Holiday Dates

We have a tradition that is a few years old where we go out for a holiday event/activity.  We have gone to the Joffrey Ballet Nutcracker (that was the first one!), to see the Christmas Carol at the Goodman, the Christmas show at the Symphony, etc.  This year we did two fun holiday-inspired outings!  (I have no idea what to call this- it isn't a date night, activity is to generic, outing sounds weird...) 

I love the movie It's a Wonderful Life.  Ray and I used to watch it at my grandparents' house each year on Christmas on their ancient television.  Dan had never seen it.  So it was time to check out the Music Box.

The Music Box (an old school, independent theater) has an annual event for showings of It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas which are kicked off with caroling led by Santa.  You can just imagine that Dan was belting out the tunes.  Despite being late (of course), the tipsy neighbors and the enormous head in front of us - we had a great time.  It was followed up with a yummy late dinner and glass of red wine at Brown Trout.

Next up - Zoolights!  We have been saying that we are going to go check out the Zoolights every single year for eight years.  This year it almost got pushed off but we finally made it.     

We planned to go on the 23rd after dinner.  Then impatiently waiting for the FedEx delivery was added into the evening plans.  And after Eddie burst into the office to find me wrapping their presents there was no way we could leave without doing presents... if we had we might have come home to every present being opened.

{oh my gosh do I hate on camera flash - even when it is just a random doggie pic!}

We might have only had 30 minutes before closing time but we made it!

I took the gorilla pod with me thinking that I could make this a couple and photograph event... But with the sliver of time we had there I let it be just a couple activity.  So cranked up the ISO and did a few hand held shots... which have terrible focus and need a smaller aperture - oh well. 

We had fun walking through the paths lit with pretty lights.  And then decised that tomato bisque by itself is not enough for dinner.  So headed to the tap for a bite.  Where we talked about things like what neighborhood we want to live in during 2011.