Tonight we went down town in Chicago for the first time. It was so cold and windy!!
It was all worth it, though, when we got there. We went to a market / festival called Christkindlmarket Chicago.
Christkindlmarket is an annual event in Chicago that takes place every Christmastime. Many people from Germany come here to sell Christmas ornaments, toys, decorations, clothes, jewelry, wooden carvings, and many more things.
It is at Chicago Daley Plaza, where there is a very large Christmas tree.
There was also a famous Nativity scene there that has been displayed in Chicago every year since 1985. I learned that this is very important to religious people in Chicago.
There were all kinds of food there, like sausages, potato pancakes, waffles, German chocolate, sweet cakes, powdered sugar doughnuts, schnitzel, traditional German soups, and more.
In the middle of Daley Plaza is the huge Chicago Picasso sculpture. It was commissioned for Pablo Picasso to create in 1963 and has been here since 1967.
At the market, there was a stall full of hand-carved wood sculptures from Germany. There were bears, cats, snails, dragons, lizards, and many other wooden animals. My host bought an European dragon and I met him when we got "home".
Christkindlmarket was fun but I'm happy to be warm again!