Friday

Thanksgiving, A Rental Car and Omni Hotel Chicago

I launched a clandestine offensive against my wife months ago. I learned my lesson from the year before ---

The year before I asked my wife if we could go to Chicago (my home) for the Thanksgiving holiday. Our talks broke down. Since leaving the NYC and even when we were there the MO for us was to stay there because "We do Thanksgiving in New York". Last year she did the classic I'm not really going to answer you one way or another until it's too late to do anything but what I want to do move - in other words she stonewalled me. I made the decision back in 2010 that would never happen to me again...

Omni Hotel Chicago

Once I realized it was no longer summer I began my offensive.

I began stating: "You know family back home is asking why they always see me and not our children, you too." There was no method to my statement. I brought it up over coffee, lunch, dinner, before bedtime, in the shower, I may have even yelled it from the toilet a couple times.

A few Facebook messages came my way from her side of the family asking when we were coming into town (NYC) for Thanksgiving. I didn't respond to any of the messages. I didn't for fear of giving away my position and possibly getting upset in the process. I left the conversation, but by then Facebook began indicating who and when people left email threads. I was nervous that I had given up my position, but no one seemed to care.

A close call. I knew I wouldn't get another.

My wife lives and dies by a plan (or at least what appears to be one). In order for me to see success I had to have all the pieces in place. Namely, transportation and lodging. Our little family is bigger than the little family that spawned me so bringing the whole brood which includes my 6 foot 2 son meant we were going to have to stay somewhere other than the home where I was raised, especially since my daughter has claimed the room I grew up in as her own and my parents have accommodated her in every which way in this regard short of painting the walls pink (I makes my stomach roll every time I go home to see how they took the "boy" out of my room --- that's right MY room).

Omni's Heated Entryway

After some emails, then some calls and then a few more emails everything was set. I had a rental car for a week and my friends at Omni Hotels & Resorts were able to provide me with a beautiful suite at the luxurious but extremely family and pet-friendly Omni Hotel Chicago, nestled in the heart of Chicago's Gold Coast along the Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile.

A month ago, my wife asked the question that I knew would most certainly be asked:

"So what are we doing for Thanksgiving?"

I smiled inside and casually began, "Funny you should ask..."

After spelling it all out to her leaving some wiggle room for departure to and from for our cross country trip the wife shrugged her shoulders less as a relent and more as unwillingness to refute that which couldn't be refuted (the tightness of my plan). She said, "Okay." And for the first time in the 11 going on 12 years I've known her we were going to Chicago as a family for Thanksgiving!

Dads, Men, Husbands: A word to the wise --- have an airtight plan when discussing plans with the wife about the wife and the kids and you can never go wrong (minus a margin of error of 5-6%, just because).

But this was only the beginning. Tune in next week for my tale of the cross-country trip filled with laughter, suspense and intrigue that will never be repeated again.