loved the toddler child puppet. They absolutely nailed the physicality, giving us fits of laughter. At 60 minutes run time, I was utterly charmed and left wanting more. I wish there was a company like this in Denver that I could share with my boys.

Time to indulge in some ice cream and hot fudge at Ghiradelli's. I came prepared with ample lactase. I hope ;-)

Hooray, we went on a vacation! My gift this year was to organize the flight, hotel, entertainment, and child care for a quick getaway birthday trip. It's been 3 1/2 years since the last time we left the kids for more than a single night. About time for another break, wouldn't you say?

Why on earth would I choose Chicago in January, such a bitter cold and windy destination? HAMILTON. That's why! Ben really wanted to see the musical when it was in Denver, but like every other Colorado citizen without connections (thank you Amanda!), was unable to get tickets. So I'm making up for that with this trip. It'll be the final event of the week before flying home Saturday morning.

With the kids in the capable and loving hands of Grandma Betty and Grandpa Rick, we enjoyed a quick airplane jump to the Second City.

We arrived at the hotel early afternoon and decided to relax with a movie. With our date night movie habits we've seen nearly everything out there already. Ben was trying to talk me into the Hindi movie Simmba. Luckily I found a convenient showtime for a movie we had missed: The Green Book. Here we are feeling bad for cheating on the Alamo Drafthouse.

The Green Book was very good, exceeding my expectations. A thought provoking historical story with incredible performances. It gave us a lot to talk about afterward.

Having had snacks all day, we descended on Pizzeria Uno for some Chicago deep dish. Ben claimed to hate deep dish pizza, harboring bad feelings from previous dining encounters with the iconic dish. Pointless with a soggy bottom, to sum up his criticism. I urged him to give it another try and think of it as pizza lasagne.

Well done, Chicago, you changed his mind! Or maybe we were just that hungry. But Ben said it was delicious, and Mary Berry would agree that there were no soggy bottoms.

December has been a jolly month!  We did all the classics: decorating, advent calendars, Hanukkah, ice skating, caroling, cookies, class parties, Santa Claus, secret presents, visiting family, and other general merriment.  The only thing missing was snow to go sledding or make a snowman.  Oh well :-) My parents came to celebrate the big day itself and it was so fun to have them here!  Here's a smattering of photos to mark the month.

The MBMBaM live podcast that we saw with the Walkers at the Buell has been released.  If you're curious, check it out here.

My favorite part was the pre-show, Sawbones.  They've also shared that live recording and I definitely recommend it, click here.

(Or, you know, use your podcasting app to search for these things.  I've never understood the podcasting thing.  It makes me so out-of-touch whenever I try to "get into" podcasts.)

My little Nissan Sentra hit the big 100k! I had the family in the car with me so Ben kindly documented the milestone.

Our good friends the Walkers came to Denver to see a show and we got to play along! This was a love podcast of the "My brother, my brother, and me" show. I wasn't too familiar with it, but enjoyed the show immensely. It was the weirdest theatrical event I have attended. The audience was a narrow demographic of 25-45 year olds who look like they love a good board game. They were extremely attentive and orderly and laughed and yelled louder than any crowd I have ever experienced. The show itself was hilarious, and I enjoyed that the intro was "Sawbones," a podcast I used to listen to.

Later that weekend we saw an anime film, Mirai. Jack came along for his first subtitled movie in the theater. It was a really touching, beautiful film. Highly recommend it. We also treated the Walkers to good pizza, because their town in Idaho is strangely devoid of such delicacies.

It's always a real treat to see our friends! A wonderful addition to our holiday season.

It's going exactly as we thought it would. Nimbus loves the tree. The kids love Nimbus in the tree.