Picture If You Will ...

Christmas in Chicago, Part One

First of all, thank you for the very kind word and wishes. We are both excited about the coming of our first child.

Now, as Sandra already posted about, we made our annual pilgrimage to Downtown Chicago for the Christkindlmarket. It is a traditional German American Holiday Market (although we did see some booths from Nepal, Mexico, and Peru).
This picture is just an example of some of the handmade glass ornaments from Germany.


These are more hand made glass ornaments from Germany. These were a little bit more on the expensive side, but we did purchase a tree topper for our tree that was fairly priced. The craftsmanship was really something to behold.









Of course, what would a German Market be without a brass band playing traditional Christmas Carols? I introduce to you the Glen Sorgatz Brass Band.









These are a display of nesting dolls from Kharkov, Ukraine. There were all sorts of nesting dolls from people to animals.












This is the City Christmas Tree at Daley Plaza. The Tree was surrounded by tons of people taking pictures and waiting in line to get into the Santa House for the traditional seat on Santa's lap. We actually ran into a family of seven while taking pictures; I offered to take a group photo of all of them together. They excitedly accepted and handed me a plethora of digital point and shoots.













Here is a picture of Sandra and our mascot "Oscar the Orca." Besides abusing our credit cards buying ornaments and decorations, we had some potato pancakes with applesauce for a light snack. I had a nice warm cup of Gluwhein (spiced red wine). Unfortunately, they ran out of the little ceramic boots that they would usually serve them in. Oh well, maybe next year. After milling around the market, we went across the street to the Marshall Field's... I mean Macy's and saw the animated windows. This year's theme was Mary Poppins. Unfortunately, it was so crowded that pictures were almost impossible to come by.

Our next stop was a visit to Millennium Park and Cloudgate. Why? You'll just have to wait and see.

posted by Eugene @ 9:05 PM