Why I Oughta...

The Sun-Times website might be a mess and besides Neil Steinberg there might not be tons of reasons to read the paper (We used to subscribe and I read it everyday.  Now?  I read Steinberg's column and his blog and then find a S-T article or two via Twitter on occasion.), but they are still doing something really well:   their "Letters to Santa" program . You can go find out about the program and even request a letter here on their Season of Sharing site . I'm not totally confident that we've done it EVERY year for the past five years, but I have a post about the program back in 2010 here , and I know we've done it more than once, so I'm thinking we've done it 3 or 4 times since 2010. This year, Nat requested four letters.  One for her.  One for me.  One for each of the girls.  We went to Target and took the letters to pick out some gifts for our kids. That's my letter above from Zaykwon.  Action figures, video games and books.  The vide

After reading about the hub-bub over this Macy's mistake over on Rachelle's blog , I had to go see it for myself.  My photo isn't the best angle of this thing, so if you want to see a straight-on-shot, check out this photo to see the full thing for yourself .   What you're seeing there is some iconic Chicago buildings (Hancock, Sears, Crain) all wedged into what is definitely Manhattan Island with the NYC Thanksgiving Parade running right down the middle.   Rachelle Bowden has some close-up photos of this mess here .   To be fair...the windows this year are just flat.out.awesome.  Really beautiful to look at and a really fun story.  But why did they have to put Chicago on an island?!? This is *some* bullshit, right?   This thread on Reddit does a good job of covering the issues .  Just corporate deafness.  Oh, Marshall Fields...what could have been... Chicagoist got a response from Macy's where they are saying that this isn't a hand-me-down fr

Earlier this fall, we went to MOD Pizza right on St. Charles Road in Elmhurst as it was the first of the 'fast' pizza places that had opened around here.   I posted about the experience here on the blog .  I really liked it and would recommend trying both the pizzas and the salads.  Right across the street - and I mean *RIGHT.ACROSS.THE.STREET* is another of the pizza joints called Pie Five Pizza Co. Earlier this week, after a bit of Christmas shopping, we took the kids to try Pie Five.  The girls ordered kids pizzas (one had pepperoni and the other had bacon), while Nat had one of their pre-made combos (a Tuscan-something with sun-dried tomatoes) and I created my own (sausage/pepperoni/peppers).  I also ordered a salad.  But, unlike MOD Pizza, the salad selections are pre-made.  Meaning, you get either a garden salad (with pre-set ingredients) or an Italian (with pre-set ingredients) or a Caesar (with the normal Caesar stuff). The place is HUGE.  Like 40 tables huge.  W

Under three weeks until the Big Guy flies around on his sled and the watchful folks over at NORAD have kicked-off their countdown to the day .  This year marks the 60th year. Back when I was at Google, the company was involved with NORAD and powered the maps and other parts of the program, but it looks like NORAD has gone with (gasp!) Microsoft and Bing!   And Google has gone off and set up their very own Santa Tracker (more on that in a different post).   This is one (of many!) little traditions that makes the holidays great with kids.  Each year, I hand the Babe and the Bird my phone for a bit and have them track Santa with NORAD.  

There's a nice sign up on the east side of the market explaining what the big giant light-up "A" is all about. It isn't....for the "Roll Tide" folks.  It is for the Atheists and agnostics and it's aim is to 'encourage the non-religious to come out of the closet, eradicate the negative stereotypes of non-believers, promote rational thinking over superstition' and more.  Good luck with that.   There's nothing quite like the so-called "War on Christmas" that gets a certain slice of the population up in arms.  Well...there are other things like marriage equality and other things that happen inside people's bedrooms.  But...let's just agree that the same folks who consider this an 'assault' on Christmas are likely the same folks who consider marriage equality an 'assault' on marriage. Sadly...there's no aluminum pole for the Festivus celebrants.  Guess those folks are too busy prepping for the 'air

On the side marquee of the York Theatre in Downtown Elmhurst, they're advertising a special showing of a movie called "Hat Trick" that covers the Blackhawks championship run.  The movie is being shown this Saturday (December 5th) at 10 am.  Doors open at the York Theatre at 9 am. Here's the listing on the York's site .  Details: The Blackhawks’ full-length Stanley Cup Championship movie Hat Trick is coming to the York Theatre on Saturday, December 5 at 10:00 AM. Admission is $5 and ticket proceeds benefit Chicago Blackhawks Charities and Variety Club of Illinois.  Showings may include appearances by Blackhawks Ambassadors and the Blackhawks Street Team. Plus, the Blackhawks Store retail truck will be on hand so you can take home your very own copy of "Hat Trick". Sounds like a nice little event.  Ambassadors "may" appear?  Let's hope they do!

The plaza in the Elmhurst City Centre is all dressed up for Christmas with a big tree and a bunch of polar bears in the fountain. I took this photo on my way to the train this morning. I'm wondering...is this *the* tree for the City now?  We've gone to a tree lighting down by the Police Station on First Street in years past where the City had their official tree.  But...is this the tree they're going to light now?  Or still have that one down by the Police Station? That's one thing that the City Centre really lacks:  a real gathering place.  Would be nice to have a sizeable place - like a park of some sort - that is in the downtown.  I know...we have Wilder Park just a few blocks away, but that's NOT in the City Centre.

There goes my perfect five star Uber rating. We used a few Ubers to get around Walt Disney World earlier this month (to Disney Springs and inter-hotel transportation) and one of those drivers knocked me down from my five star perch and I think I know the trip.  The Boy was wailing away in the back seat.  The Bird was talking like crazy and there was a bit of traffic, so the trip took longer than normal.  

This is the ONLY way to fly, amirite?  Check out The Bird all dolled up in her Princess Anna dress rocking a big pair of can headphones watching Paw Patrol on her tablet.  We were lucky it wasn't a full flight and we got to spread out a bit.  We were, however, in the very last row, so there was the constant bathroom traffic to contend with all flight.  Still...a happy and content Bird makes for a very stress-free flight.

Over the past week, the folks at our Menards in Melrose Park put up even more Lemax Christmas Village structures including this East Lake Station.  The side facing us in the photo is the 'track side' as indicated by the elevated platform in front.  There's a sign laying on the platform for the Freight Office that probably goes in the roofline somewhere, but the person setting this up either forgot or couldn't figure it out.  This building is a bit nicer than some of the other Lemax structures Menards is carrying and would look good in Mantleburg.  Alas...it wasn't meant to be.  The Mayor of Mantleburg says that the town isn't quite ready to be a railroad town.

Of all the Disney pins that The Babe and The Bird picked off cast member lanyards on our most recent trip, the *best* one of the bunch just has to be this Minnie Mouse as Mary Poppins beauty.  I don't remember where exactly we traded for this one, but it came on our last few days there, so it was somewhere in the Magic Kingdom or over at Disney Springs. She'll go nicely in The Babe's collection and I think...this might be our first Mary Poppins pin ever?

This post is making it 11 years that we've rung in Thanksgiving with The Band's "The Last Waltz" here on the blog.  There have been years where we've done the Turkey Trot.  Years where we've split time between my folks house in Frankfort and Nat's folks place in Naperville.  Some years where the Bears play on Thanksgiving (like tonight!).  But...one thing has remained persistent:  The Band. Here's the post from last year . And here's the rest of the posts that I can turn up on the topic: Here's my post from 2013 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2012 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2011 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2010 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2007 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2005 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2004 on The Last Waltz . Van the Man is this year's feature on "Why I Oughta".  Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

As I was cleaning out the garage recently, I came across a few garage sale 'treasures' that I picked up over the past year.  This Santa Train was one of them.  It has Santa on the locomotive and one car behind him attached via a small chain.  That car has another chain coming off the back of it, so I'm assuming that there was another car attached at some point, but it wasn't there when I picked this guy up.  We're not in our hold house this Christmas, so I'm not exactly sure where he'll go, but for now, he's on top of the tv console in the family room.  I'll have to keep my eyes open for the caboose - which we all know will be basically impossible to find.  I guess that's why I'm up for the challenge.

Earlier this month, I posted the little project I created about listening to Christmas music .  Well...good news for *some* of you:   there's an update .  Thanksgiving week is here, so rejoice fellow Christmas music people:  You no longer have to feel shame. Go ahead.  Play the Bing.  Feel no shame. http://www.canilistentochristmasmusic.com/

This is the view I walked in to at the office this am.  You'll see that there's plenty of snow covering Maggie Daley park on the left side, but the city crews have cleaned up the bean pretty well.  Also, as a bonus, you can barely.make.out the new City of Chicago Christmas Tree in very bottom right.  See the oval-ish ice rink on the right side next to The Bean?  Just below that is a planter with the new tree stuck in the middle of it.  If you click on the photo above, it should blow up bigger and you can make it out. Here's what this same spot looked like back on Halloween .  Much different feel, isn't it?

This morning, we hit up the local Menards to look over their Christmas stuff and I was surprised that A LOT of it was already gone.  Totally picked over.  Like...almost ALL of the inflatables were gone.  And most of the blowmolds.  I guess that's what happens when you put it out in October? But, there were a bunch of different of these Tinsel-y cloth decorations.  This one above is a pretty cute Santa.  He's 110 bucks, though!  So, he didn't end up in our cart.  This seems to be an emerging place of compromise in the great Christmas decorations battle.  Not as crazy as a huge inflatable but a little bit of personality.  The prices on these things will likely come down in the next few years like they've done on inflatables and when it does?  We'll pounce!

A few weekends back, I packed up The Bird and The Gooz and my dad in the van and we went out to the Wheaton Fairgrounds for the Great Midwest Train Show .  This is the second time we've gone to the show (last year, I went with my dad) and it was a lot of fun.   I picked up a few things for me, my kids and my nephew, but by far, the best purchase was this really cute vintage metal tunnel.  It was being sold by a guy who had HO scale stuff and had this over on the edge of his table.  He was asking $10 for it and I got it for $5.  Pretty great deal, if you ask me!  I think he was happy to get rid of it.  I was happy to get it! It has some really great scenes on both sides of it.  And it is like a foot-long. Our layout has never been 'realistic', so I think adding something like this adds a bit of whimsy and - frankly - vintage charm that I really like. I think, tragically, we're not going to be putting up the kids' train this year because we're in Equa

Every time we've gone to the Parks, I've always worn the same thing on my head:  A Late Show hat.  Earlier this year, I upgraded to this old-school-cool original Disney World logo hat.  I've put it through it's paces a few times already, but it is now time to put it into short-term storage until we check out the place 'Walt built' when it is all dressed up for it's 60th next year.

Well, well, well.  Look what arrived in the mail this week:  the 2015 Christmas catalog from the fine folks up at Duluth Trading.  With the King Arthur catalog already in our house, with this, I can *now* build out my full Christmas "want" list. I mean...who isn't all over henleys and fire house pants from Santa Claus this year, amirite?!?

For the second year in a row, we packed up the kids and took them out to see what is called the "Canyon Trail Cemetery" in a neighborhood in Carol Stream a few days before Halloween. Here's the post from our visit last year . With The Babe and The Bird getting a bit older and more *aware* of things, they started to get a little freaked out by some of the things that jump out!   We picked up a couple of 'kids temp' hot chocolates and watched Hocus Pocus in the van on our way there.  It was a great way to lead up to the big day on Halloween. If you don't know about the Canyon Trail Cemetery, you can check them out here on their Facebook page .  It is a really impressive display put together by a family.  All they ask is for canned food donations for the local food pantry!

Gasp!  Disney artwork has official breached the front door of our house*.  Yep...that right there is a print featuring a couple of DisNerds enjoying the show at the Enchanted Tiki Room while slurping in a Dole Whip.  Seemed too perfect of a fit for us to pass up, right?  This feels a little bit like a move that can't be 'undone'.  Where will the Disney-creep stop in the house? From the little card on the back of the print we find out we're not alone in loving the Tiki Room along with a couple of Dole Whips.   You can find more stuff from Joey at his site here . *I say 'our house' here, but we all know that I mean Equation Boy/Man's house where we're staying until we figure out way out!

The folks over at the Home Depot continue their annual tradition of releasing a dated Home Depot building for your Christmas Village. Here's a post from 2011 that shows that year's version .  The date was in a different spot and they had Santa ringing a bell out front. This year's edition comes with a couple of people lining the sidewalk (one with the - of course - orange apron).  They're pricing it really well at $9.98 (same price as 4 years ago!), but it isn't the best quality made building.  Nevertheless, I'm thinking that getting a building for less than 10 bucks is going to make this thing find plenty of homes in villages around the country.  Mantleburg is more of a Menard's kind of town, though.  So, we'll be without Home Depot for a while.

Here's another of the 2015 Lemax Christmas Village buildings at Menards:  Jackson & Son Grocery store.   Like the Snowflake Theater that I posted last week , this one leaves a little bit in terms of finish and design.  It just kinda seems sloppy and the details aren't very fine in terms of how they're presented.  Too bad, but it seems that either Menards OR Lemax has let down their standards a bit.  This Jackson & Son Grocery store won't be finding a home in Mantleburg.  What will the residents do?  Hold out for a Whole Foods?  Who knows!?!?

Here's another building from Lemax that Menard's is carrying as part of their 2015 Christmas Village set.   Unlike the Snowflake Theatre , this building wasn't displayed on the top shelf so I couldn't tell if it suffered from the same quality issues, but based on the photo on the front of the box, it appears that this is a click up - in terms of product - from some of the others this year.  It has a clear window in the front left that shows the cobbler working in it and it has a nice hanging sign that sticks out from the front above on the left side.  That's a nice touch.  This one was on sale for $31.99, so that also explains the quality improvement.   Alas, the kids shoes in Mantleburg are going to have to continue to deteriorate because the Village Board has decided to not approve the application from the Cobbler to open up shop in Mantleburg.  Maybe another year, Mr. Cobbler.  Maybe another year.