Since moving to Minneapolis in 2004, I must have driven by The Basilica about 1000 times. I've spent more than a few hours (and dollars) at Lurcat and Nick & Eddie and can even see it from my loft. But I had never been inside until Friday afternoon, when we got our holiday choir fix with the Lutheran National Choir's Christmas concert. Jefe and I were both total gleeks back in high school, (before it was cool) - proud members of the audition-only small chamber choirs of our respective high schools - mine in Mission Viejo, CA, his White Bear Lake, MN. With my 23 fellow members, I sang on the stage of Carnergie Hall, which was pretty sweet. And even sweeter: a bunch of suburban OC high school senior besties set loose in NYC for a week. I think Jeff's sang at the MOA. Anyhoo, we both love choir music and had been wanting to attend a holiday concert so decided to go see our friend's mom perform at The Basilica. The concert was divine and The Basilica much more impressive and beautiful than I was expecting. Nice to know we have such a gorgeous place right in our little city.
From there we fit in quite a few Friday night events including vino and a pizza at Toast, visiting a friend with an amazing loft downtown - complete with a fully decorated, upside down Christmas tree - who served us perfect pink sparkling wine, the creamiest brie I've ever tasted and truffles that were a dream while Gus crawled around and gazed up at his impressive art collection, then a holiday party in Golden Valley with good friends and a cozy fire. We left around midnight and the snownami was already in full effect so we slowly drove home and got cozy. Luckily I planned ahead, figuring we'd be loftbound til Sunday and had already stocked up on food and vino earlier in the day, along with the 10,000 other people I fought for parking spaces at Lund's and Surdyk's. I'm glad I did because all I wanted to do Saturday was light lots of candles and a fire in our strange gel based urban loft fireplace that actually does the trick, stay in jammies all day, read books, listen to Christmas music, enjoy our holiday decor, watch movies, cook pasta, drink vino, snuggle with my boys and watch it snow - and that's exactly what we did..after waking up to skylights and a roofdeck with more snow than I've ever seen..taller than my babe:
Yowza.
By Sunday afternoon we were going a bit stir crazy and it seemed safe to take main roads that had been plowed to the Calhoun Beach Club for a family swim, then we stopped by The Guthrie so I could photograph the Deflated Dome and had a beer and yummy app at Sea Change. Then Gus and Jefe chilled at home while I went off to meet some friends in St. Paul - first dinner at the very cute and delicious Mango Thai to catch up with a lady friend I hadn't seen in a while, then a hot buttered rum by the fire in the downstairs lounge of W.A. Frost with another good friend. If you haven't been there, go while its still decorated for Christmas because there is no better place to hunker down on a snowy night and feel some holiday cheer. They take all the comfy couches from the patio and bring them downstairs to a cavernous little lounge where you can duck into one of many comfy, romantical caves or warm up next to the roaring fire with an a hot adult bevvie - they make the best hot buttered rum in town with many more delicious sounding warm drinks on the menu. It's my favorite winter hangout and while I wish it were closer to my loft, like maybe next door.. I realized its only 8 miles away. So, Minneapolitans really have no excuse for not venturing into St. Paul..especially when cozy atmosphere, delicious food and warm drinks abound.
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