For reasons already mentioned multiple times, I didn’t do enough Christmas in 2025, and during the first days of 2026, I was trying to catch the last bits of it. On Monday, I was working from home, and went to Charmer’s for breakfast. I almost ordered a cappuccino, but stopped myself and asked whether they still had any holiday drinks, and they had!
And on Tuesday, my 6:30 AM train happened to be a Holiday train (somehow, they didn’t have time to remove decorations!), and that was another treat, because it was the only time this season!
Now I checked all the boxes, and finally ready to have the Christmas season over!
Why did I do it so early this year? Because otherwise, I would need to do it the next weekend, and next weekend, I will have the girls, and it will be my mom’s birthday, and I will also need to get ready for my next trip, and review the training I am giving at the end of the month.
I ordered the tree removal for today, so that I won’t even think of keeping it longer :). It is faster to take the decorations down than to put them up, but still, it was a lot!
That’s how many boxes I had to move downstairs to the storage! It took me six trips up and down! I go up and down, and you think – why in the world am I doing this? Bringing all these boxes up, and four weeks later, bringing everything back down?!
I know that many people feel sad when they remove a Christmas tree and decorations, but for me, it symbolizes a fresh start: the holidays are over, and the new year has officially begun, and I am ready to make it great!
So that I won’t leave a trail of stories-not-told, a quick recap of Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday morning, we went for breakfast to the Common Cup “to compare the breakfast sandwiches,” and the vote was that “both were good, but different.”
A coffee-cup decorated tree in the Common Cup
Shortly after, we left for Christkindl Market, planning to get there by its opening. The plan didn’t exactly work, since we had a couple of photo stops on the way (and a couple of fights), so we actually arrived at 11:20.
There was no wait, but the market was pretty crowded; besides, all three of us wanted food from three separate lines 😂, and it was really difficult to navigate. We got everything everyone wanted, and then we stood in a really long line for the best hot chocolate (Belgian, with a chocolate wrench on top).
Then, we went to the Sweet Castle store. As usual, there was a line to enter, but the girls were willing to stay in it. I told them they could get two small or one big thing each, and they ended up with gummy bears and hard candy (I hinted that there might be a lot of chocolate in the presents). By the time we got out of the Sweet Castle, the crowd had subsided a little bit. There were still a lot of people, but as Nadis put it, fewer intimidating, so we happily continued our journey exploring the market, and stayed in another line to get into the Christmas Ornaments store.
Next stop was a manicure appointment. We started walking toward the DePaul campus (where the nail salon is located), but there was a bookstore on our way, and we couldn’t pass it without going in and starting to read off the shelves :).
… and then since we were by Harold Washington Library, one can guess what happened next :).
On Tuesday morning, we were waiting for Anna and John to come and have a pre-Christmas celebration together. They ordered the food from Honeybear cafe, and picked it up on the way. Once again, Igor escorted my mom to my place, and we had brunch, and exchanged presents.
Igor and my mom left, the girls packed, and all five of us went to the Merry Merry Chicago Concert. For Nadia, it was for either the third or fourth time, and she was looking forward to it. Kira was restless, and at the end, she said it was boring, and she didn’t like it. I think it was indeed too long of a concert for her, because before that, she only attended half-hour children’s concerts.
I went how and started to get my life in order. Actually, this time, the girls did a very decent job of keeping things in order, so it was not like I had a lot to clean up. However, I also had to pack for a short trip, catch up with work and other responsibilities, visit my mom, and finally talk to Boris for longer than ten minutes at a time. This took pretty much all the time starting with after the concert till 6 PM on the Christmas Eve, when I left the house with my luggage.
Sunday was our Art Institute Christmas Day: as anyone should, we went to see Napolitan Creche and Miniature Rooms, and then headed to the Ryan Center to do the projects.
The theme of the projects was a newly opened Bruce Goff exhibit. We missed it on our way to the Ryan Center, but went to see it after lunch, and then returned to the Ryan Center one more time to make more art.
We all liked the Bruce Goff exhibit. I previously mentioned that I was disappointed with the Symbolism exhibit, and Nadia said she didn’t like it either. She said that the Bruce Goff “Material world” was also “Strange realities,” but the funny ones. I agree.
We finally left the Art Institute close to 3 PM, returned home, and then spent the evening decorating cookies. Last Christmas, Nadia did a great job with cookies, and I told her I could use your help, but this year, it was on a whole new level, and Kira helped as well. They decorated all of the remaining cookies and said they could do more 🙂
I was super impressed with this rocking horse – that’s one of the most difficult shapes to decorate.
Now, I am definitely employing their skills next year!
Igor picked up my mom, and they both came to have dinner with us, to socialize with the girls, and watch them decorating cookies.
My mom was really impressed with the work the girls did “on their own will,” and said that she understood how much work I had to do with the girls staying with me, and that she “sympathized with me.” When I told her that I do not see anything to be “sympathized” about and that I only do the things I enjoy doing, she got very upset and went on one of her regular rants about “my generation not being able to understand hers”, but I honestly have no idea how this all got connected in her mind!
Last year, I took Nadia to her first Nutcracker, and she was mesmerized with the performance, and was looking forward to this year’s one. This time, we also took Kira; I had somedoubts, especially because the way we got the seats, the girls were in the first row, and I was in the second row right behind them, ready to jump and put Kira on my laps. It was not necessary; although both girls fidgeted in their seats, theyloved the show. A very special Chicago Nutcracker was brilliant as always; I hope they will never change it 😊.
The introductory images with the pictures of the old newspaper articles about immigrant workers were as relevant as they could be!
Th usual pile of presents in the foyer
The official 2025 trailer:
The girls fidgeted the most during the Snowflake dance and during the final dance of the Sculptress, and indeed, if there are any “classic” parts in the Joffrey Nutcracker, these ones are. However, when I later asked them which parts they liked most, both of them mentioned these two. Kira said she wants to be one of these little Snowflakes :).
I especially liked this year’s Sculptress, her final dance was out of this world!
More of Joffrey Ballet Instagram (and you know I can talk about them for hours, so i ‘d rather stop now!)
It’s not easy to get on a Santa Train, because these days, there is only one train instead of two, and it runs on different CTA lines at different times. Igor and I were discussing how we can get the girls on the train, and the only option seems to be to try to get on it after the Nutcracker, which was a little bit tight, even taking into account the usual holiday train delays. But then Igor realized that we could catch it in the opposite direction, when it departs from Howard, and take it to the Nutcracker instead.
The girls were impatient, so we left well in advance, and it turned out to be perfect, because there were picture-taking opportunities and tons of candy canes.
A line for pictures with Santa
Finally, the train doors were open, and we got inside (Igor joined us by then). It was super crowded, so even though we got the seats, it was difficult to see the rest of the car.
The ride took significantly longer than it would be on a regular train, but we still managed to get to the Nutcracker on time!
So, I have Nadia and Kira here with me for the first part of Christmas break, which means I do not have time for anything else :), so I will make a post tomorrow, when everyone leaves.
So far, we have done Santa Train, Christmas crafts, the Joffrey Nutcracker, the Art Institute, and cookie decorating. Next on our list is Christkindle Market and a holiday manicure :). And then early Christmas presents giving and the Merry Merry Chicago concert on Tuesday.
On Thursday, I got on the Santa Train, just because it happened to be one after the next train, and because the next train was so crowded that I almost couldn’t get on.
It was also super-crowded, but I really needed to get to my next destination, and an Elf reluctantly let me on when she saw an opening.
It became less crowded towards the end of the route, and an Elf started to move around the car and distribute candy canes.On that day, I actually had to go to the final stop, and had a chance to take a lot of Santa’s pictures
The picture below was taken on Friday, and that was a Fannie May holiday trolley:
And more presents – from Scotland and from Sweden:
On Tuesday, I took a whole box of non-decorated cookies, along with several tubes of icing and multiple containers of sprinkles, to the ODS for our traditional cookie-decorating session.
As I already mentioned, this year was not smooth, and I was not sure how many residents would be there, and how many would be interested (because there is always this balance between these teens being teens and being “too cool” for cookie decorating and not having enough fun when they were kids). So I started decorating with one of the girls, J., who is always ready to cook with me. Then one of the male residents joined and decorated a cookie, and said he was going to eat it. I asked to take a picture first:).
Then one staff member, J.L., joined, and she was not even trying to hide her excitement and enthusiasm :). And all of a sudden, the rest of the residents pulled up to the kitchen island, eager to participate. Some of them did a rather clumsy job, some – a very neat one, but everyone was creative:).
One of the relatively new residents, M, asked J.L.: if you could get anything in the world for Christmas, what would you wish for? And J.L., who is young, energetic and anything but sentimental, replied: If I could have anything in the world, I would want my grandma back! M. looked at her and said: You know, that’s what I would want, too! I would want my grandma back!
It struck me, since one more time, it reminded me about the life expectancy gap which everyone is talking about…
I said, that if I could get anything for Chirstmas, I would want the war i Ukraine stop, and Russians being out and never come back. They nodded: yes, they kill people, even children!
We kept talking about Christmas, and I mentioned Finland, and it turned out that most of them knew about Finland, and the “real Santa living there.” I told them about the snow that falls quietly, and about the granite crumbs used instead of salt on the roads, and mentioned how many people in the US don’t even know that Finland is a country. M stared at me in disbelief: Even I know! If many people don’t, I am seriously concerned!
Everyone loved how the cookies turned out. At some point, I thought I should have brought more cookies (I had more), but in the end, it was just the right number. Here is what was not eaten by the time I was ready to leave (as “too pretty to eat”):
.. and it was one of the best nights in the shelter I had this year!
Hettie's Reflections 