Eric Odom

Last Friday was a day of laziness and rest. I planned on doing quite a bit of work, but that went out the window once I agreed with my body that I would just lay around all day and watch Family Guy. It was nice until about 4:00 PM when it came to the point in the day where I decide whether I leave the house and do something or plan on staying in for the evening.

I jumped online to hunt around for something completely random. I knew it was cold, so I had coffee on my mind. After a quick search of local events I came across “Caroling in the Park”, a Holiday season series of Friday night gatherings at Millenium Park. It isn’t something I would normally do, but I was in need of something different. Plus, Starbucks was there giving away free Holiday blend coffee!

Normally the guy who owns my apartment would jump up to go run around town. He loves getting out of the house, but he’s in New York to visit family during the Thanksgiving Holiday. That’s fine. I don’t mind being alone and quite frankly… I enjoy it.

So I get to Millenium Park with little effort and virtually empty train and bus rides. There was a sleeper on the inbound CTA Brown Line who stunk up the entire car by simply existing in one of its seats, but I ignored it and turned the music up. Other than that it was a flawless ride in.

The park was bustling with excitement. The ice rink had opened up literally as I walked into the park, so I got to see the action unfold. It took less than twenty minutes for the place to be jam packed with happy faces and little ones willing to brave the ice.

I snapped a picture, but it came out terribly blurred and grainy. You get the idea though…

After watching the ice rink for a few minutes, I went on up a level to the area where the Christmas Carolers were. I grabbed a cub of Starbucks Holiday Brew and watched as the festivities unfolded. After all was said and done, I came to the conclusion that Chicagoans take Christmas VERY seriously.

In fact, this quick video I took (with my Treo 650, hence the poor quality) shows how during the song “12 Days of Christmas” the crowd was divided in to 11 sections where each section would sing one of the gifts. Everyone sang “five golden rings”.

I might be getting old, but I found the event to be pretty cool and I plan on taking some peeps back with me next week just for kicks.

After the roam around Millenium Park, I dropped in to the Navy Pier for a bite to eat before heading home. It was a frigid evening, but the perfect way to enjoy a relaxing Friday off.