Why I Oughta...

This marks the second year in a row that we've booked a drive-thru Christmas lights experience.  Last year, we were up in Northbrook to do what - at the time - I thought was a COVID-specific experience of driving through a zig-zag of Christmas lights .  The whole need for social distancing coupled with the stir-crazy-ness of staying home provided a perfect combination to fall in love with the drive-thru light shows.  This year, the group up in Northbrook ( Let it Shine Lightshows ), expanded to put up a show at the Fox Valley Mall parking lot in Naperville/Aurora.  For my oldest's birthday party (Nat's family), we booked some tickets and went out there over the weekend. I don't know if it was the music or the lights or the fact that were were doing this thing again, but I'll tell you that I had a smile on my face the whole time.  Is it out-of-this-world?  No.  Is it a fun way to spend 30 minutes?  Sure is.  

 We have quite a few Christmas traditions in our house.  COVID has caused us to change, drop or modify a bunch of them.  But, it also provided us with some new opportunities.  One of them was this new drive-through light show that took place in the parking lot of Northbrook Mall.  We went right before Christmas to celebrate the Babe's birthday.  It is called the "Let it Shine" lightshow and you can find all the details here on their site .  I don't know if this is a one-year thing (because of COVID), but based on our experience, I'm hoping it isn't.   We really liked it.   We packed a dinner and packed the kids in to the van and went up there.  There is something akin to Disney's Fast Pass that you can buy to get a shortcut in the line.  But, we didn't wait that long.  Maybe 15 or 20 minutes of waiting until it was our turn to wind through the light show.  I have to say...I'm not sure that was a terrible thing.   It costs $39.99 per car - which see

For the first time , our blowmold 1 Santa Claus - sitting in his sleigh - has his three blowmold reindeer up and flying up, up and away.   He's in our front yard and all lit up with a brand new set of reins that are made of 30' of rope light from Menards.   I have been trying to think about how to get the reindeer to 'fly' for a number of years.  We didn't even put this set out last Christmas because I was caught in 'planning mode' too long and never got around to getting them to fly.  My initial design called for them to be 'wired up' between the ground and the large Maple tree in our front yard.  I went so far as to install two large metal eyelets directly in the trunk of the tree about 12 feet up in the air.  I was contemplating running some wire (kind of like the wire I used on the espalier system in the back ) from the eyelets down to some sort of grounding mechanism.  My initial thought was to buy one of those spiral metal things that

Yesterday, I posted a long post that covered the incredible Dragon Tree, the Marilyn Monroe movie 'Some Like It Hot' and the upcoming renovations at the Hotel Del Coronado.  Go read that post .  Great.  Now you're back?  Today, I'm posting about another tree at The Del - this tall tree you see above.  It is a really large Norfolk Island Pine tree.  And it sits to the right (as you face the front door of The Del) along a sidewalk that takes you out to Orange Avenue. As you walk by the tree, you'll notice this marker below: It reads: Hotel Del Coronado Christmas Tree Here stands the world's first electrically-lighted outdoor Christmas tree, unveiled at Hotel del Coronado December 24, 1904. I stopped and read the marker and was all like: I don't know why, but this feels like a *wow* moment to me.  The idea of people taking the time to hang lights on trees outdoors for Christmas is so accepted today that it is crazy to consider that there is

The lighting of the trees around City Hall and the County Building happen every Fall and I've been documenting it on my walks to work for the past few years.  Here's the lights going up this year in the photo above.  I took this photo more than a week ago, so despite me posting it on the 26th, they technically started the lighting the trees in mid-October.  Here's the post from 2017 showing the lights going up  on October 27th. In 2016, the lights went up in early October . And in 2015, the lights went up in September . This raises the age-old question about Christmas Creep when it comes to holiday decorations:  Is this genuine Christmas Creep?  Or is it just good planning?  

It's - beginning - to - look - a - lot - like - Christmas....  At least if you walk down Randolph Street outside of the Daley Center.  I took this photo on a recent walk and you can see the guys in the bucket trucks stringing little white twinkle lights on the Ginko trees that are perched in the raised beds right along Randolph.  I covered this same thing the past few years. In 2016, the lights went up in early October . And in 2015, the lights went up in September . So, the trend continues to creep back towards Halloween.    And, I for one, don't consider this Christmas creep.  They don't keep them on once the installation is done.  Let's just count this as flat out good weather planning, right?

It was just a few days ago that I posted about a vintage plastic Menorah that I came across at an Estate Sale in Elmhurst.  But, today, I'm sharing a photo of another ' one that got away '.  This time, it was at a Church Sale on 55th Street where I found an entire box of these three-candle vintage holiday lights.  With those pretty awesome red/orange flame bulbs.  There must have been ten sets of these in the box and it was a 'name your own price' sale.  But, I leaned on my collecting mantra and passed on them.  Feels like we need to go through a Christmas season before we add more decor for our new place. These things would look awesome perched in the windows of an old house, wouldn't they?  I bet they'd cost a fortune to operate in energy costs, but it would be worth it for a few months, right? Oh, and we have SO.MUCH.STUFF.  We (I) have to stop buying things.  The garage is loaded.  The basement...it is LOADED.  Once we sort things, I think we

Last weekend, we braved the crowds and attended Brookfield Zoo's Holiday Magic event that they put on each Christmas season.  And when I say 'crowds', I'm not referring to the crowds in the actual zoo.  Nope.  They're quite manageable. But what isn't usually manageable?  The traffic congestion that accompanies this event at the zoo. I posted about our visit to Holiday Magic ahead of Christmas 2013 here and I believe that we took 2014 off based on that visit.  That time, we drove to the Zoo - which took about 20 minutes.  Then proceeded to sit in our car in traffic just trying to get into the parking lot for more than an hour.  Seriously. This time, however, wasn't as bad.  Maybe because we went in early December?  Or, maybe because Nat's a member and knows about the South Gate?  It still was backed up, but instead of taking 60+ minutes, this time it was more like 20 minutes. We bundled all three kids up (2 in the stroller) and walked around t

We were at Wannamakers in Downers Grove for their Christmas open house over the weekend and while the rest of the crew was waiting in line to see the Big Guy, I took the Bird and the King of the Ball Tossers into the store to wander around the Christmas lights department.  And that's where I came across these National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation LED light sets. If you look at the box, you'll see that they bill them as being 'twice as bright' and have bigger/brighter/more bulbs than normal strands of lights. Kind of interesting licensing at play here and I suppose it is a cute concept, but I wonder if anyone is actually buying these things?  They're more money than comparable sets and it seems like there's very little bragging rights in these once they're out of the box, right? As for the brightness, I think there's some upside there.  We've put big C9 LEDs on our annual Elmhurst Front Yard Christmas tree every year and I always notice

If you look closely at the photo up above, you'll see a boom truck on the right with a guy in the cherry picker installing white Christmas lights on the trees out on the Randolph side of the Daley Center. Turns out, I spotted the exact same thing last year, but they were putting up the lights even earlier?!?  I posted these photos on September 22nd of 2015 .  This year, they're almost three weeks later. Here's a photo that shows more of the lights in the trees. If I recall correctly, they actually turn these lights off for a bit, until we get closer to Thanksgiving.  So, while sure, this is technically Christmas Creep, I still stand by my statement that this is just good planning.    I also kinda love to see it.