Thanksgiving 2012

 When we were preparing to move back to MIchigan, one of the things we looked forward to the most was being close to the Winder's again.  Tom's cousin lives only a half an hour away from us, and we liked being able to have some family close again.  When we lived in Michigan the first time, we spent Christmas and other holidays together.  It was a lot of fun.  We looked forward to being able to spend more holidays with them this year.  They invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner.  Tricia's cousin also lives in Ann Arbor and so our three families celebrated together.  The seven kids had a blast playing together and planning a secret performance for the adults.  We had a wonderful dinner. The food was delicious.  After the dinner the kids went outside on the deck and performed a dance to "Girls just want to have fun."  After the performance, we packed up our car and drove to Chicago.  We planned to stay in Arlington Heights which is the suburb we lived in last year. 

  On our first day in Chicago, we got up and headed to a few stores for Black Friday.  We needed to get Sam a winter coat.  It was really cold that weekend and he wasn't prepared to spend time outside.  Afterwards we drove over to Tom's old Bosch office and then to our old apartment.  Ainsley remembered right where we lived.  We headed next door to Mr. A's one of our favorite breakfast restaurants.  Afterwards we decided to go visit Northwestern University.  It is just north of Chicago in the suburb of Evanston.  It is a beautiful campus and right along Lake Michigan.  It was freezing so we didn't walk around much.  But we found the business building and Tom went inside to explore.  Afterwards we drove into the city to hit our favorite restaurants and shop as it was Black Friday. 

We had never seen the Cubs stadium so while we were in the north part of the city, we decided to drive by Wrigley Field.  It would be fun to see a game there one day.  

 Driving into the city from the north, this was a new experience.  It was fun, we passed the famous Drake hotel on our way in. 

 One of our top priorities of the trip was to eat at Xoco, our favorite mexican restaurant in Chicago.  It is owned by PBS tv chef Rick Bayless.  Churros and pork tortas were delicious and well missed.

Our second day in Chicago we went to the Christkindl market. This is a German Christmas market that is held every year in Chicago.  We went last year when we were living in Chicago.  We were sad that we missed the outdoor Christmas markets when we lived in Germany so we wanted to go to the only one in the US.  Christmas markets are big tradition in all the major cities in Germany.  They mostly sell food,  gifts, souvenirs and crafts. There are stalls from Germany, France, Poland, and the US.  We were excited to go to the market to eat some traditional German food again.  We had some wursts, strudel, and and of course pretzels.  It was packed since it had only opened a few days before.  I hit the Kathe Wohlfart Christmas store that I went to in Rothenburg and found our same Christmas pyramid. 

 We had to buy a traditional pretzel because we have missed them so much!  We had a hard time paying $7 for it!  They were as cheap as 35 cents in Germany!  But it was delicious.

 

Tom eating a "kilometer" wurst

 

Ainsley loved wearing her Christkindl crown

 I took a picture of the Christkindl poster so we could remember what the Christkindl angel looks like.  Notice the Christmas fair is also sponsored by BOSCH:)

  

After the Christkindlmarkt, we walked around the city.  We headed up to Michigan Avenue to shop at some of our favorite stores there.  We always go into the Disney store, American Girl store, Lego Store, Eddie Bauer, Hershey store, and Ghiradelli..  At the Disney store, Ainsley and Sam each picked out a souvenir.  Ainsley picked a plush Rapunzel doll and Sam picked a die-cast police car from the Cars movie.  Then we headed over to the American girl store and Lego store and let the kids run around and explore.  After shopping, we walked back up to the river to catch a water taxi. 

 Walking along the river has always been one of our favorite parts of Chicago

 

Waiting for the water taxi

Traditional Tracht

One of my favorite parts of visiting Austria and Bavaria was to see all the traditional clothing that is still worn by the locals.  In Salzburg especially, people wear traditional tracht all the time and there were hundreds of shops selling it.  So when we were in Salzburg the second time, I decided to buy Sam a pair of lederhosen.  I tried to find Ainsley a dirndl but I couldn't find any I loved at a good price.  When we got home ot the states, I felt bad that Ainsley didn't have an outfit to match Sam so I decided to make her a dirndl myself.  A traditional dirndl consists of a blouse, bodice, skirt, and apron.  The placement of the knot on the apron is indicates a woman's marital status.  On the right side means married, left is unmarried, and in the back represents a widow.  Lederhosen worn by the men are leather shorts either knee length or three quarter length.  Some are intricately embroidered.  Traditionally they were actually work clothes as leather was more durable.  But today they are mostly worn for special occasions. 

When we went to take pictures of the kids, Sam was an absolute terror.  He would not cooperate for the camera.  He was afraid of the camera and screamed the whole time.  I would have to hold him and then jump out of the picture as soon as it was time to snap the picture.  As a result, we only got 4 shots of him in his lederhosen.  But even though he isn't smiling in a single one, they turned out pretty cute. 

Ballet

Ainsley finished her first parks session of ballet in the Farmington Hills park and recs department.  She is with about 10 other little girls.  Their teacher, Miss Rachelle has been teaching the names of all the major movements.  Classes are only once a week for 45 minutes, so she looks forward to it all week.  The next session will include a formal recital.  I'm pretty excited to see her perform.