Happy Thanksgiving! - UPDATED with pictures!

Happy late Thanksgiving to all! Right now i am sitting on my Aunt's laptop in Bristol, WI. Its snowing outside fairly hard. There's a Packers game on TV and leftovers in my belly. It was a great Thanksgiving.

We flew in on Thursday just in time for dinner to be served at my Grandparents house. Grandpa said it was the most people he had seen in the house at one time in a while (There was 12 of use all together). It was awesome to be with family on Thanksgiving, at my grandparent's house - my most favorite place on earth. Our family tradition is to go around the room before grace and say what we're thankful for. Grandpa put tears in our eyes as he talked about how thankful he was for all of us. For Family. He has been an angel to my grandma since she's been sick.

Friday we picked up my parents and brought them to the airport in Milwaukee (they had been there since monday). Before we dropped them off we went to Frank's Diner - another stop thanks to Diners Drive-Ins and Dives.

We ordered a 1/2 garbage plate and it was HUGE!!
We also, between the 4 of us, split 1 pancake. It was bigger than your head. See? It was also quite delicious I might add.

After dropping mom and dad off, we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Even the parking garage was bitchin.

Every Day at noon the wings close, and open again. It's pretty spectacular.

It was the building that we wanted to see, more than the art inside it, but when we got there there was an interactive art exhibit that seemed pretty cool. It was unreal. It felt like real magic. Especially the wooden mirror. It's really worth the click. Then we went to "The Domes", again more for the architecture, but it was fun. From there we went to Mader's - an AWESOME german restaurant. I totally forgot to take pictures- i blame the food for making me forget how to work a camera. it was that good. And of course a trip to WI wouldn't be complete without visiting a cheese store! Wisconsin Cheese Mart has been affectionately dubbed "Barry's Heaven".
Shortly after that, it will become my hell. (HA!) I made that joke in the cheese shop... no one got it. (OH LOOK! I just noticed that Barry's Heaven has my Vera Bradley Bag in it (He 'affectionately' calls it my "Very Badley Bag")

Saturday, after an awesome "overnight french toast" breakfast by my Aunt Karene, we drove to Chicago. First stop - of course - was to Smoque, thanks to DDD.

I'm man enough to admit that our vacations are now governed by the DDD map. We need stickers on our luggage that say "We Go with Guy." Well, the ribs and brisket were amazing of course! But i was still full from breakfast so barry ate most of it. it really was delicious. Enough to buy the t-shirt.

We were walking distance to the El, so we just took the train into downtown. Our plan was to visit Millenium Park and take pictures at the Bean and then go ice skating. When we walked out of the subway stations we ended up being right in front of Marshal Feilds! I was so excited because it was something that was suggested to do by a client of mine, but i didn't know where it was. Marshall Fields is famous for it's christmas windows. Now its a Macy's, but they still do it up big. It was great!
When we got to the ice rink, it was a 2 hour wait for skate rentals, and there were some pretty speedy 16 year olds out there on the ice. I would've felt like an idiot floridian out there, so we just skipped it.

After taking some fun pics at the bean...

...we decided to go to Chinatown. :) Mmmm... Beef Chow Fun... It was delicious! After that, we headed home to Grandmas and spent a few hours with them. :)

These are my Grandparents. My Grandpa is helping my Grandma from her wheel chair to her recliner. He says that they're dancing and that this is how they make love now. How beautiful is that?

We woke up Monday morning to this:

This is my Grandparent's driveway. Something out of a Robert Frost poem, isn't it?

We made it home safe and sound, and only a few hours late, in spite of the weather delays. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.