Andersonville Galleria

In Chicago, Family, Shopping December 27, 2016

Andersonville is a charming, low key neighborhood with unique independent businesses including vintage furniture shops, a toy store, a candy shop, the Swedish Museum, bookstores, music stores and some restaurants I really like. Anteprima has great Italian food and Hot “G” Dog has the former Hot Doug’s Duck Sausage with truffle aioli and foie gras.

The kids and I are never too busy, but between the four of us, someone always has to be somewhere or be out the door by 5:20am. It has become a rarity for all of us to be together at the same time without a specific reason or to be able to be out late on a school night. I wanted to take advantage of being home for holiday break so I forced my oldest to take a few days off work and booked a hotel room in Chicago for a few nights. We planned our days and meals with gusto hoping to do things everyone would enjoy or could tolerate.

My sons are into indie music and my daughter enjoys baking, gardening and interior design which are all things that have been a part of my life. The plan was simple. Go to Andersonville for records, stop at the Swedish Bakery where I used to get their party cakes, hit Scout to browse home decor, then Gethsemane Garden Center. What are the chances that every single place we wanted to go was closed?

We instead went to Andersonville Galleria which is a labyrinth filled with local artisan wares then later to the always inspiring, Architectural Artifacts warehouse. It was a good lesson to gauge how and if my kids are able to go with the flow. As a parent, those are the kinds of things I really care about. Many adults are unable to move past simple things not going their way so how my kids react to an expectation going awry is important to me. Every single store we wanted to visit was closed but the morning was a lot easier on my pocketbook and there is hardly anything disappointing about that.