Good morning! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and were able to spend the day with your friends and family. We had a great time with Kevin’s family!
THURSDAY | I spent the morning in my pajamas watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which is one of my favorite things to do. I was asked to bring a dessert to Thanksgiving so I made a Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle recipe that I found online and it turned out great!
We watched the Bears game and then headed over to Kevin’s aunt and uncle’s house for dinner. We ate a fabulous meal and then spent the rest of the evening playing board games which was a highlight for me because I love games!
On our way home we stopped in Target just to see how crazy it was and apparently the Mercedes Power Wheels is a hot item because while we were there one customer stole one out of another customer’s cart and the Target employees had to get involved, ha! Oh Black Friday!
FRIDAY | We decided to head out for the day and do a little Christmas shopping. We made a couple of stops and picked up a few gifts before calling it quits. We had a late lunch at Standard Market Grill where I had a delicious BBQ Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries.
After lunch we headed back home and on our way we spotted the CTA Holiday Train at our stop. Every year the CTA decorates the ‘El’ trains with lights and the employees dress up like Santa and his elves and hand out candy canes to the riders. It’s a fun tradition in the city!
Once we got home we got out our Christmas tree and other decorations from storage and started decorating the house while watching Christmas With the Kranks that evening. I’m still working on a top for our tree. The bow I made several years ago has seen better days…
SATURDAY | Kevin and I had dentist appointments to go to first thing in the morning. Afterwards we went to lunch at Vito and Nick’s which is supposed to be the best thin crust pizza in Chicago. The pizzeria is a cash only dive (it was actually featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) but I had high expectations after all of the rave reviews I’ve heard. Unfortunately, Kevin and I were not impressed with their pizza at all. Neither of us thought it had much flavor and was just kind of blah. Sad day!
After our disappointing lunch we got on with the rest of our day which was much improved! It was a beautiful day out so we drove down to Hyde Park and took our Christmas card pictures outside. Gotta love the tripod! Afterwards we walked over to the Museum of Science and Industry for their Christmas Around the World exhibit. Each year the museum displays Christmas trees with decorations that reflects different countries’ culture and holiday traditions. Right now the museum also has Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives so they also had a Disney tree on display!
My favorite tree was the Belgian waffle tree!
After we were done exploring the museum we headed downtown to see Gone Girl. I thought the movie did a great job following the book. Our movie viewing experience was extra enjoyable thanks to the new reclining leather seats at the theatre!
After the movie was over we were pretty hungry so we went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner – Sunda. We walked in without a reservation and were seated at the sushi bar which was fun! We ordered some sushi and pad thai but the star of dinner was the crispy brussels sprouts salad! One of my favorite dishes I have eaten to date!
We ended the night with some fro-yo from Yogurtland. Thanks to Sara I knew about their holiday flavors and they did not disappoint! I loved the Cinnamon Graham Cracker and Cookie Butter flavors!
SUNDAY | We started our morning at church and then had brunch at Little Goat Diner. Kevin had the corned beef hash and I ordered a single pancake, which was so huge I couldn’t even eat all of it, with a side of cheesy grits.
After brunch we came home and I spent the rest of the day doing some much overdue cleaning while Kevin did some reading for class.
We had a fantastic extended weekend and Thanksgiving holiday!
How was your holiday? What was your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Sara @ Lake Shore Runner says
So glad I could help with the Yogurtland! Isn’t the graham cracker sooooo good?! I could go for some right now
Paige says
The graham cracker flavor was AMAZING!! I wanted to a whole cup of that by itself! Thanks again for the recommendation!
xo Paige
Emily @SinfulNutrition says
That train is so cool! The children’s hospital I used to work at had a great big display of Christmas trees all over much like that. LOVE the waffle one, too!
Paige says
How fun! I bet the kids loved seeing all of the trees each year! 🙂
xo Paige