A Very Special Christmas Tradition

Every year since I was about 15, my mom and I make it a point to take one full day out of the busy and fast-paced weeks leading up to Christmas for our annual ‘Christmas in the City Day’. We take the train downtown, eat lunch at Pizano’s (our favorite pizza in Chicago), finish up some Christmas shopping, and take in all of the lights at the Christkindl Market at Daley Plaza. Our evening ends wrapping presents, cooking a warm dinner, and watching the Bells of St. Mary’s on our old VHS tape that was recorded just shortly after I was born. This is arguably my favorite day every year, especially the last few years after I’ve moved out of the house and gotten married. Now we call it our annual ‘sleepover’. 

This tradition was extra special this year. Almost six months ago to the day, I had more than a few moments where I was unsure Mom was even going to be here, let alone shoveling pizza and dodging hundreds of Christmas shoppers. Back in June, I wrote about mom having a benign brain tumor removed and a couple complications she had afterwards. At that time I wrote about that, little did I know the complications were only beginning. After an infection that left her in a debilitating amount of pain, a stroke on the night of the 4th of July, and two very dangerous allergic reactions to medication, the summer thankfully ended and mom came home for good. I didn’t share a lot of this at the time because our family experienced so many ups and downs-and the downs were very scary. Watching my best friend experience so much pain and depression due to her temporary loss of independence was difficult to say the least. June, July, and August are a complete blur and that time period is still one I get emotional thinking about. A lot of my emotion comes from the pride I have for her and how hard she worked every day to get better. There were many days where even standing up to the use the restroom was a huge feat yet here we are six months and a world of difference later. 

This weekend, we made the decision to change this year’s ‘Christmas in the City’ to ‘Christmas in the Burbs’ as Mom is still finding her balance in large crowds, but I can truthfully say this was the most fun we’ve had to date. I picked her up just before lunch time and we still managed to make a stop at Lou Malnati’s for some deep dish pepperoni pizza. In the last few years, there has been a Christkindl Market location in the suburbs and this year we took full advantage. We did a couple laps while sipping on Hot Cocoa with fresh Bavarian cream and munching on cinnamon roasted pecans (this day never lacks in the snack department). After a little while, we made our way to the outlet mall for a bit of shopping. In full disclosure, we bought more presents for ourselves than others this weekend 😉  

After being out in the cold all day, it was time to head home to wrap some presents and watch our movie. Mom made us some toasted ham sandwiches and coffee while we transformed her living room in to Santa’s workshop for the night. I made it a point to stand back and take in how wonderful the entire day had turned out to be. I ended up being the one that had a hard time keeping up with her and fell asleep on the couch by the tree. 

Our day was nothing less than perfect and watching my mom participate in our normal traditions while enjoying herself fully made my entire Christmas season. I continue to be in awe of how hard she pushes herself to get a little better each day and I hope this tradition is something we carry on for many years-complete with a pepperoni pizza.