Not So Merry Christmas

I had always imagined the first Christmas that Bart and I had together would be filled with friends, family and love. We would have a week to spend with both of our families and be sure to enjoy everyone. Unfortunately, due to both my (stupid) job/whoever is in charge of training for the new system we will be using and the fact that Bart and I can't afford to spend $800 on tickets home, we will be spending our first Christmas alone.

It is true that we will have each other, which is really all we truly need, but I just can't imagine celebrating such a special holiday without my family, old and new, surrounding us. I think Bart will handle all of this better than I will. I already have a hard enough time during holidays, since Mom died, anyway. I don't like my holidays to change. At all. I want everything to stay the same. For it to be routine. Like it was before Mom died. I guess that's my way of hanging on to the past and those amazing memories we had. We won't even go into the rage I felt when Grandma and Aunt Linda decided that dinner would take place during the Christmas Pagent/Mass in Cambridge last year--so that they could go to Midnight Mass in Hoosic Falls...

Anyway, we have decided to make the best of things. The first plan of attack is to buy a 5 food tree (when the time comes--Bart's request) and the second is to make this apartment look like two Christmas Elves live here (my request). We even have the menu picked out (homemade sauce and meatballs, garlic bread, pies, etc.). I just hope that we can make this a special, intimate Christmas celebration that we will look back on with fondness.

Autumn in Chicago

Bart and I had a lovely walk around Lincoln Park last weekend. The weather was warm, the sun was out and the leaves were turning! It's nowhere near as beautiful as the views at home, but it'll have to do.

I just couldn't resist throwing this picture in. Sorry the quality isn't the greatest (I had to zoom in like 38742 times), but I HOPE you can see this lady's bike. She has her kid strapped to a seat attached to the front handlebars and wheels (please look closely and notice that it looks like a backwards tricycle), while she pedals. The real gem here is the dog that is riding along by STANDING IN AN ATTACHED WAGON AT THE REAR OF THE BIKE!!

Only in Chicago, people. Only in Chicago.