That's a Wrap

After a lazy morning at home we packed everything up, grabbed some lunch and waved to the parental units as they headed back to New York.  Elise and I headed to Lawrence to do some window shopping and then to downtown to check out the Christmas decorations.  As it was a Monday afternoon, there was not too much going on, but at least Elise could cross off a few more Pittsburgh hotspots before she hopped on her plane.

Two last pictures from the week!
Thank goodness for filters because we are pasty ... I need to spend some time in the sun.

I may heave headed back to an empty home, but at least I had a fridge full of homemade food to comfort me!

Mama Mia!

There is nothing better than coming home to a home cooked meal after a long day of work.  As if we did not eat enough on Thursday, my mother made homemade meatballs and sauce for an army.  Seriously come over for dinner, I will take one of the six containers out of my freezer.  

It might not be the best picture, but it was sure delicious!!

Now off to eat some pie and watch the latest and greatest documentary on Netflix. 

A Trip to Oakland

With rain in the forecast for the entire day, we decided to suit up and head to Oakland to play tourist.  The first stop of the day was the Botanical Gardens.  My father is a lover of botanical gardens and trains so we were just in time to see the new winter show.  

I spy something with my little eye ... a 90's troll

And a flower which looks like a goldfish

And some space aliens

Here we have the most dysfunctional family with the inability to take a "normal" family photo.  Ask my father to smile and it automatically ruins the photo (sorry Dad).  As a result we always get him with this quasi smile.  This was take four and we decided we best stop there.  

Elise in the desert room under some Chihuly glass.

This year's Garden Railroad theme is fairy tales.  

Stories included Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzle and Peter Pan.  

We headed into the rainforest section and were surprised to find koi.  

Here we have Elise blending in with her environment.

After grabbing a late lunch, we headed over to the Cathedral of Learning so everyone could see the Nationality Rooms.  As it was a Saturday, I figured we would be able to get into all the rooms, but for some reason most on the first floor were closed.  Each of the rooms were filled with traditional holiday decorations, so even though I have visited several times, this visit had a different twist.  

Elise holding court!

In other news, my sister is a complete ham and has dominated my photos over the last few days.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.  Don't get me wrong Christmas is great, but Thanksgiving is EVEN BETTER.  This year could even be better than last because this year we have the turkey hat.  Seriously folks the best $7.99 I have ever spent.

Everyone was still in bed by 0930 so I figured I would get things started in the kitchen.  Conveniently people started crawling out of bed when the coffee had been made and the chopping was nearly finished.  Sadly my chopping was cut short (haha - pun not intended) when my pointer finger lost the battle cutting stale bread for the stuffing.  I took a supervisor position and had some apple cake and coffee so no complaints here.

Last year we got a picture with the turkey, so this year we did it again.  

What a good looking family (and hat)!!!

I'm do not usually take food pictures, but you have to have the obligatory turkey shot!

After dinner we all took to the futon to digest.  Now my father is not the most tech savvy person out there, but he saved the Thanksgiving moviethon by fixing the tv (who knew there was a little switch on the side to turn on the monitor).  After the Hunger Games concluded, dessert commenced and I snapped this gem of a picture.

By 2200 the leftovers were all packed up, dishes were dried and everyone was tucked away in bed.  I'm sure the party could have gone on, but this chickadee is going to work in the morning while Elise and the parental units play tourist.