27 Years... Where did the time go? It went to celebrate!

An anniversary celebration planned by Jillian and Jerry and Halley: a wonderful dinner at Manny's in the 'W' Hotel, downtown Minneapolis!  Can't even begin to describe the portions this restaurant serves, but, can describe the taste:  Fabulous!  A wonderful way to spend the evening!
On our way, fighting the downtown traffic... snarled due to the Holidazzel Parade.  I'm sure it's pretty neat... but alas, we did not see it.... too many cars and people milling around!
 

As we walked in the restaurant, we saw this cart with food on it... thought it was weird... but then, we found out why.... As they describe the menu, they present each piece of raw meat and describe what it is, the weight, etc.... Jillian's arm is just to show you a frame of reference... the Lobster you see, was alive... and when it was near us, you could actually see it trying to crawl away.... No way could we have ordered a lobster.... we felt bad for it... but I guess not too bad, cuz we all still ordered dead cow for our meals, just not Louis Lobster for dinner... cept for Halley who ordered King Crab legs...

 

And so the meal begins.... with a toast to the lovely couple... that would be us, Jerry and Jean!

 

Hello Halley!!!!!

 

Jillian...can you stop drinking, just for a moment?

After we finished our meals, they delivered a free dessert for our anniversary... the size of which you could share... A huge chocolate Brownie, with Whipped Chocolate Bailey's Mousse on top, and then Whip Cream all over... and about 1/2 cup Hot Fudge to pour over it... Halley didn't want to participate, so she ordered a piece of Pecan Pie....  Piece?????  We forgot that everything here is humongous!!!!
They delivered Halley's piece of Pecan Pie.... It's was 1/4 of about a 20 inch pie we swear! Not fair to Halley, I never took a picture of our big chunk of Brownie dessert... we were too busy digging in and eating it ourselves... We divided it up... and still, there was some left over! 

 

 

Brown Thursday.... Well, since

our hotel, The Radisson Blu, is connected to the Mall of America (MOA to the locals), on way home after dinner, we decided when we were back at our digs... at 7:45 we'd take a walk around the mall, except for Halley who opted to hang in the hotel room watching her videos!  Well, there wasn't a huge crowd in the mall areas (of course, with FOUR floors of Mall that would have been a heck of alot of people.... BUT, a few stores notably had lots of folks in a very organized line getting ready to shop.  The first pic is the Windows Store.... (Which, coincidentally, is right across from the Apple Store, which chose not to open)... Anyway, it was the longest line we saw.  You only see a portion of it here.  Victoria's Secret had long lines at EACH of its four stores in the mall, Forever 21 was pretty packed and the Best Buy, which was just a phone store, was also busy.  Only two anchor stores were going to open:  Macys and Sears; Nordy's was a no !...
Today, Friday, when we ventured out in the car to get some massages that Halley organized... no problem leaving... getting back we had to contend with the shoppers traffic to get to the hotel... fortunately, Jerry located an alternate route which pulled us in to the turnaround in less than five minutes... Good Job Jer!
 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrating the day in Halley's apartment! Whew!

Before we left Tacoma, Jean ordered groceries to be delivered to Halley's so we could have an old fashioned Turkey Day.... with all the trimmings... But that mean, Jean would be spending the prep time in the kitchen.... looking out at her adoring family.... see below:


Halley's friend supplied her with a new tree this year... They started the decorating process earlier in the week, and Jerry helped finish it up... Jean was overwhelmed with the Holiday Mood it created.... or she was just whacky from spending off the time in the kitchen!

Jerry and Jillian... watching Elf... yes, while Jean was cooking 

Jean finally got everything in the oven, other items all ready to go when the turkey would be closer to completion!  She was so excited Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen in White Christmas was on!
"What do you do with a General?"

 

 

My family loves the schmaltzy musicals!
 

Halley thinks we're all crazy!
 

And love the grand finale when everyone gets back together... AND it snows... AND he becomes her prince on the white horse....
 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah... Time to eat finally... Through the years, Halley's never had a Turkey Day at her house... We were using various cooking pans/sheets/pots as our serving dishes... and guess what... everything tasted more than good... it was Fantastic!

 

Jean was somewhere.... not sure where... but she was here!
 

 

Birthday, Getting Ready for Turkey Day and Being Family!

So... the Holiday Week began with a little celebration at Harbor Lights with three of Jean's most favorite folks... Jerry, Jillian and Darren.  We celebrated a day early since, since Jean's actually birthday kinda got lost in a bunch of life that had to take place before we left for Minneapolis on Tuesday, Darren left for NYC on Monday, and Jillian left at 12:30 am for Minneapolis on Wednesday!  Whew!  When Jean's actually birthday burst forth... Her Diva's took her to lunch at Boathouse where she had the Best Bloody Mary ever she proclaimed.... sorry, not pics of that... Jean, Julie and Liz were too busy enjoying their gabfest!

 

 

 

 

Got to Minneapolis and checked into the Radisson Blu... Stayed here once before, but this room was a suite with an adjoining bedroom for Jillian and Halley to stay in.  Wow... Quite the decor... very modern for sure... Very cold, by the way here in MSP.... 11 degrees... clear... slight breeze....  

Found the best store in Mall of America... Jillian's fav now... Bettie Page!... vintage clothing... They fit her well... Her dad was patient and sat in the VIP area where she could model the items for him!!!

 

 

 

Dang... the sales clerk's arms are right behind Jilli, so you can't see her curves... Note, though, she has her brace off for the pose... She said, she will wear none of these till she no longer has to wear the brace... been almost three months now...

Halley's crutch is like a cane for Jillian, and if Jillian had her crutches here, they would be taller than Halley...

 

So, we have a Volvo we rented... and these pictures just don't do justice to the laughter we were having due to the headrest in the back seat.  This picture doesn't show it well, maybe I'll take another, but, there is a button in the front seat that you push, and it lowers the headrest in the rear... even if someone is sitting there... Jerry and Jillian started playing with them and Halley and Jean were getting bonked in the head... Had to be there I guess to appreciated all the laughter it was causing... way too complicated to share the build up to how we figures out what that button did!
 

Christmas in a Martini with three straws they prepared just for us... Thank you Halley for taking the picture!