Our Holiday Tradition

Every year Marshall Fields, formerly Dayton's, puts on a themed display. One year it was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Snow White, 12 days of Christmas.... This year it was Cindarella. It is a free display in the auditorium of the downtown store on the 8th floor. I am trying it think of a way to describe...it is like mechanical puppets, in a very elaborate and beautiful setting. This presentation had 15 different "scenes". You wind your way through it as the story is told on plaques next to each scene and in a playbill you are handed when you enter.

This year Cliff, Harrison and I went on Saturday December 17th and Ken, Shannon and Abbey (A.K.A. Kenny, Abby's Mom, and That Abbey - according to Harrison). We met them at the Marshall Fields store. Usually when we go we head right up to the 8th floor no problem. The line is sometimes long but always on the 8th floor. This year, the line began on the 5th floor. I couldn't believe it. Luckily we had Harrison in a stroller because we got to go up a special way and before alot of other people (and you all know how much I love cutting lines). When we got up to the 8th floor the line was all the way too the back. All in all, it took about 30-45 minutes for us to get to the entrance to the display.

It was very crowded right at the beginning. I took Harrison out of his stroller and held him so he could see the displays. He got very scared of those moving "puppets" in the display. He kept saying, I'm scared. I kept telling him it was ok and that it was puppets. We make it through the display very quickly...probably in about 5 minutes. I thought it was a good one this year, a bit girly, but good. Right when you get out of the display is the line to see Santa Claus.

Harrison loves Santa right now. He likes to see him whereever we can. So of course, we all got on the line to see Santa. That line was very short in comparrison to the display line and years past. We only waited about 5-10 minutes. Harrison sat on Santa's lap and we got a really good picture. He didn't cry and but he didn't smile either. When I picked him up, he had a big smile and waived his hand furiously and said "BYE BYE SANTA".

After visiting Santa we went up to have lunch in the Skyroom. It is a great place for families. It is like a food court, so you don't have to worry if your kids are loud. Harrison and Abbey had a great time together. They kept playing games like Peek A Boo to make each other laugh.

After lunch we all headed down to look at christmas ornaments. Every year Cliff and I pick out a family ornament and put the date on the bottom. This year we picked out Cindarella's Carriage. It is frosted glass and really pretty. We also looked at nutcrackers, of course, for the nutcracker obsessed Harrison. We ended up getting him 2 smaller ones.

We had a great time and I just love this annual tradition.