Christmas Fun!!!

My birthday has always started the count down to Christmas {hello, advent calendars start on 12/1}. Because of this, my family always used to decorate the tree on my birthday when I was younger. This year, I wanted to do the same. Only one small problem ... I needed some ornaments. After work, my family headed to the Christkindlmarket where we picked up 9 ornaments to start my collection. It is a German Christmas market in the middle of The Loop and you can find some one-of-a-kind ornaments there. They sell beer, potato pancakes and apple donuts too!

Two men in my life wearing two fabulous hats!

Then we ventured to Butch McGuire's, a neighborhood Irish pub that truly knows the meaning of Christmas. Every year they deck out the bar with bright lights, Christmas stuffed animals, over sized ornaments and of course a choo choo train! If you've never been, you must go. My family has been going forever and my grandpa even knew Butch!

Beautiful Mom reminiscing about her old stomping grounds

A Guinness for Dad

Finally, to honor tradition, my mom and sister came upstairs to our apartment and helped me decorate our tree with the few ornaments we had purchased. I'll fill in more traditional ones soon, but I loved purchasing a few special ones last night!

I love the owls so much that I got three!

 Hers

His

The fig and peach add beautiful color to the green tree!

Picked up two pea pods....

Looks like our tree is full of both nature and noshing! I would love to add more birds and fruit! So pretty!