I LOVE Downton Abbey. And season three premiered on PBS tonight (in case you haven’t been on Facebook in the last week). The hubs, who also loves it, and I watched it live, something we never do, and soaked up the two full hours. I realized that I have come to enjoy the characters so much that I would literally watch them do anything. Especially in those clothes!
year of fun
HAVE FUN. EVERY DAY. SIMPLE BUT DAUNTING.
Category Archives: Guilty Pleasures
Day 91: Christmas Eve Cranium
On Christmas Eve, my family usually spends the day at my grandmother’s to exchange gifts and the evening at home playing games and watching movies. When we were younger (and unmarried) my sister and I would exchange our gifts to each other before heading to bed, in the same room, to wait for Santa. Now that we are older, we wait until Christmas morning to open all the gifts, and my sister sleeps at her own house. Even so, we continue to keep these traditions that we love. There were so many great fun things that happened today, the whole day felt like a guilty pleasure. Highlights include giving my grandmother the photo book we made for her, eating my dad’s homemade chicken pot and pie and playing Cranium.
Cranium was a new game for most of my family but they took to it pretty well. The best part of the game, though, was a drawing clue for both teams where the drawers had to keep their eyes closed. My dad drew for his team and my brother-in-law for mine. They drew and drew and drew while we guessed things like sleeping, snoring, lullaby, high jump, falling. Neither team could guess it, so after a few minutes of, “Draw something different! Sleeping, snoring, singing!” we let them open their eyes. Magician, magic, trick, elevator. We still couldn’t get it until finally my sister yelled out “LIMBO!” And we all couldn’t stop laughing about how long it took and how hard it was. It was a really great, funny moment in the midst of an already wonderful day. And I’m trying to appreciate those smaller moments during a holiday that could be all about how fun it is to get presents and eat. Though getting presents and eating is pretty awesome too.
Day 77: Christkindlmarket
It’s Guilty Pleasure Monday and the fun is a reader suggested activity! My friend Sarah suggested I meet her at the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza. Conveniently located right near her work, Sarah has been more than once, so she showed me where to find the nesting dolls, indoor ornament stores and nutella crepes. I, unfortunately, came full from lunch so did not get to sample the crepes but I did makes some purchases while moseying around catching up with my friend.
Both of my purchases were unique for me; a bird ornament with a feather actually coming out the tail and a Tibetan Singing Bowl. The bowls caught my attention just by being gold and shiny. I thought, “what cute little bowls to put jewelry or something in.” The man working the booth (Tibetan?) told me that they sing and then demonstrated. With a wooden stick he circled the outside of the bowl creating a lovely, pure note. He mentioned they are used in meditation and yoga rooms and are meant to calm. The first time I tried it, it didn’t totally work for me, but I wanted it anyway. He wrapped it up and gave me some notes on my technique. (Obviously I practiced as soon as I got home and I am happy to report I can create the tone almost as well as this man. And it is quite soothing).
Most of the booths contain ornaments and other items handcrafted in other countries. (Hence why there are Tibetan Singing Bowls in a holiday market). Many of them are from Germany and the rest of Europe. You can also get cuckoo clocks, beer steins and many a wooden toy. I highly recommend checking this market out. It’s even worth a special trip to loop if you don’t regularly go there.
Day 70: Bongo Room
Guilty Pleasure Monday today was brunch with a friend at the Bongo Room. If you live in Chicago and are not familiar with the Bongo Room, you must go. Known for their indulgent breakfast items, this popular brunch spot recently opened their Andersonville location, where we ate today. I’ve been to the Wicker Park location before, and on the weekend the wait is normally about two hours during prime brunch time (and they do not take reservations). However at 1:00p.m. on a Monday, we had no problem. Because it was Guilty Pleasure Monday, I ordered the white chocolate caramel pretzel pancakes. Three huge-like bigger than my face-pancakes were delivered to the table. My friend had some kind if savory pork sandwich that he said was great. (Apparently he was not having guilty pleasure food). But back to my pancakes, pretzel filled and covered in caramel and white chocolate sauces, these pancakes were not the crazy sugar rush they could have been, which was a welcome surprise. They were nicely sweet and crunchy but not overly so. I managed to eat about one third of the plate. They were SO big. And SO yummy!
Day 63: PJ Day
Guilty Pleasure Monday today brought some unexpected fun. At noon I was still in my pajamas and it occurred to me that it had been a long time since I was in pajamas at noon. When my health was poorer, I often wore pajamas for days, changing my clothes in to other pajamas. It was more comfortable and I just did not feel like putting the effort in to getting dressed. Today, I had a busy morning cleaning, doing laundry and working on a photo project. I just hadn’t gotten dressed yet.
So I decided to make it fun, to take back pajamas as a comfy indulgence rather than a utilitarian necessity. I continued the day in my pajamas, even walked the dog in them. In fact, I’m still wearing them now!
year of fun 