Beer & Champagne: It. Will. Change. Your. Life.

When girls get together there is always a theme to the weekend. It always seems as though something funny is said or done in the early moments of the weekend and then it goes on from there. Nothing was different about this weekend. My Mom and our good friend Jackie (a.k.a Fancy) came to Chicago for a visit..... And just so you know, Jackie acquired her name on a Florida trip when we accidentally stayed at a five star hotel that she was clearly NOT too "fancy" for....hence the name! Now that that is explained I can continue to explain our theme for this weekend...."it will change your life!"It all started late Friday night/early Saturday morning....
Mom and Fancy were driving to Chicago for a visit to the "big city" as they call it! They were traveling late because a few obligations kept them in Iowa until 7ish Friday night. We thought this was perfect, because it gave us (AK & myself) time to go downtown for dinner/check out the Christmas lights!! Before we knew it, we ate too much food and were forced into a free bottle of wine (HA!), so by the time we got home our food/drink coma had set in and there was no sign of Mom/Fancy. We decided to put sweats on and hang out on the couch and watch old Friends episodes while waiting. Unfortunately our exhaustion got the best of us and we were asleep in no time....the kind of asleep where you don't hear your cell phone if it rings or beeps even if a person calls up to but not limited to EIGHT times!! Woops!! With one wrong exit mom and Fancy were lost and trying to find their way on unfamiliar roads with their best resources sleeping. One would think your best resource would be your built in GPS, but when it's programmed to NOT take highways or toll roads, you may have a problem in Chicago. But that's neither here nor there, because they were lost, and not only were they lost, they were lost in a very low income part of town....also known as "the hood!" You can about imagine the anxiety of two white women cruising through this part of town in a Lexus at 2am....NOT GOOD!! Luckily for me and Andy they ended up arriving safely and a little bit more well rounded!! And not only did they arrive safely they arrived with Mom's first round of Christmas cookies. When I introduced them to AK at roughly 0230, I said, "These are delicious and will probably change your life!" Fancy responded, "Who needs cookies to change your life, when you can just drive through the hood!" And that was it....the theme was set!
Saturday: Saturday was a fun day! Once we got up, we wished AK well on his trip to Indy to watch the Spartans compete in the Big 10 Championship game and then we just hung out and got caught up. Morning was quickly ending so we hustled to get ready so we could begin the complete Chicago shopping experience. We went out for brunch at Southport Grocery (un-be-lievable food) and hit up shops all along the way to downtown. I'm sure you can imagine how the day went: "you have to eat this, it will change your life!" .... "you have to buy this, it will change your life!".... "we have to go downtown, it will change your life!" This means, we ate too much, spent too much, and went to countless places!! :) Considering the day was so great, we were excited for what the evening had in store. We went out for dinner, took in the first Big 10 Championship game (outcome unfavorable), and then hit the town with some new friends of mine in Chicago, and it ended up to be a really good time. After a long day of good eats, good shopping, good people and a good city....consider our lives changed!! :)
Sunday: All good things come to an end, which is how I feel about most weekends. AK arrived home late morning and we rushed off to lunch so we could squeeze in a few more minutes of Mom and Fancy being in town. They needed to get going so they could be back in IA at a decent time so we just grabbed a quick sandwich. I was so sad to see them go!! After their departure, I was on a mission to clean up and complete my Christmas decorating. I left to run errands and gather my final supplies while AK rested up from his boy/football weekend!! When I finally got back home we put the finishing touches on our week long decorating extravaganza. I tell you, AK was such a trooper with helping me so much and being so excited about all my ideas....he really has changed my life!! :)
And in all seriousness I must say the same about my Mom and Fancy. Without them, I would hate to know where I would be. We are all so similar and think of each other as family which I am so thankful for. We really did share so many laughs, a few tears, lots of advice....all while spending too much money and eating too much great food. It was exactly what the doctor ordered for all of us I think and I am looking forward to the next time I can host such lovely guests. They know they are welcome any time!!! Without question, these two people have changed my life....for the better!!! xoxo.