Holiday Tea(ish) at the Walnut Room

This year was my sixth annual holiday tea with Mom and Carol. We rotate each year--whoever picks, pays!--and it was Mom's turn to pick this year. She picked the Walnut Room at Macy's on State Street. The tree is always very beautiful and I've softened the chip on my shoulder from the Marshall Field's situation enough to enjoy going to the Walnut Room again.

The reason the tea was an (ish) this year was that we found out, once we got seated, that they don't offer tea service during the holidays! Oops, who knew?! So we had a late lunch and ordered fancy tea-alternative nogs and ciders. Of course the fantastic company made up for missing the tea and traditional three tiers of finger sandwiches and treats.

Holiday-ing: Thanksgiving, Lion-wreathing, and Decorating

We had a terrific Thanksgiving weekend last month, keeping with some of our favorite holiday traditions.

Thanksgiving at Our House
We had a great group of some of our favorite people at our house for Thanksgiving again this year: my parents, Matt's parents, my Grandma, Aunt Leila and Grandma's cousin Midge. Mom brought all the yummy pre-meal snacks, Matt cooked everything for the big meal, and John brought his amazing sweet potato and pecan pies. We had a great and relaxing afternoon and evening watching football and eating too much awesome food.



Wreathing of the Lions at the Art Institute of Chicago
The morning after Thanksgiving we got up early and headed downtown to see the Art Institute Lions receive their wreaths. This year's wreaths are made of individual bubbles that hold wishes for the world, as written by Chicago schoolchildren.






Of course I had to get my annual snuggle from Artie. . .


After the wreathing, we headed in and saw a new stairway installation that had been installed in September. The words are from a speech about religious tolerance that was originally given on the Art Institute site on September 11, 1893.
We also went to see a few old favorites, including the Chagall windows, which had just been reinstalled after several years in storage. They had to be relocated when the Art Institue built the Modern Wing, and now they are the stars of their new home. Gorgeous!



Trimming our Home
Over the weekend, we also got our Christmas tree up, much to the delight of Harper (curious, subdued, respectful) and Ollie (fearless, mischevious, destructive). We also were excited to put up an ornament we received from Carol and John at Christmas 2009, as it perfectly commemorates everything that was done to our house this year, from work on the roof to painting the outside white with red trim! Getting our house painted was a gift from Carol and John, so it was a perfect full-circle moment! Thank you, Mom and Dad Knoepke!!!

A Correction: STAR WARS CHARACTER MIS-IDENTIFIED!!!

I wrote a post a few weeks back about fun at the Hot Chocolate 5K run and some adventures downtown afterwards with Matt, Mom and my cousin Ryan. I talked to Ryan today, who let me know that I had--for shame!--mis-identified R2D2 as C3PO. I remember being unsure and I went with the wrong robot! So, in the picture below, please note that Ryan is hanging with R2D2, not his droid companion, C3PO.