The Day Santa Claus Came To Town

Hey Blogstalkers!  It's finally the day for which you either have or have not been waiting with bated breath!  The day you maybe have been anticipating with a pounding heart!

Yesterday was unimaginably wonderful.  Like the second best day of my entire life.  (I have to say second best day because of an argument I once had with Ryan in which he purported that I throw the phrase "best day of my life" around with much too willy nilly of an attitude.  In his defense this argument may have taken place in the middle of bakery after I took a bite of an especially delicious chocolate cupcake.  In my defense, the cupcake had two kinds of sprinkles.)

In case you do not remember what yesterday was, let me refresh your memory with this post.

A promise my husband PRETENDS to bitterly regret.

Ok back?  Lovely.  So yesterday was the day Ryan and I and our dearest friends in the world got all dressed up and wandered the busy Chicago streets dispensing holiday cheer.

The morning started like any other - with Ryan and I arguing in bed about who had to take the dogs outside in the frigid morning air.  And then a Christmas miracle occurred and the doorbell rang and it was OJ!  All the way from warm sunny Dallas!  And HE took the dogs out!  And then he and the dogs came and got into our bed and all five of us fell back asleep for two hours.  I don't know why I allowed this to happen.  I have a strict no dogs in the bed policy.

Anyway, eventually we all woke up and I sadly noticed that it was raining.  And I was like "It is almost literally raining on my parade right now!" And OJ and I moped about for a bit and cried tears of sadness.  And Ryan researched the best place in Chicago to get chilaquiles.

But then the rain slowed and the forecast changed and it looked like it was going to clear up for us after all.  And OJ and I sang a Christmas duet.  And Ryan cried tears of what I can only assume were joy.

Soon Vanessa jetted over and we blasted Christmas music and all got ready for the big day.  And we made a plan.  We would take a cab to the very North end of Michigan Avenue and make our way South to Millennium Park and The Bean and then head to the Christkindlmarket in Daly Plaza.  Everyone was very much on board with this plan because this was how we figured we would run into the largest amount of people.  Everyone except Ryan of course.  His suggested route contained a curiously large amount of back alleys and bathroom breaks at bars along the way because, and I quote, "I drank a lot of water this morning."

(Just a quick note - the package of costumes I bought was supposed to come with a Santa beard but did not and it was too late to order another one and though I tried both Target and Michaels, sadly Ryan ended up beardless.  Also my costume was quite large and I ended up having to stuff it with pillows and paper towels to get it to fit, which is why I look so intensely pregnant.  I LOVED it.)

So on with the pictures then.

Vanessa was Jovie from the movie Elf.

See? Not lying about the pregnant thing.

OJ's costume did not fit over his broad man shoulders in the back.  He still stole the show.  Seriously.

People could not get enough of Gingy The Gingerbread Man.  Sure the costume was awesome but OJ's gingerbread man persona was ridiculous.  For example.

He talked in that high-pitched voice all day.  He never ever broke character.  He jumped around and shouted "Hello!" and stopped random people and asked them "Do you know the muffin man?"  One guy was like "Oh yeah, the muffin man, he lives on Drury Lane."  Also, once a little boy came up and asked him "What are you?" and OJ replied shrilly "I'm a gingerbread man, what are you?"

He was also quite the flirt.

He asked these girls, "So, are you all from Chicago?"

And these girls got "Who wants to kiss the gingerbread man!?"

Just to put this in a little bit better perspective, this is the voice he was using.

This guy wanted a picture of himself eating OJ.  And sure enough OJ shouted "Not the gumdrop buttons!"

So anyway we walked down Michigan Avenue and got SO MUCH ATTENTION.  We were all guessing last night and think we probably took pictures with well over 300-400 people.  Once we got to The Bean, we had a line for a good hour.  It was the most fun ever ever ever.

OJ and Vanessa had a jumping contest at the bean.  I'll let you decide who won.

Even Ryan got into the spirit of the day!

Seriously...we took SO MANY pictures.

 We were out from just before two until about six and decided it was time to head to the Christkindlmarket to spread more cheer and also because they serve beer.

Again a line formed near the giant tree and we took pictures for about another hour.  My face started to hurt from smiling all day.  But I couldn't stop smiling.

 Ryan is not drunk on anything but love in this picture.  Though his countenance would suggest otherwise.

Oh did I mention that OJ randomly photobombed any pictures he saw strangers taking all day?  Because he did that.

I told you he stole the show.

There is a 'real' Santa to take pictures with at the Christkindlmarket and OJ was SO EXCITED to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas.  (Which - in case anyone is wondering- is a Mrs. OJ and to pet a chinchilla because he hears they are very soft.)

But then he saw this sign.

I have the best friends ever.

 As far as best husband ever, that is under review.  Because once we finally got inside the beer tent, Ryan revealed what he was wearing under his jolly St. Nick costume.

 Soon it was after seven and time to head home since we had dinner plans with friends who were also eager to see OJ while he was in town.  We met them at our little neighborhood pub.

Yes we did stay in character the entire night.  From our head to our toes.

We had so much fun that we decided that we're making this an annual thing.  And next year we have about twenty more friends that are ready to get onboard.  It's going to be epic-er.

So what do you think?  Did we follow-through on our promise?  Vanessa was seriously surprised herself at how much fun we had.  She said, "I thought this was going to be pure humiliation but there was actually some joy mixed in.  I wasn't going to tell anyone at work about this but now I think I might."

Lots of love and holiday cheer Blogstalkers!!

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