Kristina does the Internets: A Date Day in Lincoln Park

Coat and Hat - J. Crew / Scarf and Sweater - J. Crew Factory / Jeans - Gap / Booties - TOMS / Bag - Sezane / Necklace - Stella & Dot

Jeff and I have this habit of being really lazy on our days off (or, more likely, both spend too much time working!), and by the time we get our acts together we realize we missed the whole day. I was determined NOT to have that happen over Christmas this year, so I (maybe overscheduled) a little date day for us.

We started with checking out Christmas decorations in Lincoln Park, hot chocolate in hand. Let me tell you, we found some crazy houses. I know that one that we saw was the most expensive house for sale in Chicago, but honestly, a lot of the others in that area must be close in price. Like, these pictures for example, were taken in front of a crazy huge mansion. I kept asking Jeff when we could move in - ha!

Our next stop was Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The last few times I've gone haven't been the best experiences, either because of crazy cold weather or huge crowds and terrible traffic jams because of too nice of weather. Seriously, my parents actually abandoned their car in the parking lot once because they literally couldn't get out of the lot. But I think I now know the trick - go when the weather isn't so bad, and arrive before Zoo Lights actually starts! We probably got to the zoo around 3:30 and got to see all of the animals with very few people around, and then went outside as the lights came on and got to enjoy before all of the crowds showed up.

After that, we walked up to Halsted Street for drinks and dinner at Oyster Bah. We'd never been before, and I was seriously impressed by the quality of the seafood, especially considering we'd just had one of the top ranked oysters in the world in Paris. Not that I have a fine enough palette to judge, but we were at least told we'd had one of the top ranked oysters in the world ;) Really, Oyster Bah was probably the best seafood I've ever had that wasn't from a beach town.

And then to cap the night off, we went to a wine and paint class at Bottles & Bodega. I've done a couple of these before with girlfriends (and attended ladies night once ;) but Jeff had never been before. I always find the painting fun and relaxing, and heck, who doesn't love a couple glasses of wine?! Now we just need to figure out what to do with two semi-decent paintings of the Chicago skyline...

It was pre-Christmas, but I was trying not to go too Christmassy with this outfit - I actually had a different hat and bag picked out, but ended up not liking the combo, so we somehow wound up with this. All of the red and green. But you can pretend, right, that my holiday style is still relevant to your day-to-day? Please?