December in Chi town

Ceci and I spent a long weekend in Chicago during the early part of December.  We had some great food and three great plays. All three plays were put on by our favorite theater group, Emerald City Theater.  Our first

play was Llama, Llama.  If you've read the books, you know the llama we're  talking about. This was Mommy's favorite show. The acting and costumes were fantastic.
This is Ceci's face when she realized we were having French crepes for dinner the first night. We had savory and sweet crepes. The sweet crepes were, of course, our favorites.
Our second show was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  This musical was based on the movie we all know and love, complete with Yukon Cornelius. The recreation was incredible. I would bet this was Ceci's favorite show for the weekend.  
As you can see from Ceci's smile, only three weeks before Christmas and she still had a smile full
of teeth.
Our last show was Rapunzel. This play was a reinterpretation of the classic story. It was funny and got a lot of laughs from us.

Ceci and I walked past this nail salon near our hostel a few times before stopping in. The gimmicky teddy bear chairs worked on this little girl's mommy.  This was Ceci's first time in a nail salon. While Mommy broke down and let Ceci get a pedicure, she wasn't ready for regular nail polish just yet.  It was a fun mother-daughter time to relax and get a foot massage after a long day of walking.
Our last night in Chicago, Ceci and I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo to see their Christmas lights.  It was more like a light spectacular.  It was super freezing cold, so we did the extra short, abbreviated tour of the lights before heading home but not before visiting Santa. Lucky for us it was the real Santa, not one of his elves dress up like Santa to help out. (Note to Lincoln Park Zoo: please don't put Santa in the cat house next year.  Waiting for Santa with the strong smell of male cats kind of kills the magical moment.)