there’s no place like home for the holidays

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