Happy new year! As you already know, we spent a week in Chicago in a sneaky attempt to persuade our child that, relatively speaking, London really isn’t that cold. In truth, the Chicago winters are a little overhyped: you just have to dress appropriately for the weather, and snow is generally lovely. The only thing to really worry about is ice. I think it’s fair to say that I’m not a fan of ice. Ice is malicious and dangerous, so it’s inspiring to see the steps which Chicago takes to defeat it.
The flight there was very easy – our baby even received the “baby of the day award” for his lack of crying from a flight attendant who was clearly not a fan of babies in general. Thanks to AJ meeting us at the airport, he also enjoyed his very first journey in a car! (We’re planning on teaching him that cars are a uniquely North American invention, although others have already been sceptical that this will work.)
Using Catherine and AJ’s home as a warm and cosy base, we did venture out a few times to see other people, starting with a Sunday afternoon at Toggolyn’s. Very excitingly, Ellen – last seen on this blog in 2021! – was able to join us, and together we all had a super interesting conversation about blogging and writing. I think sometimes the idea of a regular person in 2026 sitting on their own and working on a piece of writing for personal reasons can seem so implausible – even though it’s literally what I’m doing right now – that it’s genuinely a bit surprising to learn that other people do it too.
(Side-note: I felt this surprise again today – back in London – when I heard about someone else’s scribbled notes during a pub meetup with our NCT group. Is everyone still still secretly writing? I would find this reassuring.)
A few days later we joined Julie, Colleen and Karol for a delicious cajun brunch at Big Jones, which was extremely tasty. I mean, someday Randi and I have got to find our way back to a Yats, but in the meantime this hit the spot.
Meanwhile, visitors to the apartment included Christian & Erica and kids (a brief stopover and tornado of lovable chaos) and Anna & Ned’s family, with whom we shared an order from Randi’s favourite Thai restaurant. We also made our obligatory and much-anticipated visit to Janik’s for brunch with Mike & Melissa, who were visiting Chicago at the same time from New York, and received Buffalo Bills baby gifts!
But otherwise, we mostly enjoyed a lot of great home cooking (Detroit pizza night being a particular highlight for me) and made various attempts to match all of the kids in the same outfits. This really came to a head on New Year’s Eve, when party hats were briefly thrown into the mix too, and the resulting photos are surely something to treasure and\or grist for anti-parent angst later on during their teenage years.
Oh, and I’m pretty proud of the popularity of my very own children’s stories about creepy Mr. Google and his nosy, data-collecting habits…
Thank you so much to Catherine and AJ for hosting us, as always!
