HAPPY HOLIDAYS
From Da Windy City





In addition to the tree, there's also a free ice skating rink in front of Wrigley Field. The only thing cooler would be to have ice skating in Wrigley Field. Maybe next year....








Cat Puppet Theatre in front of the old Marshall Field's on State Street - which was far, far more entertaining than Macy's utterly disappointing holiday window display.


Everyone is looking away from the high-tech window displays, towards the old-fashioned puppets.












The historic Walnut Room inside Field's on State Street - where my mother used to model, and where my grandmother took me (on the train) for filet mignon when I was 12. My great-uncle's paintings were on sale (for a lot of money, even in those days) in the store's art section. The Walnut Room is the first-ever restaurant inside of a department store. (In the olden days, women had nowhere to eat downtown, since the only places to grab a bite were bars - which no respectable woman would enter).









Seen on Thursday, between the Civic Opera House and Sears Tower.











Buddha Christmas ornament at the ethnic tchotchke mega superstore at Clark and Diversey. He does not seem to notice or care about the holiday lila happening around Him - which He appears to be part of, but is not. (Don't get me started on the selling of sacred symbols in banal settings; that post is coming soon). Interestingly, this ornament was the highest-priced one in the section.















Massive wreath at the Northwestern Depot (Ogilve Transportation Center) - where we'd take the train in when we were in high school and too young to drive. We'd head straight to Bennigan's on Michigan Avenue for some holiday spirits (for some reason we never got carded). In those days the drink de jour was the whiskey stone sour. Not whiskey sour. Whiskey stone sour.












Pix from my new secret walking place, located well within city limits




Yes, that is a real deer, dear.














Paper star purchased at Christkindlmarket Chicago. The star is from India. The market is modeled after the German one in Nürnberg. The irony is pure Chicago - home of the Union Stockyards and the nation's longest-running raw vegan restaurant.









Everyone loves a little Yuletide windfall - even Kirby "The Scrooge" Q-Tie.




















All pix (and "artwork") by Cara-Kali (c) 2011.