Thanksgiving Things

Last weekend, Chicago had it's annual Lights Festival, which is when the city decides it's close enough to Christmas to turn on all the stringed lights along Magnificent Mile and throws a parade. Since Cary Anne and I have been making an effort to get out of the apartment and actually see what the city has to offer, we decide to take the Vespa downtown to check things out. As you can imagine, there were about a million people there (and, based on the population of Chicago, that estimate is probably not hyperbole.)

Though the actual festival is an all day event, Cary Anne and I just made it down for the parade portion. Apparently this town loves parades so much that they have one for the Lights Festival, then they have another one 5 days later for Thanksgiving. However, this parade started at 5:30pm, and the Thanksgiving one kicks off at 8:30am, so you can guess which one I'd rather go to.

Overall, the parade was everything you'd expect: big floats, marching bands, screaming children. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night in Chicago.

Then, yesterday was Thanksgiving. When Cary Anne and I decided to move to Chicago at the beginning of November, I wasn't sure what to expect for Thanksgiving. I knew we really wouldn't have money to spare to go to either one of our home towns, and I thought there might be a good chance that the holiday would turn into Cary Anne and I eating turkey sandwiches alone in our apartment, which was a depressing thought. But then, lo and behold, we got invited to two Thanksgivings here in the city (which is really just God showing off).

First up was Thanksgiving at our friend Stacey's apartment. Stacey and I each attended Pace University during our Freshman year of college, then we both transferred to schools closer to home, and we've just recently reconnected here in Chicago. Thanksgiving at Stacey's was basically an Orphan Thanksgiving, where a bunch of people who had no where else better to go ended up together. So the whole thing was 15 relative strangers sitting around, sharing a meal together, and getting to know one another, which was really cool. 

Next, we hopped over to Jesse and Ruth's, who are friends of ours from church, for desert. Much like Stacey, Jesse and Ruth were hosting several friends who had nowhere better to go. It was a really great time getting to know a whole bunch of new people (for the second time that evening), and we are continually surprised by how many people God has put in our lives in such a short time when we really knew no one in this city. All in all, we got to eat good food, play a lot of games, and thank God for how He has provided for us over the past year while celebrating where is is leading us.

After celebrating new friends, we got to celebrate something even closer to the American spirit: consumerism! Thats right, we stayed up til midnight to score some sweet deals on presents for friends and family (which really was necessary this year seeing as how we blew the majority of our savings on the move and being unemployed for a month). If you want to hear details about our Black Friday adventure, hop over to Spencer's comedy blog.