“When are the Suppers with St. Nick at The Morton Arboretum?” by S.M. O’Connor

Well-to-do families can enjoy Supper with Saint Nick at The Morton Arboretum in west suburban Lisle, Illinois later this month. These dinners take place in the elegant atmosphere of Joy Morton’s historic Thornhill mansion. There will be four dates in late December for Supper with Saint Nick: Friday, December 20, 2019; Saturday, December 21, 2019; Sunday, December 22, 2019; and Monday, December 23, 2019. These suppers will be held in the Thornhill Education Center from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. After enjoying a dinner buffet, families head over to the Founder’s Room to visit Santa Claus in front of the fireplace, and then can walk the Illumination: Tree Lights at The Morton Arboretum path. Entry to this exhibit is covered by Supper with St. Nick tickets.

The Starters and Salads of the 2019 Supper with St. Nick Menu are shrimp cocktail, lobster bisque soup, cranberry walnut salad, and assorted dinner rolls. At the Main Buffet, one will find hand-carved prime rib and sage-rubbed turkey breast, maple-glazed ham, whipped mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes with toasted marshmallows, sage breaded stuffing with celery and onions, roasted green beans, and penne alfredo with broccoli. Desserts proffered will be warm chocolate chip cookies and milk shooters, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, warm bread pudding with Crème Anglaise, and cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Further, there will be an open bar for adults (twenty-one-and-over).

FEES

Public Admission Fees	Age Range	Member Fees
$95	Adults (21+)	$90 for Adult Members
$80	Young Adults (13-20)	$75 for Young Adult Members
$65	Children (3-12)	$60 for Child Members
Free	Children Under Three	Free

Click here to purchase tickets online, or call (630) 725-2066 Mondays through Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Alternatively, one can purchase tickets in-person on-site at the Visitor Center while The Morton Arboretum has open hours.

The Morton Arboretum is north of Interstate 88 and south of Butterfield Road in DuPage County. While the larger part of The Morton Arboretum is east of Illinois Route 53, a smaller part is west of 53. The East Branch of the DuPage River flows across the property. Hidden Lake Forest Preserve, which belongs to the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, is contiguous with The Morton Arboretum. The address is 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, Illinois 60532. The phone number is (630) 968-0074.

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The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.