Saturday, November 29, 2014

Giving Thanks in Chicago



Three factors contributed to the Four Schneiders, Four Austins and Two Johnsons spending Thanksgiving in Chicago instead of Cincinnati this year. 1) I've been traveling a lot, so hosting Thanksgiving between two business trips was going to be hard. 2) The Austins bought a new house in Oak Park! 3) The Austins, despite #2 and all that comes with that, graciously offered to host all of us in Chicago - especially given #1.  (Thanks Austins!)

In other, "due to the generosity of others, our holiday was awesome because news," Grandpa Bop (aka Mr. Bob) let us borrow his new ride with dual DVD players, which made what ended up being a not-so-awesome series of traffic nightmares significantly less nightmare-ish.

Here's the wrap-up of our Thanksgiving long weekend in Chicago! Highlights include a wonderful dinner with more food than any one family could ever consume in one weekend, lots of good ole' fashioned cousin fun, great family down-time, a family talent show and a not-to-be-missed Event of the Year.....the Jack and Beatrice Wedding. (If nothing else, scroll down for that!)

***

DVDs, cuddly friends and away we go!


Oh and cassettes! Yay for driving through Indiana with Hank Williams Jr!

We did hit a point where Bea got TOTALLY OVER the car and made this face.

And composed this little gem. 
A video posted by Carri (@fourschneiders) on

When we did arrive to Chicago, we arrived at exactly the wrong time. I'll leave it at that, except for to say we determined that navigating the city for an hour was still better than sitting on the highway for an hour.  It was beautiful downtown! 


Cousin craziness kicked in within moments. Just as it should. 



Here's a little collection of random moments of family fun! It's so fun just to walk through the house and observe what everyone is up to. 








Coolest piano on the planet!

Seriously, who knows?! 
YAY FOR THE MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE!


Sweet Bella and the BS she was willing to put up with, ha!














Time to feast!



The kids were THRILLED with their "wine."

Bea was thrilled with her "real high heels."



And then there was THE WEDDING. Honestly, I don't remember exactly how it started except for to say one evening, after Jack was already in bed, the girls were suddenly asking us questions about cutting up curtains, rearranging furniture, writing vows and making BIG plans!  Before we knew it, they had staged an entire wedding and reception that would take place the next morning (since ya know the groom was asleep). Thank GOODNESS that sweet Jack thought this was all a good idea in the morning. Well, it ended up being the cutest thing on the planet. I couldn't resist pulling it all together into a little imovie.


More photos (and some duplicates) below (because the video won't show up in the hard bound blog books I print out at the end of every year.)





"Flowers"







As if the wedding show wasn't enough, they also organized quite a talent show!


That included dancing, running, jumping and of course karate.

After hours adult fun! (Waaaaaay after hours!)


Always so nice to get out of the house to burn some energy (and calories)! We went to see Big Hero 6 one day and walked to the park another!








Bonuses: Bea drew this on our chalkboard and was very proud of it. We were all SURE it was a turkey, but she swore it was a woodpecker, ha!


So cute to see what the kids identify as the things they are most thankful for...