Christmas Part 2

We picked up Annie around 12:45 on Sunday and headed to Philly. Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain for the entire drive but we managed to make it to my parent's front door in a little over 4 hours. We brought in all of our stuff, and Dad made us a delicious blue welcome drink with a blinking stirrer. After a toast and some refreshment, we headed to Chickies and Petes sports bar-a HUGE sportsbar in South Philly-for some bar food, mussles, and a beer tower for Jeff.

Mom and Dad know our love for tacky Christmas lights and South Philly has a new take on them so they took us on a quick tour of the best neighborhoods. Because many of the houses in South Philly are row houses, the owners decorate the windows with extravagant window displays similar to a department store front but more tacky of course. Naturally I had to document these lights-photo montage below.

We then took a quick tour of some famous Philadelphia locations including Gino's Philly Cheese Steaks and the Art Museum (right at the end of Mom and Dad's street).

After returning home, we had a night cap of course and then headed to bed. On Monday, mom gave me an errand to run to pick up the Cornish Hens and Oysters for the Oyster Stew for dinner. Then I woke up Annie and Jeff, we got ready and headed downtown to visit Dad at his office. He works in a very tall sky scraper and the view from his window is phenomenal. We admired the view, met some of his coworkers and then headed to Manayunk to visit Mom's Pottery Barn store and take her to lunch. Pottery Barn had some amazing sales going on and Jeff and I ended up buying a few things.

After Mom and Dad got home from work, Mom and I began busily preparing our Christmas Eve dinner of Oyster Stew, Cornish Hens with a Cranberry Fig Sauce, Roasted Potatoes, and Salad. The whole thing was delicious and Mom did a beautiful job of setting and decorating the table.

One of my favorite things about Christmas Dinner is the Christmas Poppers. Everyone pops theirs open and inside is a crown and a small toy and some dumb jokes. They are a lot of fun and everyone wears the crown through dinner.

After dinner we watched one of the best Christmas movies of all time (in my opinion)-Love Actually and then opened up one gift before bed.

On Christmas morning, we woke up, had a delicious eggnog breakfast casserole and then opened up all of our wonderful gifts. Afterwards, we had to get on the road again and return home.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a wonderful Christmas with great food, great company, and great gifts.