2014 Holiday Bucket List: Morton Arboretum's Illumination #Giveaway {Part One}

Each year, my family aims to experience and enjoy life together during the holidays, placing less emphasis on the gift aspect and more on togetherness. This is part one of a series detailing some of our favorite Chicagoland destinations during the 2014 Christmas season. Be sure to scroll down to the end; one of our favorite places is giving away tickets!

Destination One: Morton Arboretum's Illumination

It's back, and it's even better than last year. Definitely worth braving the wind and other winter elements, the Morton Arboretum's Illumination doesn't disappoint. Illumination is a family-friendly walk that spans a mile of the paths at the Arboretum and showcases the astounding beauty of the trees, enhanced and light up with beautiful, glowing lights.

But Illumination, said John, the show's designer, isn't any old light display.

And we couldn't agree more with him. As John the designer lead a tour of Illumination, giving us a behind-the-scenes peak into the making of this holiday must-see, we marveled at the care of design and the intricacies of the show.

This year's Illumination features include some favorite from last year -- hugging a tree to set it aglow and singing to the trees to make them light up and dance with different colors are still mainstays on the Illumination path, much to my youngest's sheer delight. {We could barely pull him away from the microphone!}

New this year, and by far our favorite, was the section of the path displaying a light show that seemingly danced along with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's four musical arrangements, respectively named for each season; we happened to catch a little glimpse of this one, and all eyes were glued to the show.

A few other new surprises are in store at Illumination, too, but I'll save those for when you see them in the person.

A few words of the wise for enjoying Illumination: Don't let the chill in the air keep you away, but do prepare well! While there are warming stations along the path, and hot chocolate is available to warm hands and bellies, a simple jacket and mittens likely won't cut it if the weather keeps trending with temperatures well below seasonal averages. I would recommend warm coats, snow pants, boots, scarves and mittens for the whole family or group attending. Don't try to par it down. You can always unlayer while there.

As far as walking goes, put on your walking boots. Our boys, now five and seven, walked the entire path just fine year and last year as well. If you're bringing a little one, I'd suggest doing what my friend Stephanie did during the behind the scenes tour; she wore her toddler son in a backpack carrier.

Also, don't let a beautiful dusting of snow keep you from Illumination. My husband John and I mused with John the designer about how beautiful it must be to see some of the stops along the path with a cover of snow coating the lights. John the designer said he knew it would be pretty spectacular.

Would you like to take the family to see Illumination? The Morton Arboretum is kindly and generously giving away a set of four tickets to one person here! Fantastic!

All you need to do is simply fill out the easy rafflecopter below, and you'll automatically be entered to win!

Illumination is open now through Saturday, January 3, 2015. Check the arboretum's website for more information on times and ticket prices.

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Destination Two: The Marriott Theatre for Young Audiences Wizard of Oz

Photos courtesy of Mark Campbell Photography

Families looking for a little holiday adventure in their own backyard can follow the yellow brick road to the Marriott Theatre this holiday season and sing along with Dorothy and her friends as they sing and dance their way to the Emerald City.

The Marriott's Theatre for Young Audiences in Lincolnshire is featuring this one-hour musical rendition of the classic movie now through January 4, 2015, and it's a highly entertaining production aimed at the whole family!

The storyline pretty closely follows that of the movie, and features many favorite songs like Somewhere Under the Rainbow and Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. And because this show is geared toward children, signing and clapping along isn't just allowed; it's encouraged!

I'm not sure if it was my boys' having another year under their belts of if it was the high level of engagement in this fast-moving production, but both kiddos, ages five and seven, say through the entire show, happily watching and singing along!

The characters were highly animated and personable, and the costumes, music and scenery were perfectly paired, making this show one of my kids' absolute favorite in recent years!

My oldest thinks readers should know that the Wicked Witch of the West was fantastically scary; however, he also wants readers to know he wasn't scared, but that he thought some younger kids might need a hand to hold or lap to sit on during that time.

My youngest son wants readers to know that the show was a little scary at times, especially the tornado part, in which the lights are turned out and one of the cast members twirls around a "tornado" with a spotlight shining on it. He also wants you to know that Toto, the real, live dog in the show, is an adorable addition to the production.

Both boys really enjoyed the question and answer session with the cast afterward, and my youngest liked that someone asked how the tornado worked and the cast member explained it. {It then became less scary for my tender-hearted boy!}

For a schedule and tickets, please visit The Marriott Theatre's website.

Stay tuned for the next destinations, complete with a giveaway later this week! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Share the Love: Adventures in Chicago and Beyond with the Adler Planetarium

Even though the beautiful and boisterous city of Chicago with all of its amazing culture and sight seeing and family destination is in our suburban backyard, my young family has only ventured there to enjoy pieces of its wonder a few times.

Call me wimpy, but I've let this gem rest just outside of our stomping ground until this summer because I've been sort of intimidated by the thought of taking our two rambunctious and curious boys to Chicago to enjoy some of what the city has to offer by myself.

But when the Adler Planetarium invited us {as in both parents plus the boys!} to come check out the museum and its new Welcome to the Universe Exhibit, I knew I had to man up; I rationalized that two parents with two arms each should easily be able to wrangle and chase two tiny tornadoes throughout the great big city.

And, honestly, what could two little rambunctious and curious boys love more than a day spent exploring the vastness of not just Chicago but also our planet and solar system?

If you answered nothing besides actually riding in a Starship Cruiser with Master Yoda and Luke Skywalker, you're pretty much right on target; we actually had to discuss myriad times before our trip that Darth Vader and Obi One would NOT be at the planetarium, as it was not the home of Star Wars. {Ahem.}

To say that we enjoyed our time spent exploring The Adler and Chicago would be an understatement; though it's been weeks since our trip, my boys are still talking about our Chicago staycation.

Generously, Swissotel Chicago gifted us with a room to call home base during our Adler exploration trip.

G insisted I take a picture of us in the bathroom of our Swissotel room, and he excitedly pointed out that there was a phone next to the toilet in case you need to call for help. 

The boys, 5 and almost 3, were like bees drawn to honey when they walked into the room and saw the large picture window spread out across the wall just beyond our beds. We must have looked out the window for at least 15 minutes exclaiming excitedly as tour boats floated down the Chicago River toward Lake Michigan.

The view from Swissotel Chicago

Of course, that was about the stillest they were during the entire weekend because our staycation was hopping with stops at Lou Malnati's on the Gold Coast for dinner, Millenium Park, the lakeshore via Shoreline Sightseeing water taxi and, of course, the Adler.

We spent the bulk of our time exploring the vastness of the life beyond our planet at the Adler. Upon arriving, we picked two shows to enjoy: 3D Sun and Welcome to the Universe.

Our oldest was mesmerized by the 3D Sun show until it became a little too real, and he needed to exit the show so we could talk about how the sun probably would not shoot fire balls at the Earth. We quickly moved onto exploring some of the large telescopes, the planets, pieces of moon rock and the solar system models before the next show began.

Our Solar System exhibit

When we entered the waiting area for the Welcome to the Universe show, I wasn't sure we'd actually be able to tear our oldest away from the interactive, motion-driven floor-to-ceiling video games on the walls. He quickly discovered that he could make the various spaceship shadows on the walls move by using his body to direct them. At one point, he declared, "Mom! Look! I'm using the Force to move this! ... Where ARE we?!"

May the Force be with you. 

When we finally were able to tear him away from the interactive walls, we found seats inside the Grainger Sky Theater and settled in for the presentation of Welcome to the Universe.

Light saber fighting with Melissa's jedi before Welcome to the Universe began.

The movie screen in the Grainger is spread magnificently across the dome-shaped ceiling, and from our vantage point beneath, it felt as though we were looking up at the actual night sky in Chicago. When the tour of the Chicago night sky morphed into exploration of the other planets and then our solar system, I couldn't get over the depth of the picture on the screen.

And our tour didn't end there; we then went beyond our galaxy and into neighboring ones, traveling past the Andromeda and the Coma Cluster of galaxies. I have never felt so small, so tiny as I did when we were experiencing the universe from our little chairs in our little city of Chicago on our little planet. The vastness of our universe was mind boggling and so incredibly cool.

And the movie was so realistic, I felt like I was really in a spaceship moving through the galaxies.

My youngest, who I expected to be totally distracted throughout the entire presentation, actually sat on my lap the whole time with his eyes glued to the "night sky" and exclaimed "wow!" "beautiful!" "stars!" through the duration of the show.

E and I were absolutely blown away by the beauty, the artistry, the precision and the magnificence of the Welcome to the Universe show. And I'm sure John would have been, too, had he not needed to escort our oldest from the theater after the poor kid said he thought the room was spinning. {See? Really, it's that realistic!}

We ended our tour of the Adler by making our own craters in the Our Solar System exhibit. Because, honestly, could we really end our Chicago staycation without leaving a gaping hole in something? I'm thankful such a mess was neatly contained inside the display box instead of sprawled across a restaurant table or the hotel beds.

Making holes in things we were welcomed to make holes in.

So now that we've successfully spent an overnight in Chicago and we didn't lose either child in any city or space blackholes or make holes in things we weren't welcome to make holes in, I think it's safe to say we'll be back.

And the Adler will certainly be included in our upcoming space and beyond adventures as the boys grow older and taller {they want to do the moon jump} and their interest and curiosity about our planet and space deepens beyond the Starship Cruiser.

But, hey, this was a great start.

Full disclosure: My family was invited by The Adler Planetarium to be members for a day so we could share our experiences at the Adler with our friends here. Generously, the Swissotel Chicago gifted us with a room for the night while Lou Malnati's Gold Coast fed us dinner on the house. Shoreline Sightseeing provided our family with transportation via water taxis, too. As always, all opinions are expressed are genuinely my own.