Like I said yesterday, my Mum came to visit this past weekend. We filled up pretty much every moment she was here and it was a lot of fun!
She flew in Thursday night and on Friday we got up and headed out to a few of our favorite shops, which were all decked out for Christmas. Below is the front of the Lucketts Design House. I'm actually going to save the rest of the photos about this for a post tomorrow.
After we enjoyed the shops, we headed north to Philly to see my sister. We got to Philly and stopped at her townhouse first to pick her up and then we all jumped on the metro to head to the Christmas Village next to Philly's City Hall.
We browsed at some of the smaller shops, but spent most of our time at the big tent of Kathe Wohlfahrt, which I spoke about on Monday.
Right nearby City Hall is the LOVE sculpture, which is usually backed by a fountain, but this time of year is accompanied by the tree seen below.
After the Christmas Village, we walked to a place called Nodding Head for dinner. We all tried something new, including fried mac and cheese on the appetizer platter, which was delicious!
They had a crazy collection of bobble heads at the restaurant.
After dinner we walked around a bit more, including past where my sister works as a carpentry apprentice- The Walnut Street Theatre. Most of her time is actually spent offsite building set pieces, but this is where it all comes together.
On Saturday we got up and had a great breakfast at the hotel (one of the main reasons Mom chose the place she did) and then my sister and I took a dip in the pool before we headed out for the day.
After we got back to the room from the pool, I received a text message from my husband with the following picture. Below the picture the text read: "This is disgusting! I'll be in the car driving to Florida if you need me!" He's not such a fan of snow.
It was raining in Philly when we headed out, but that didn't deter us from our plans. Our first stop was Macy's for their light show. This is at the end when they light everything up, but the show includes several stories, including about the Nutcracker and his princess and Rudolph and his nose.
After Macy's we walked to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. I had a great slice of pizza, my Mom had veggie lasagna, and my sister had meat lasagna. All were delicious!
By the time we left the market, it had begun to snow in Philly. The flakes were large and wet, which would have been fine if the wind hadn't whipped through the buildings and caused them to be mean little snow pellets!
On the way back to the subway, we stopped for one of the most important parts of the trip: hot chocolate. It was one of the things we were looking forward to doing, especially with the snow and cold weather. We all got peppermint flavored with whipped cream and it really hit the spot.
When we got back to Karen's townhouse and were ready to leave, my car was waiting for us covered in slushy snow. Fortunately, the weather wasn't too cold, so everything was really just wet, not too icy.
On Sunday, Mom and I ended the awesome weekend with church and breakfast at Panera Bread. I love their cheese pastry.
I make one batch of walnuts and one batch of almonds. Hubby prefers the walnuts and I prefer the almonds, but both are delicious. I only make them this time of year, though Hubs always asks for me to start making them year round.
They are super easy to make and if you'd like the recipe, check out my post from last year or set up an account with Tasty Kitchen and check my recipes under username MrsCJK.
