Where I’ve Been, What I’ve Been Doing in Pittsburgh – December 2018

Hi y’all!

Sorry I haven’t been the most active here on my blog or on my Instagram the past week or so. Last Thursday we drove up to our home in Pittsburgh, PA for the holidays. We’ve been crazy busy but have been having a ton of fun with family and friends. On Instagram I asked y’all if you’d like a run down of what we’ve been up to, and you said yes! I don’t have a lot of pictures, and they aren’t the best quality. But I hope you enjoy anyway!

Friday Dec 14th

We arrived in Pittsburgh around 10PM on Thursday evening. We left Orlando around 5:30AM and slowly but surely made our way up! So Friday was our first full day back and we were super busy. During the day on Friday I helped my Mom and sister decorate our basement for Christmas. We had our annual Christmas party on Saturday so we had a ton to do and decorate. My favorite project we worked on was a sleeping bath tub Santa! He ended up being a huge hit at the party.

Later that day we left around 4PM to go to The Polar Express Train Ride in Ohio. We got dinner as a family then headed to the Ohio train station, which was 2 hours away. Many of you asked me to review our experience at this Polar Express since I did the Orlando one… Long story short, do the Orlando one lol. My nephew, Percy, still loved seeing the lights and riding the train. But overall it wasn’t very impressive, especially for the price.

Saturday Dec 15th

Saturday was party day! We all had to wake up and get out of the door early despite the party not being until the evening. We had so much to do – our day consisted of Sam’s Club and Walmart runs as well as cooking, cleaning, and straightening everything up around the house. We managed to get everything done and the Christmas party was a HUGE success! We all had a blast and it was nice catching up with old friends. My parents started having Christmas parties when we moved into our current home in 2008. The parties stopped for about 4 years but in the first few years we had 300+ people attend. This year we had around 75 but it was so much fun and not too overwhelming. The picture below is the pine cone cheese ball I made. Just take the cheese ball recipe of your choice, shape it like a pinecone, chill it, then add almonds!

Sunday Dec 16th

We FINALLY got to sleep in on Sunday. We had a really long few days from driving and party prep. We ended up taking our 12 year old nephew, Kane, Christmas shopping. It was quite the event and it took a while but it was nice to spend some quality time with him. The evening ended with wrapping a ton of Christmas gifts.

Monday Dec 17th

Grant worked during the day but in the evening we headed to the mall for my sister to do some last minute shopping and Grant to make an exchange. It’s so fun seeing all of the Christmas decorations at the mall and seeing it through Percy’s eyes for the first time.

Tuesday Dec 18th

My family and I all went up to the Outlets so they could do some more Christmas shopping. We went to one of our favorite restaurants by the Outlets, Elephant and Castle. Our waitress sadly told us that they will be closing Dec 30th forever. We were happy to go one last time, but were sad since we’ve been going there as long as I can remember. Their food is delicious and I’ll miss the atmosphere.

 

Well, that is about it! Sorry this isn’t the most entertaining blog post, but I still wanted to put something out for you all. Next week I’m thinking I’ll post about my favorite items I gave this Christmas! Let me know in the comments if you think that’s something you’d be interested in.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Jayme