If you had told me at the beginning of December that I’d be spending part of my Christmas ice skating and being introduced to Downton Abbey in Chicago, I would have thought you were nuts. But that’s exactly what happened, and the three days I got to spend with my sister and grandparents were such a blast!

The week before Christmas, Robyn and I spontaneously decided to book plane tickets for the following Monday. Meaning, we booked a flight that was less than a week away, and the day after Christmas, no less. Meaning, I had three days to do about ten loads of laundry in order to pack for three separate Christmases (Daniel’s parents, my parents, and one set of grandparents) AND pack a suitcase for plane travel. Oh and I was also still doped up on pain meds from getting my wisdom teeth out. Lol. First time for everything!

We flew out of OKC to Dallas, then from Dallas to Chicago. And let me tell you something – when we got on the plane in Dallas, it was THE NICEST plane I have ever been on!! I’m not exaggerating, this thing was superb. The aisles were wider, it had three sections of seats instead of two, the snacks were better, the seats were more comfortable, AND – best part – every seat had its own power outlet and TV screen in front of it with hundreds of TV shows and movies to choose from. I was thoroughly impressed.

The first day and half was spent relaxing, eating, hanging out with our grandparents (who I somehow never took a picture with, *thumbs down*), and trying to get Grandma’s cat Bethany to like us.

Robyn finally convinced her! She’s the cutest.

Wednesday, we conquered Chicago on our own! We took the train into the city, then a taxi to the Field Museum of Natural History. I had been before in 2006, but I enjoyed going back! One of the larger special exhibits, “China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors,” included real terracotta pieces brought over from China, some of which dated back as far as 221 BC.

Looking at clay statues that were carved by hand 200 years before Jesus was even born…it stole my breath.

We didn’t have an endless amount of time in the museum, but we sure had fun wandering around while we were there!

Arguably the happiest picture from the trip. :)

Since we were only a few city blocks from Millennium Park (our next destination), we just walked! The weather was gorgeous, and we got to enjoy the view more than we would from the back of a cab.

The highlight of our adventure was ice skating in Millennium Park! Although “ice skating” barely describes what we were actually doing. We both put one foot on the ice and realized we had made a huge mistake, but we managed to make it around the rink three times. It took us seventeen hours, but still. Three times!

We were better at people watching and throwing shade.

Nobody but Robyn will really ever understand why the photo on the left is so funny. Let’s just chalk it up to my terrible photography skills and leave it at that. :) The important part is that she is a great travel buddy, this trip was good for my soul, and now we can smugly tell people that we ice skated in Millennium Park at Christmastime (and conveniently leave out the part about the adorably tiny 3-year-old girl who literally skated circles around us while we clung to the railing).

Enjoy my travel posts? Buckle up, because I’ve got not one, but TWO 2017 vacation reveals coming soon!! Stay tuned :)