The start of another lovely day in Chicago and breakfast at Tempo. It was good to be back!

We’d planned a bit of shopping today, for the kinds of things that find their way onto my list and which involve exciting locations such as Michaels. With coupons in hand, or the app loaded on my phone to get the best prices, I worked my way through my list.

JoAnns next and with a Christmas project loaded on my phone from the Bernina blog, of interest to our GrandDog, I had a shopping list for fleece which is always so amazingly cheap here. Thankfully, the huge bag of it compressed nicely into my suitcase for the ride home.

With GrandDog Oliver on our minds, we stood amazed at the market in dog treats here. Not only Advent Calendars for dogs, but stocking fillers and all kinds of seasonal goodies.

Do they know it’s Christmas?!

A few more errands here and there for one or two bits and pieces and our list was complete. We made our way back into the city as snow began to fall. Oh my. Hopefully it would come to nothing.

By the time we were almost there, not only had it stopped snowing but the sky was blue! We’d been keeping an eye on the weather forecast all day, because we planned to go out onto Michigan Avenue later to watch the parade and the switch on of the Christmas lights.

With layers of sweaters, gloves, scarves and hats, we set off in good time because we’d heard that the crowds build early and we wanted to get a decent view.

We stopped at the local Starbucks where the elves were friendly and delivered our hot drinks swiftly.

How long could we make them last, though? I didn’t want mine to go cold, yet wanted to capitalise on having the warmth in my hands!

Sure enough, at the top of Chestnut Street, the “professionals” were already there with chairs and blankets. It was around -5 by now and my phone said “feels like -7.” Getting colder too.

Thinking there was no point in being out longer than necessary and noting that there was still plenty of room along the barrier, we went into H&M and spent a while “browsing” in the warm store. We noticed that those thinking they’d hover in the entrance were quickly moved on by the store security, though the little huddle of police officers were given a more sympathetic welcome.

Around 5pm, the barrier on the opposite side of the street was moved forward and there was a bit of a rush. that seemed to kick things off, for suddenly the places at the rail became crowded. We were standing next to a small family from Wisconsin, annual attendees at this event, who shared one or two tips with us novices.

Just before 5.30 some bright lights caused a ripple of excitement and one or two spotlights appeared on the buildings by the start of the parade.

Shortly afterwards, a cheer went up and the lights in the block “upstream” flashed on. Micky and Minnie Mouse were working the magic, starting a countdown on each block as they reached it, then with a flash of fireworks, the lights would all come on as if by magic.

Our turn next, and the small boy by us was getting excited, calling the countdown and waving madly at Mickey, who waved back to him.

So it progressed. One vehicle after another, mostly representing local organisations and businesses.

It wasn’t long before we realised that for many, collecting “swag” was also part of the excitement. The woman behind us was calling and reaching over my shoulder every time a float went by, in the hope that there would be goodies being passed out. Sure enough, as the Chicago Transport bus came along, handfuls of candy canes were passed into outreached hands, resulting in whoops and cheers and a rather British “Thank you!”.

Sadly, not all the candy canes reached the intended hands.

Many of the floats were accompanied by music, making it easy to jump up and down and jig about to stay warm, because really, it was incredibly cold for those of us not used to such temperatures.

Yes, the man was there! No sweeties from Illinois, however, but wristbands a plenty.

Now the Wisconsin family’s favourites were the huge inflatables and as they spotted one coming down the Avenue, they became excited.

The crew were not having an easy time keeping control of it however and I can understand why the Macy’s parade in NYC is frequently beset by problems when there’s a stiff breeze.

Above all, our votes went to the four or five High School bands which participated. With fifty or sixty members, throwing flags, cheerleading, playing instruments and marching along with incredible enthusiasm, some of them must have been frozen.

Each band was smartly dressed, extraordinarily well drilled and were a credit to their leaders. Amazing.

But I also loved this little group fo gymnastic snowmen, ably assisted by their elves, who rolled and somersaulted their way along. Very clever and a great feature in the parade too.

We were all starting to get really cold now, our pockets were full of swag (including a bottle of Kefir, of all things) and things seemed to be slowing down.

The horse drawn carriage with what was perhaps the parade princess in there came to a standstill right in front of us and we peered as far as we could to try to see if the end was near. We didn’t want to miss anything and yet perhaps we’d seen the best? We had surely seen enough. The Wisconsin family decided that it was time to go and we did the same.

The real stalwarts would follow the parade as far as the river, where a firework display would bring the whole thing to a conclusion, but we simply took a fairly short route through Water Tower Place, admired the beautiful light display there and turned right down Superior Street.

From there, we simply followed instructions.