The Month of Giving Thanks

This one's quite late, I know. This past week was the last week of the semester and I have been busy writing a final project, organizing a reading, and organizing a church Christmas party among other things. So... even though it's nearly halfway through December, here's the summary of our November:

So, first and foremost, Fall quickly changed to Winter all in the space of about a week and we discovered that our heating was not working. Turns out the furnace was broken and need to be replaced (though that has taken until now, in December) to get fixed.

The Cubs, Chicago's baseball team, won the World Series. For the first time in 108 years. So, obviously, the city was practically riotous. Seriously, sitting in our apartment 4 miles from Wrigley Field, we could hear all the fireworks, and everyone was honking their horns and shouting. Until three in the morning. On a Wednesday. I mean, it was all well-deserved, 108 years is a long, long losing streak. But it was actually a little scary, because I imagine it all sounded very much what a real riot would sound like. (There were, in fact, some acts of vandalism--most likely alcohol-induced--closer to the center of the city, but we're far enough out that our car was OK.)

There was even a parade a couple days later. I work right downtown on the main drag, so I got to witness it. There were so many blue-clad people. It was insane. But it's a change from the general malcontent and slightly angry attitude Chicagoans have day-to-day. At least everyone was happy and in a spirit of brotherhood, or pride or whatever.

The Chicago River dyed blue

Of course, that feeling was dashed by the election. Everyone knows what happened with the election. Like everyone in the whole world. So I won't say much about that, other than the American citizen in our household voted and made cookies; then we got up and went about our daily life as always.

Two big movies came out that we were pretty excited about: Dr. Strange with Benedict Cumberbatch (both of us being fans of his), and Fantasic Beasts and Where to Find them, a pre-spin-off in the Harry Potter/J.K. Rowling Universe. Ok, so I was more excited for the second one than Lawrence was, but we were both surprised at just how good it was. In fact Lawrence says he likes it more than Harry Potter and immediately said, "We're buying this when it comes out." (He's also started listening to the HP audiobooks and is slowly coming to meet my level of appreciation for the collection.)

For Thanksgiving we headed back up to Appleton, Wisconsin to spend the holiday with the Seidl family. It was great to get out of the city again (and also out of our freezing apartment). It's always a bit of a shock being around a lot of people since it's just the two of us most of the time, but it was fun, Much of their family was there or at least stopped in: their kids, grand kids and even great-grandchildren. We ate ourselves into a stupor and came back home with cheese and pie. We went out on Black Friday to get Lawrence some winter-worthy boots and a couple of Christmas decorations.

Just before we left for home, we stopped and got a small Christmas tree at a church. The next day we went and got trimmings and now our apartment is cozy and every now and then smells like a pine tree.

Next up is Christmas, and we'll be heading back to the Mountains.