Christmas in PA - Travel Diary – The Northern Prepster

As y’all know, I am originally from a small town just north of Pittsburgh, PA. Since it’s the holiday season, Grant and I made the drive to Pittsburgh from Orlando last Friday and plan to stay through the new year! When I am home I am not as active on my social accounts since we’re normally running around, watching my nephew, and seeing family. So I asked y’all on Instagram if you’d want to see a round up of some of my iPhone pictures I’ve taken while I’m up here, just to show what I’ve been up to, and y’all said yes.

I’ll be doing at least one or two more of these since we have a lot on our schedule! This weekend we’re headed to Hershey, PA for a weekend getaway. We have a lot of fun stuff planned and I can’t wait to share it with y’all.

Saturday December 14th

This was our first full day here in PA. We drove through the day on Friday and arrived after midnight. Needless to say we were exhausted lol. Saturday evening, my sister hosted a DIY wreath night at her new storefront outside of Pittsburgh! We had so much fun designing this festive snowflake wreath.

Sunday December 15th

When we woke up we were excited to see that it was snowing! It had switched between rain and snow all day Saturday so it was nice to see consistency. Featured in the picture here is my dog, Jack (well technically my parent’s dog). We got him when I was in middle school. He’s diabetic and because of that he is now blind. But he’s still super lovable and loves cuddles and kisses.

We had decided the night before that we were going to go into the city the next day to check out the Christmas festivities. There is so much to see in Pittsburgh during the holidays! We started off by getting brunch at a “new to us” restaurant called Fl. 2 in the Fairmont in downtown Pittsburgh, located on the block next to Market Square. It was delicious! Grant got french toast, and I got avocado toast. I would highly recommend trying this place out. It was also aesthetic lol.

Next up was checking out the Christmas Market as well as the tree over at PPG Place! We even got to go on a free carriage ride. Such a great way to spend a weekend before Christmas!

Pittsburgh also has a great setup of about one dozen Santas from around the world! These are life size models, so they’re super neat. They’re normally displayed along with hundreds of gingerbread houses made by the community, but this year those were moved to a different location. So before we headed to see the gingerbread houses we saw the Santas. The one pictured is St. Stephen from Ireland.

We then headed to the Pittsburgh City-County Building to check out the gingerbread houses. While this was a few blocks away (which kind of sucked), it was a beautiful building! The gingerbread houses are made by people of all ages from all over the Pittsburgh area. Even elementary schools and Scout troops participate. It’s so awesome to see the creativity Pittsburgh has. I just wanted to share pictures of a few of my favorites. I love how many of them have a Pittsburgh flair (Mr. Rogers, the incline, the sinkhole bus).

Tuesday December 17th

As y’all know, I am engaged! So while I was home I wanted to take my maid of honor, Addie, to try on a potential bridesmaid dress. We headed to our closest Lilly store (2 hours away near Cleveland) just so she could try on this dress lol. We loved how it looked and it’s the top contender!

I headed back to my sister’s store to watch another holiday photo shoot. Even Santa was there! (Y’all, this was the most legit Santa I had ever seen in my life, even down to his cane and his “ho ho ho.” It was WILD.) Shoutout to Krystal, our family’s favorite photographer. Check out her website if you’re looking for a Disney or Pittsburgh photographer. She’s also on Instagram, so give her a follow!