Merry Midwestern Tour

For Christmas this year, in an attempt to spend time with both my family and Jason's, I went jumping from city to frozen city in the perfectly snow covered Midwest after a much awaited first snow from Draco's blizzard. 

After work on Friday, I rushed from Milwaukee to Chicago to join Jason at KPMG's company holiday party.  It was held at The Grand Hall in Union Station.  The decor was spectacular.  Food included a full sushi bar, complete with little take out boxes stuffed with pad thai.  They had another area with comfort food, the lobster mac-n-cheese was outstanding.  The drinks were flowing, but my night was complete when a little ice cream cart with Black Dog Gelato came around handing out sample size gelato.  KPMG went up 100 notches in my book with that detail.

Saturday morning I joined more people than you could imagine at Midway to travel to Minneapolis to see this little girl and the rest of my family.  It was a short trip but so fun to spend time with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and little Ellie who is growing up so fast.

Christmas Eve was spent back in Chicago.  Jason and I hosted both sets of our parents at our condo in the West Loop.  We enjoyed home made chili, wine, and of course a wild game of pictionary followed by yuker.  Both of which we lost at.

Christmas day was spent with Jason's family at his sisters house in the suburbs. It was so fun to see all their family traditions. I forgot to take pictures, but here is one of my new t-shirt curtosy of my lovely fiance.

Merry Christmas to all!!

City Winery Chicago: Mike Doughty

Monday night after work I rushed back to Chicago to catch dinner and a show at City Winery with Jamie.  Not just any show, but my favorite, Mike Doughty.  City Winery opened just down the street from our condo in late August, but this was my first time there.  It is A-MAZE-ING.  It is a huge open space with a giant restaurant, bar and winemakers paradise.  They host wine and beer tasting events and would be a great place for a big group.

What's best about City Winery, is it's concert venue.  Tucked in the back of the restaurant is another large open room lined with tables.  When you buy tickets you buy your assigned seat.   You can order dinner and wine during the show or come early for a full dining experience.  Jamie and I had flatbread, scallops, brussel sprouts and hummus.  All the food was excellent!  (alright, fine, the brussel sprouts were just ok).  We sampled 3 of the house made wines and loved them all.

And of course, the whole reason for being there, Mike Doughty.  This is my fifth time seeing him live.  Probably the most I've seen one artist ever.  I really love his music and I love how seeing him reminds me of when Jay and I first started dating.  Jay introduced me to his music early on and it's safe to say he is one of the few artists we can agree on both loving.




I went on a limb and emailed him.  I really wanted to surprise Jay with an appearance at our wedding during our first dance.  Mike was nice enough to respond immediately with well wishes and get me in touch with his agent.  His agent, also very responsive, and I talked details.  But in the end, let's just leave it as it was outside my budget.  Way outside.  In fact, I feel silly I even thought it was possible.  But it didn't hurt to ask :)  And now I have a cool email from one of my favorite artists!