Chicago and Christkindlmarket

Cindy and I rode with Andy to work today so we could shop downtown and go to the Christkindlmarket.

Our first stop was Old Navy where I found a pair of cute flats. Cindy was looking for a holiday T-shirt that they didn't have in stock ... or in stock at any area store. Next we went to Macy's, where we learned the elevators are as slow as the clerks. Look at that trendy black tree.

I'm a little obsessed by this red one. Cindy bought two boxes of replica Shiny Brite ornaments, regularly $32 a box and got them on sale for about $10 each. Of course, they weren't ringing up for the sale price so I had to walk over to the display with the clerk and show her the 70 percent off sign.

We had to wait in line until the Christkindlmarket opened at 11 a.m. Andy's office is in the black building on the left. We could see a sliver of the market tents from his office window.

Happy to get a pretzel ... and it was very fresh.

Enjoying our gluhwein. The matching hats were not planned.

So many cute booths.

Lots of clocks.

And my favorite booth - the paper stars. If I could have thought of a place to hang it I would have come home with a green star.

After lunch we went to Millennium Park.

Cindy got to see the Bean (and touch it).

Perfect day to be downtown.

So pretty.

We went back to the Christkindlmarket where we refilled our mugs with gluhlwein. Cindy bought a delicious cherry strudel.

We went to Andy's office to rest until he was done with work. Here she is with her Garrett's popcorn. She also bought two kinds of coated cashews at the market. I joked that she's eating her way through Chicago.

We were tired but our day wasn't over. We went to Bedford Falls, also known as FitzGerald's to have dinner and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on the big screen. Andy and I went last year and there were maybe three other couples there.

This year the room was full which made the movie more fun listening to everyone's reaction.

Allison joined us. Julie and Kevin had planned to come in too, but they weren't feeling well.

Afterward, they had a Christmas sing-a-long while we waited for our check.