This is my favourite tree, yesterday at 4:30pm

The same tree again today, at 4:30pm

Winter has arrived in Chicago!

The Chicago Blizzard of 2011 started off kinda rough yesterday

The snow I could handle

But they had closed ALL THE FUCKING STARBUCKS in my area

I hyperventilated and I sulked

I was pretty sure I’d never smile again

But because I’m a trooper

And full of awesomeness-icity

We grabbed the girls & their sled discs

And headed over to the neighbours

Where they have a great little hill behind their house

The perfect place for a virgin sledder like me to lose her cherry

And Diamond, being the romantic boof-head that he is not

Offered to help break me in

Awwwww!

It soon became obvious that ‘breaking me in’ was Diamond-speak

For thrashing my arse all the way down the hill

And giving me a lesson in how a ‘local kid’ does it

After some trash-talking on his part

“…you are going DOWN TO CHINATOWN BIATCH!”

And,”…I’ve been sledding my whole life lady…prepare to DIE!”

Nice, huh?

We were off!

And woops, I think Diamond mighta tripped on his big fucking mouth at the starting gate

In an effort to be more aerodynamic

I tried to keep my mouth shut for a change

But once Diamond started with the ‘monster-stack-arse-over-tit-tumbling’ display

I just couldn’t contain myself

Hot Damn it felt good to kick his arse

And to laugh again

So Starbucks, you are forgiven

And Diamond, you lose

SUCKA!!

*thanks to DAN for the great action shots!

Yesterday Magoo and I were playing outside

There was a few inches of snow to run around in

We were both looking forward to the impending blizzard last night

Just to see how much more snow we’d actually get

And because we’re both really technomological and science-y

And totally not weird at all

*ahem*

We decided to conduct an experiment

Using Ariel, the Little Mermaid

Nude

We stuck her outside our front windows in all her glory

Nekkid

FYI – none Magoo’s dolls have clothes

We chose Ariel because she was the only doll in Magoo’s collection that still has arms and legs

Then we went back inside

To take photos of her through the window as the snow fell

She started to look pretty cold out there

Especially once the snowage started stacking up on her beehive

This was after about half an hour

This was this morning from the front window

Woops – we lost her

The view from our back window was even worse

So the girls got bundled up and headed out on their rescue mission straight after brekky

They were digging for nearly 15 minutes

Then they hit paydirt

Or red hair

Either way, they were happy

There was so much snow to get through

And Macaroni insisted that Magoo pull Ariel out gently

So she didn’t hurt her

So Magoo kindly informed her sister that Ariel was probably already dead

She’s subtle like that

Jackpot!

They got her out

And Magoo said, “…she’s AWIVE!”

If you don’t count the fact that her nipples seem to have fallen off

She seemed OK

Anyhoo

Happy to report she’s now dried off

Warmed up

And inside

Doing rude things with a chipmunk under a blanket

Warning: Cheesy Christmas Stuff!

Diamond & I took the girls downtown yesterday on the train

There was major snow coming in

So we thought it’d be better than driving

Plus, we all love the shit out of the train

Downtown was C-O-L-D

The girls didn’t know what had hit ‘em

The whining started as soon as we got there

Seriously, the AUSTRALIAN (yeah, that’s me) was FINE

Like, didn’t whinge about the cold AT ALL

Pussies

Can I say ‘pussies’ in a family feel good post?

‘Course I can

PUSSIES

The big Macy’s department store is a popular place to go at Christmas time

The window decorations are amazing

No pics of them though

Everyone was TOOOOO C-O-O-OLD to walk around the outside of the store & check them out

So we went straight in to Santa’s village

Where we waited a little while

But his elves there told us that it would be at least an hour wait

So the girls decided that they’d already seen (the real) Santa this year

Below is the real Santa – according to Macaroni & Magoo

And had a video message from him too

So they were happy to head to the Walnut Room

With their Macy’s Smurfs

We were told that there was at least an hour-long wait to eat there too

But for some reason

Probably because I’m so ridiculously good looking

Or ’cause Diamond slipped them a twenty

We got in straight away

How cool is their tree?

Light up crystals make it look so beautiful

Best part?

The Walnut Room has it’s own FAIRY!

Worst part?

Apparently the FAIRY had PMS and couldn’t be persuaded to come to our table

Hmmm?

Anyhoo

As with all life’s crisis’

The solution is always FOOD!

And these  snowman deserts made the girls forget about the rude fairy

And I’m confident that the dagger-glare-from-hell I gave her

Will haunt her dreams forever

Cow

Back to our happy place…

Let’s carry on shall we?

Next stop, we headed over to Daley Plaza

Where they have an outdoor Christmas market

And the biggest decorated Christmas tree in Chicago

That’s when the snow started

We took refuge in some of the little shops

But mostly, we stayed out in it

And enjoyed it

With the help of some hot chocolate

And a carriage ride around the city

Then it was back to Union Station

With time to spare

So we checked out some of their Chrissy decorations too

By the time we got off at our stop

We were in some S-N-O-W

Which meant Diamond had some shoveling to do when we got back to the house

While the girls & I made a snowman

This is Mum & Dad’s view in Australia, this time of year

And this is mine

There really is no place like HOME for the holidays

My home is wherever my family is

Australia or Chicago – doesn’t matter to me

But I’m probably bipolar