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.  

  I've been going with Nat and her family to cut down Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving for 15 years.  And in that time, we've gone to a place down in Wilmington called Tammen Treeberry Farm.  When we moved into our house in Downers, Nat decided to have two trees inside.  One smaller one for the front room and a larger one for our family room.  That worked fine in theory.  But, what we found down at Tammen Tree farm was that they had a good selection of small and medium-sized trees.  However, they lacked in what I'd call "larger" trees.   That meant that last year, we called an audible and ONLY bought one tree down at Tammen.  We ended up buying the second - "larger" tree that was pre-cut from Wannemaker's in town here .  And with that decision, we paid *double* what they were charging down at Tammen, but we had a really lovely tree.   This year, Nat's folks decided to try something new.  A trip to a whole new tree farm - one up in Wisco

There are plenty of Christmas traditions that we participate in (trains, advent calendars, elfs, tree day, Walnut Room, etc), but there's also a beer tradition that I've grown to look forward to:  the opening of the annual Anchor Steam Christmas Ale as done by my brother-in-laws in Naperville. I've chronicled this in the past here on the blog.  Here's a post from last year's version .  Here's the 2015 version .  And here's a post from 2010 with that year's bottle .  And based on those posts, I've been drinking a little bit of this stuff for 10 years now, despite this only being the fourth version that I've documented on the blog here. As for this year's brew, they once again picked a unique tree for the label.  From the Anchor Steam site : This year’s tree is the Santa Lucia fir. Extremely rare, it is native and limited to California’s Santa Lucia Range along the central coast of California. They bought some smaller bottles like nor

Back late last year, we had dinner at Raglan Road in Disney Springs and it.was.awesome. We were down there with Nat's folks and they really love a good Irish pub.  They seek them out when they're traveling.  Because we're always eager to try new things on our Disney trips, it seemed perfect to head there and give this place a try.  I had ZERO expectations.  And was totally blown away. They had live entertainment and some incredible dancing on a few different stages.  And there's customer participation.  They invited some kids to go up on stage and if you know my kids, you know that the two girls are sooooo different.  One is bashful and very deliberate.  The other is up for just about anything. So, without much encouragement, up the Bird went on stage.  And she danced!  She was the youngest of all the participants, but that didn't stop her.  Afterwards, she got a few stickers and this sweet certificate recognizing her for dancing with the crew. Oh, and

Earlier this fall, I stopped at a yard sale up in Twin Lakes and saw this Santa on the table with an asking price of $0.25.  Couldn't pass him up.  Mostly because I liked him, but also because I thought - at the time - that he looked just like a Santa that sits on my inlaws counter in their kitchen at Christmastime.  There's a story involved, but I believe that the Santa in question (the one on the counter in Naperville) is from Nat's Dad's childhood.  So, it is loved. This one, looked just like it.  But had better paint.  I brought it back and figured there was no better home than with Nat's parents.  I mean...it was just a quarter, so if it got thrown out, that's not the end of the world.  But, they loved it!  And confirmed that it *is* the exact same one they have at home from Granddad's childhood. I've looked around and you can see on eBay that the mug that he's holding in his hand holds a bulb in some cases.  Not sure, exactly, how that w

Earlier this year, I came across this story in Full-Service Restaurant Magazine (yes...I occasionally read pizza trade outlets!) that spoke about how Sanfratello's was expanding in the Chicago area .  What struck me was that that this place that calls themselves the 'original Southside pizza' was crowing about how they were expanding to the 'Northside'.  The problem?  The new location is in Naperville.  Not *exactly* what I'd call the 'Northside', right?  Anyway...from the story: Sanfratello's Pizza, Chicago's original Southside pizza since 1969, announces its first north side location. The fifth location is company-owned and is celebrating its grand opening on March 30 at 1299 S. Naper Blvd. in Naperville. To celebrate the company's venture to the north, Sanfratello's is giving away two styles of Southside pizza—tavern style thin crust and pan. From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on March 30, all carryout guests will receive a free small cheese t

...And thanks for all the fish. And - frankly - for the hospitality for my family on and off over the past few weeks.  We're glad to get resettled, but I'll admit, I'm a bit sad about leaving this place. At our current place, we rarely walk Maisy, rather, we just let her out into the back yard to 'do her business'.  But on Hamilton Lane, I put her on a leash and walked her down the block a few times a day.  And the best time was always at night when it was quiet and we could take in the lights of the neighborhood. Thanks to the Inn Keepers at Hamilton Lane for welcoming my nomadic tribe with welcome arms.

We couldn't have had a better time over the weekend at Ravinia for David Byrne.  We went up there with Nat's family and if every trip to Ravinia was like this one, I would LOVE going there to see shows.   We parked right near the main gate (we didn't arrive to a bit after six pm, so we weren't super early birds), the weather was just right (not too hot), there wasn't an opener (David Byrne went on really close to 7:30) and he didn't play forever (we were home by 10:30). From the looks of the place, I wasn't the only one enjoying myself.  There were more people standing up to dance at this show than most of the other ones I've been too.  I guess the CSO doesn't give you much to dance too (and the susher's wouldn't have it anyway, right?!). I took this photo above (click on it to get the full feel) and while it is doing some weird things (like cutting Ryan's head off - guy in red in foreground), it gives you a feel for the night. Lo