Plus Charlie Brown Equals the Holidays

adminCharlie Brown, Halloween, holidays, It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, joy, Linus, Lucy, music, Uncategorized, Vince Guaraldi%s Comments

Nothing signals the start of the holidays like a Charlie Brown television special.  The music by  Vince Guaraldi, the zig-zag on Charlie Brown’s shirt and the way Lucy pulls the football out from under CB gets me every time!

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” is on tonight to once again prove that Linus is the smartest one of them all and is always right…including about the Great Pumpkin.

“There are 3 things you never discuss with people: Politics, religion and the Great Pumpkin.”  Wise words, Linus, wise words.

Just A Big Apple Girl?

adminanticipation, devil, Halloween, Henri Bendel, hot dogs, Manhattan, New York City, Patsy's, pretzels, sightseeing, street vendors, Uncategorized, wandering%s Comments

Not quite but I was in NYC this past weekend.  Ryan and I traveled East to attend the wedding of very good friends of his from college (more on that later).  We did some shopping, we did some eating, and we definitely did some wandering.  Yes, we did check out a few famous Manhattan landmarks but my favorite part of visiting another city was simply putting one foot in front of the other and seeing whatever there was to be seen.

Rockefeller Center

Candles at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

A piece of the Berlin Wall

Even though we were on limited time, I did manage to come home with my favorite brown and white striped bag from the place I just love swinging by when I’m in New York: Henri Bendel.

Saks, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales and pretty much everything else, Chicago has.  But not Bendel’s.  Chic without being stuffy, sophisticated while still being fun.  I treated myself to a pair of lovely pair of earrings that caught my eye and picked up my favorite mascara as well (in both black and aubergine because it came in a set for just a little more than the regular prices.  And you know homegirl loves a good deal).

Of all the great people watching Ryan and I did, this kid takes the cake:

1 week before Halloween and he already was wearing his devil costume.  I’m going to assume that his choice of ensemble for the day was more about the impending holiday than a general nod to his overall behavior.  I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

High Five of the Day: As much as I enjoyed being in another city for a few days, there is really nothing quite like home…and I couldn’t have arrived home in Chicago on a more beautiful, unseasonably warm, sunny day.  Deee-lightful.

 

The Search for Halloween Costumes

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I am on the hunt for the perfect Halloween costume.  And by perfect, I mean something I didn’t come up with 3 days before October 31st.  Last year, I celebrated my 2nd favorite holiday with a ride on Trolley with 35 of my closest friends.

4 hours riding Trolley all over Chicago, with strategically located bathroom stops (Mickey D’s in River North was the best–super clean, super big, and there were even escalators).  It was a blasty but Ryan and I need to up the ante with our costumes this year.  My friends are really creative and we got our butts kicked in the costume department last year:

Yeah, those are t-shirts depicting us at Lucy and Charlie Brown.  Not a terrible idea but lamesauce execution.

The Halloween Countdown app on my iTouch tells me that there are 33 days until Halloween.  We’ve got to go big this year.  To say Ryan is a competitive guy is an understatement so I have been given an assignment: 8 costume ideas for us by end of day today.  No small task considering that the only thing I can come up with is painting ourselves blue and being Avatars.

Ohh, I long for the days in college when all I had to do was sluttify a Disney character to have a totally stellar and praised Halloween costume.  When they say adult life is so much more complicated, I had no idea it applied to Halloween costumes as well.

My buddy Corey does Daily Booth and posted this question the other day:

Among the responses were Fruit, Lady Gaga, Mario and Luigi, Lady Gaga and more Lady Gaga.  I highly doubt Ryan will rock Lady Gaga, even if I told him she wore meat to the VMA’s.  Some friends of mine did Mario and Luigi a few years ago so that’s out.  So I’m at ground zero.

Help!  Please give me great, creative, funny and not-too-hard-to-put-together costume ideas!