On Saturday, Katie and I woke up from what was not the world's greatest sleep at the Wyndham (we found out from Dave that the reason we slept so well at Westin as opposed to the Wyndham is because they have something known as the "Heavenly Bed" and he often goes out of the way to stay at Westins for this very reason).
We noticed, as we left the hotel, that it had warmed up significantly outside. Much of the muck snow that was collecting on the sides of the streets in Chicago was melting away and it wasn't looking like it would be much of a White Christmas. I made a mental note to purchase another Christmas song from iTMS. Unfortunately, when the time came, I forgot to actually buy it. Dangit!
We then hiked the mile or so from our hotel to The Pancake House near Rush Street a bit northwest of the end of the Magnificent Mile. Considering we walked what we did both to and from, we didn't feel so guilty about our meal: Georgia pecan pancake for me and a baked apple pancake for Katie. Damn, they were good. And huge! And not that bad a price either.
As we ambled our way back to the hotel, we made a few stopoffs at Ann Taylor, Eddie Bauer, and the Apple Store. Guess what? I bought absolutely nothing at my Mecca. I had a $50 gift certificate and I didn't spend it. Well, primarily because I couldn't think of anything to buy. Weird, eh?
We got back up to our room, showered, changed into our Christmas party clothes, and checked out. There was, however, an unfortunate difference between the time by which we had to check out and the time when we needed to be at our next destination. Somewhere in the vicinity of four hours.
Since we were heading to Arlington Heights (we were supposed to go to McHenry to open gifts with Katie's family; but they changed the schedule so we would open gifts after eating at her aunt and uncle's house -- makes much more sense as one is on the way to the other so we wouldn't have to backtrack), we continued on a little bit to the AMC in Barrington and watched The Family Stone. I would highly recommend this film. Very good, but horribly mismarketed. All the ads make it out to be a comedy, but it is, in fact, a very powerful drama that has its comedic moments. Check it out.
Even after watching the film, we still had time so we went to Woodfield Mall and Katie got a new sweater set for that night. Considering this was supposed to be the busiest shopping day of the year (Christmas Eve), the mall was surprisingly sedate. We even got parking only about five spaces out. I was in shock; but happy at the same time.
We then made our way to Katie's Aunt and Uncle's house and had a good meal and opened up some really nice gifts. We really had a good time and her Aunt and Uncle have a nice house (they just moved back from the St. Louis 'burbs this year).
Finally, we hopped in the car and made the trek back to McHenry for the big family gift opening. Katie and I made out like bandits. It was quite nice. And, no, I'm not going to brag about what I got suffice it to say that I've got a lot to read in the coming months. That's a good thing.
I think we finally made it back to Geneva around midnight and still stayed up for another couple of hours preparing some items for the Christmas meal we were making at my brother's house the next day.
It was a long day ...
... and a late night ...
... and an early next morning.
