December in Chicago.

December is always busy. Between normal life, wrapping up things for the year, wrapping gifts, Christmas shopping, parties, events, and all those extra things to do around the holidays, it’s just a busy month.

It was a fun month, though, and I spent a lot of time with friends and co-workers.

Here are some of the things I did in December…

 

I went to see a co-worker perform in the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus Holidiva show. Beforehand we gorged ourselves on all the cajun food at Heaven on Seven. As you do.

 

One night after my salsa class I met up with my friend Alyssa and we grabbed a beer at Lone Wolf and then FINALLY went to Au Cheval for burgers. Au Cheval is known for having the best burger in Chicago. And, because of that, anytime I’ve stopped in it’s been a 3-hour wait. I wait 3 hours for no burger. Apparently 10pm on a Wednesday night is a sweer spot, only an hour wait, so we took it. We shared crispy fries with mornay sauce, garlic aioli and fried farm egg and both got single cheeseburgers with bacon.

It was a damned good burger.

 

My friend Chelsa came to town so we had a very Chicago Christmasy day. We started at Christkindlmarket, drinking Glühwein and ornament shopping (I found a fig ornament!). We wandered around Eataly (tasting all the samples) and got pizza at Pizzeria Uno. We visited Millennium Park to check out the giant Christmas tree and Cloud Gate in the snow. And we grabbed some drinks (and shots and tots) at Holiday Club.

 

There were a million work-related holiday events in December. A party at my boss’s house, a pajama party at a coworker’s place (with spiked hot chocolate, pancakes, and Christmas classics), a cookie exchange (I made bourbon ginger snaps), a pot luck (I made peppermint mocha pudding shots), a company party, and an ugly sweater day.

I’m not sure if I actually got any work done.

 

(p.s. In order to bake those cookies I had to turn my kitchen into a game of limbo.)

 

I met up with my friend Shanna for breakfast at Cafe Selmarie in Lincoln Square. Then I made her play my Instagram husband to get photos of me for my knitting post. But I got some photos of her too.

 

Speaking of Lincoln Square, isn’t it pretty at Christmas?

 

My skee ball team won the entire league!!! Between that and winning a playoff game in softball, the Wacker Moles had an amazing year.

 

And I spent a lot of nights dancing to dueling pianos at Sluggers after skee ball.

 

And a couple of times at getting pizza at Dimo’s before skee ball.

 

I went to the only Christmas movie double feature that matters — Gremlins and Die Hard — at Music Box Theater. (And got empanadas at 5411 Empanadas beforehand.)

 

My friend couldn’t deal with the fact that I had never seen or read Harry Potter so she invited me over, gave me something called butterbeer, and made me watch the first four movies (we’ll finish the next four next time).

 

I got lunch with Heather and Maggie at Honey Butter Fried Chicken. Maggie approved.

 

And, of course, I celebrated Christmas.

On Christmas Eve I went to my sister’s place and had dinner and opened presents with my family.

 

I spent Christmas alone, seeing La La Land at the newly-renovated Davis Theater, and ordering my traditional Chinese food takeout dinner.

 

I just hope Santa comes through on my wish list.