Zoo Ornaments

On Friday December 15th, we headed over to Torie's for her annual ornament exchange. To my and every other fellas luck, the exchange was opened up to the boys this year. It was previously a girls night event thing. Rachel and I were the first to arrive at Torie and Tim's. Once the party got bumping and people enjoyed some apps and drinks we started the main event. Let the exchanging begin! The exchange was pretty uneventful until Rachel and I went into an intense battle with another girl, trying to get the Hedgehog and the hat (seen below), but we ended up not making it happen. After some back and forth Rachel ended up with the hat and I ended up getting a dipped strawberry in chocolate, not edible though. After the exchange we all were hanging out and Rachel and I stuck it out, eventually throwing on some Jcubed videos to clear the party out. We were the last to leave. Party animals.

The next day on Saturday December 16th, Rachel, Torie, Nikki, and I hit up Yoga Sculpt at Core Power and got our butts kicked. Later that evening, Beth, Sarah, Danny and the kids came over to our place around 6pm. We ate tacos and tried to keep them away from everything in our apartment since nothing is child friendly. Then around 7:30p we headed on a quick walk / wagon pull to the Lincoln Park Zoo to check out the Zoo Lights. After the Zoo Lights, which was a way different experience when you are walking around with three little kiddies, we came back to our place and watched a couple of movies, including E.T. which put them to sleep real quick. Once the kids were asleep, we had a few drinks and were able to chat, they all headed out a bit after midnight. 

I met up with Rachel for lunch at Doc B's on December 18th near her work. She finished her first semester of grad school! So proud of her!

On Friday December 22nd, Adam, Brandy, Brian, and Megan came over to our place for some dinner before our High School reunion. We enjoyed some pulled pork, veggies, and macaroni salad. We then got an Uber to Old Crow River North. Reunion time! The reunion was super fun (blog all about it coming soon!) and it was great catching up with some old friends and classmates. 

Two days later, Christmas Eve was already here. It snowed a bunch that morning, which means snow for Christmas! Wooo! We did Christmas Eve at Grandmas and then went to Church with the fam in Darien. I got a special shoutout during the sermon as I was the only "Joshua" in church. After church we headed to New Lenox and hung out at Rach's parents house, sleeping there. Christmas day was spent with Rach's family and we spent another night out in NL. The next day was Rach's Grandpa's birthday, 94 years old this year! We visited him down in Manteno at the Veteran's home and then headed back to Chicago.

On Friday December 29th we went out to eat at Gilt Bar with Torie, Tim, Sarah, and Colin.  It was pretty delicious, we even got a sparkling cookie pan with ice cream for dessert! After dinner we went back to Sarah and Colin's to play some cards. Their pup Russell was making trouble, but I was the one who sampled his sour apple spray, not too bad! We played kitchen bridge until about 1am. Rachel got second place, and I got last, not bad for our first time playing.

Get ready for the New Year ya'll.

Josh

'Tis The Season

It's Christmas time everyone! We'll start this week off on Friday December 23rd, 2016. I finished the TV show 11.22.63 which was pretty solid, I definitely suggest the book by Stephen King first, but James Franco does a great job with the 8 episode 1st season of 11.22.63. I wonder if they'll make a second season. The book is over by the end of season 1, so can't be too sure. Rachel and I did some shopping later that day and then headed to Hopcat for dinner. After a very filing dinner of burgers, crack fries, and beer, Rachel and I took the bus down to Christkindlemarket. The market was bustling as always and it was the last day it was open. We got some spiced wine in our souvenir mugs and walked around the market checking out all the shops. After about an hour we jumped on the bus back home. Once back home, Rachel and I celebrated Christmas and exchanged gifts. We got each other matching monogramed wallets without knowing! We then watched the classic movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's. I had never seen it before, but it was a solid movie featuring Aubry Hepburn. After we continued the holiday spirits by watching Santa Clause with Tim Allen. Also classic may I say. Check out the vlog real quick, or keep reading and come back for more in a little bit.

The next day was Christmas Eve, Saturday December 24th. Rachel and I packed up the car full of gifts and headed off to Grandmas. We enjoyed delicious food, put on an original screenplay written by Anna. The Christmas play was performed by myself, Rachel, Aunt Lil, Emma, Anna, and Beth. After the play we opened some gifts and I got some sweet Q-Bert coasters, my first pairs of Nike midcalf socks, and a new record player!

Which baby wore it best above? After the Christmas party at Grandmas we headed over to Rachel's parents and hung out there until midnight mass. Midnight mass went off as usual. Father Don who ran the mass at our Wedding was the Father for the service. Once back home after 90  minutes of church, we stayed up chatting with Rachel's parents until around 3a.

Christmas Day, Sunday December 25th started with some breakfast and presents at Rachel's parents house. We then headed to Rachel's Mimi and Papa's for another delicious Christmas dinner. That night, back at Rachel's parents, we watched It's a Wonderful Life. It was my first time watching it. What a classic, actrually given to me by Christmas Past for CHristmas this year!

They day after Christmas, Monday December 26th we continued the Christmas festivities down in Kankakee for Grandpas 93rd birthday. We had Chinese food for lunch with Rob, Phil, Becky, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Mike, and Kathy. I went with the general sao. Yum. John McCauley enjoys Chinese Food on Christmas Day in this Diamond Rugs classic. It was also 52 degrees on this day, so all the snow had melted. At least there was snow for Christmas!

When we got back to Rachel's parents place, we took off back to the city. We spent the evening relaxing and cleaning our apartment, and getting some use out of our new record player! Can you guess the first record we played on this bad boy?

Tuesday December 27th I had a long day at work. Carrie Fisher died and Rachel and I watched Star Wars The Force Awakens as a tribute. Solid Star Wars film. Quite the action packed thriller!

We continued the holiday festivities on Wednesday December 28th with a frozen pizza for dinner, then heading to Zoo Lights. Beth, Rachel, and I walked over to Zoo Lights and enjoyed the beautiful display the Lincoln Park Zoo puts on every year. A must see during the holiday season! Check out the pictures from our zoo extravaganza! But watch the Vlog for a true experience.

When we walked back to our apartment, I built a bed side table for our room and we watched the Tina Fey movie, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It had it's funny parts, but we definitely did not know it was more of a serious movie. Still decent.

On the 29th of December Thursday, I had to work another long 11 hour day at work and slept after eating dinner when I got home. 

I took the next day Friday December 30th off and cleaned around our apartment before we headed back to the suburbs for Mimi's 75th Birthday bash. After the party, Rachel and I headed back to Rachel's parents to catch some Z's. Tired life.

What an eventful week of Christmas events and parties. Fun times! Excited for the New Year!

Josh

Happy One (New) Year of Blogs

Tuesday December 30th, after a day of work, I went shopping and then picked up Beth. We then drove to my place in the city where Rachel made us some spaghetti for dinner. We relaxed the rest of the night.

Wednesday December 31st, New Year's Eve! Cam came to visit and we were fortunate to find him a parking spot with the help of Grant. After hanging out for a bit, we all got ready and then had a few people over to our place: Brian, Sarah, Colin, Matt, & Caitlin joined us for snacks and games. We played cards against humanity, as well as friends and enemies. Around 10pm we headed over to Kim's place for a party and we were not liked by many, as we (I) kept counting down well before midnight arrived. Finally midnight came and we all cheered and celebrated. We then got our coats and left around 12:30am. 2015 was here!

January 1st, 2015 was spent with a morning of mimosas and a lot of football being watched. Michigan State put on an amazing comeback and won their bowl game. We then got some dinner at Duke's which was delicious and we got an awesome Thursday deal. I had 4 burger bites and got a free 12 wings since it was buy one item, get one free! Duke's is always an enjoyable time and probably my favorite place in the area.

After Duke's we walked over to Lincoln Park Zoo and enjoyed the Zoo Lights. Check out some pics from the night where we saw handfuls of sad monkeys, ice sculptors, lighted animals, & pretty lights. Also learned that ice sculptors use a special machine to keep the water flowing so the ice appears to be clear, just like a frozen river bed. This will be the new way I make ice cubes. No more cloudy ice for me!

Beware of the Rainbow Tunnel! This tunnel was a tricky part to the Zoo since it was outside the zoo and we ended up in this tunnel when they closed the zoo doors on us, so we had to walk around the outside with no lights, how sad.

On Friday January 2nd, I headed to work for the first half of the day, then once home I made some rigatoni pasta for Cam, Rachel, and I for dinner. We then met up with friends and walked over to Mary & Jeff's for some Edward 40 Hands. With a lack of 40s in the 5 liquor stores we stopped at, our little group ended up just have 25oz cans, which worked out just fine.

After the party ended, Rachel, Cam, Colin, Sarah, and I hit up a bar across the street for one last drink before they had last call and picked up some Fat Sandwich on the way home. Cam, Rachel & I split the fat milf. Tastyyy. It also snowed on the way home, first snow of the year!

Saturday January 3rd started with me clearing snow off my car, then a bit of work. I picked up gas for an all-time low price of $1.79. Will prices continue to drop!? It rained on the way home and Rachel and I watched a bunch of Mad Men. We made a delicious pork dinner and then had some wine & gummies to go along with our lovely 4 hours of chatting to end the night.

On Sunday January 4th, Rachel and I spent most of the day watching TV shows. We finished season 3 of Mad Men, and season 2 of The Walking Dead. Both shows are solid. We went out to get some groceries and saw where the Best Buy close to us got robbed earlier that morning. Crime scene! Had a couple of buffalo ranch McChickens for lunch and after watching TV for a few hour we made succulent beef sandwiches in the crock pot for dinner. Sooo good.

After a work lunch at Lou Malnati's and a day of work, I spent my evening watching a few episodes of The Walking Dead Season 3 and then shoveled my driveway and sidewalks at my parents place around midnight!

Great end to 2014 and great start to 2015. Looking forward to the year. Maybe next week I'll post a review with bests of 2014 and some goals for 2015.

Josh