Perks. of this week.

Holidays are great.... and even greater when you are a student, or in my case the employee of a professor.  With these circumstances Adam and I were both able to have the whole week off from both work and school. Awesome. So this is what we did.

-my holiday week started a bit early and I flew off to Santa Clara last Thursday to spend a few quick, but great days in Santa Clara.  Cafe Rio, a bit of shopping with Whit and my Mom, admiring how cute and hilarious my niece and nephew are.... with the bulk of my time spend sitting in an office chair at meetings.  Def. worth the trip, every bit of it.
-my Dad hit the ripe age of 55. He's old isn't he?  Hope you had a great Birthday Dad... so glad I was there to party with you.

-made the 3 1/2 hour trip to Chicago and walked the streets for a good many miles. we had all intentions of doing a bit more but with the fog it seemed useless to go on an architectural cruise, or go to the top of the Willis tower(formally known as the Sears Tower) because our view was pretty much a blur of white fog(those will have to be for our next trip come spring or summer time)......

We still had a great time exploring the city. Our hotel was right downtown so we were still able to *hangout at Navy Pier.

That is Navy Pier in the background.

*and Millenium Park - - the famous bean - - sorry the pics are so dark.

*ate way too many calories at Giordano's Famous Chicago Stuffed Pizza. Pretty sure my 2 slices were a good 3,000+++ calories. It's a good thing we walked for a good many miles around the city to compensate for a few hundred of those calories.  Def. delicious, Def. cheesy.

*Walked the Magnificent Mile... admired some of the cool architecture of the city while enjoying the holiday lights and shops along the way.

*found the RedBox that was .25 miles from our hotel after walking for a good 45 minutes trying to find the place.  

*attended the Chicago Temple.

*and it happened that our hotel was right across from this.

The 50th Anniversary McDonalds. 24,000 sq. feet, 23 plasma TVs, Designer furniture, double drive-thru, life size beatles statue, a 1959 Chevy convertible, 2 escalators, 1 elevator, and 1 grand staircase. I could go on and on about the features so instead Click here to read how extensive and high class this place really was.

we had a great time in Chicago.... and will no doubt make a return trip soon.  

-Had my first Iowa Thanksgiving.  Thanks to Adam's great Aunt and Uncle (plus a handful of cousins).... we were able to have a great thanksgiving feast.... and yes my homemade rolls were a success.
I'd say the week spent holidaying it up was well worth it.  Next on my list.....  Christmas decorations, and more importantly I better get writing my talk for Church tomorrow.  Once a procrastinator always a procrastinator.

Hope all your Thanksgivings were just as great as ours and wish you an early start of the Merry Christmas season!