When Jack made me move to Chicago, I was not very, um, nice about it. I didn't even go house hunting with him, for goodness sake. As a peace offering, Jack agreed to let me go back to Atlanta for my Mistletoe Market. I think he thought that just one time would do it for me--WRONG! This year, I went back for the 3rd time. I only missed last year due to some crazy times with kids' schedules and birthdays. This year, I got to take my sweet dear friend Christine along for the fun!
We left EARLY Friday morning from Midway. If any of you have flown through there, you may have met our "friends" the Blues Brothers! The sweet lady at the House of Blues kiosk took our picture with the guys. We were in a goofy mood already :-) It's not often that I have flown without the kids and the stress and all the stuff that they need that comes with them. It's quite liberating, I have to say. We took our time, didn't stress about security and hopped on our plane, Egg McMuffins and hashbrowns in hand!
We shopped and shopped and, oh, shopped! We did get to go to the Bling Fling Gala, too. We ate and danced and tried Firefly's Sweet Tea Vodka that all my GA gals had been raving about. Yum.
Laurie Cates worked with me in 2004 on Market-very pregnant! It was the year to have a baby. Gigi is the same age as Ellen Claire. We joked that if you wanted to have a baby, just come be a part of Mistletoe. She was chairperson for this year's Market and did a fabulous job!
Carey Merritt and I were Chair and Co-Chair in 2003. I wasn't supposed to be co-chair that year, but the co-chair moved ironically up here to Naperville. I was next on the list and the rest is history, so to speak! We had never worked together but quickly found not only a great working balance but a friendship to boot. I treasure her!
Christine and I had fun! I enjoyed introducing her to my GA gals, like Natalie Rutledge (who is a Mississippi Girl) and Kelly Sheriff. All in all, we just had pure, simple fun! We ate like queens, and then paid for it the next week at the gym. Our best meal was our brunch at Ray's on the River. We stuffed ourselves--and that's an understatement. Shrimp, crepes, eggs, pasta, dessert--you name it they had it. And to top it all off, we got a window seat with a view of the river and all the fall wonder. We topped the day and trip off with a quick stop at the Coca-Cola Museum. Christine had been wanting to do something "Atlanta" and what is more "Atlanta" than Coke?!? She was a little wary at first, but we both really enjoyed it! We even found some new soft drinks to try when we travel overseas one day :)
