Living Our Dream

Pittsburgh Wrap-up and Return to Florida

Pittsburgh, PA and Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, December 26, 2014  to Thursday, January 1, 2015

In addition to the gifts we gave Lydia on Christmas morning, we went together with J. Michael's mom on one more big gift for Lydia. It was a Fisher-Price Jumperoo bouncy seat/activity center. On the day after Christmas, J. Michael's mom came over for movies and appetizers, so we waited until then when we were all together to give the Jumperoo to Lydia.

Paul put the Jumperoo together a few days prior to Christmas and then did the final assembly of joining the seat to the base when we gave it to Lydia on Friday.

Paul assembling Lydia's Jumperoo

It took Lydia a few minutes to figure out how to balance herself in the seat and to learn how to be able to reach the floor with her feet and push herself up and down, but she was soon having a good time. In addition to numerous activities, the Jumperoo plays music and has flashing lights.

Lydia in the Jumperoo

Grandparents with Lydia in the Jumperoo

We had a good time watching Lydia play, watching movies and snacking our way through the rest of Friday with Lora, J. Michael and his mom.

On Saturday evening, we took a short drive to the nearby town of Clinton to see their Christmas Light Up Celebration. The one-mile drive through Clinton Park is lined with Christmas lights and scenes, several of which are shown below.

Christmas candles

Animated dragon wagged its tail and breathed fire

Chapel

Noah's ark

We relaxed on Sunday and watched some TV. We also began to gather things up and started packing the truck in preparation for our return trip to Florida.

After saying good-bye to Lora, J. Michael and Lydia on Monday morning, we hit the road around 8:15 a.m. For the first time since we have been going north for Christmas, we decided to split the return trip into two days instead of driving straight through.

There were several reasons for taking two days for our return. First, the owners manual for the new truck recommended driving at varying speeds under 55 mph for the first 500 miles. That meant we would have to be driving much more slowly for part of the trip and that would add at least an hour or two to our total driving time. Second, when we leave at 3:00 a.m. heading north, much of our driving in the dark is at the beginning of the trip when we are fresh. When we head back to Florida, we leave around 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning so we don't disrupt Lora and J. Michael's sleep by leaving in the middle of the night. Therefore, ALL our driving in the dark heading south is at the end of the journey when we're both tired. The third reason for splitting the return trip into two days was traffic on the way south is always much worse than heading north, and the return trip always takes longer. This year was some of the heaviest traffic we have seen in all the years we have been going to Pittsburgh for Christmas.

As we departed on Monday, Margery felt like she was starting to fight a cold, so we stopped at a Walmart along the way for some Zicam and cough medicine. In order to allow Margery time to rest, Paul ended up driving the entire way the first day.

We stopped for the night at the Hampton Inn in Rock Hill, SC, which is just south of Charlotte. We normally shun motels, but this was one of the nicest we had ever stayed in. It looked to be fairly new, and everything was spotless. There was a small refrigerator, a microwave and a coffeemaker in the room, and they served a free, hot breakfast in an area off the lobby in the morning.

We had made arrangements to meet our friends, Barbara and Dick, who live nearby, at Outback Steakhouse for dinner on Monday evening. We haven't seen them for quite some time, and it was good to catch up.

When we got up on Tuesday morning, Margery knew she had something more serious than a simple cold. She had coughed all night, and she felt achy all over. She decided to stop at a nearby walk-in clinic before we hit the road to see if it was the flu. If it was, she wanted to get a prescription for Tamiflu. Tamiflu can reduce the severity and duration of flu symptoms if started within 48 hours of the first sign of symptoms.

In spite of getting a flu shot last fall, Margery did indeed test positive for Type A flu. Every year, they try to predict which strains of flu will be most prevalent and formulate the flu vaccine accordingly. They apparently guessed wrong this year, so the shots are not providing full protection.

The clinic gave Margery a prescription for Tamiflu, which we had filled at a nearby Publix pharmacy. We had a delay of a couple of hours in our departure due to the wait at the clinic and the wait for the prescription, but it was worth it to get Margery back on the path to health.

With Margery battling the flu, Paul drove the whole way again the second day. Margery slept much of the way. We pulled into Blueberry Hill around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Paul ran next door to Walmart on Wednesday (New Year's Eve) to get a few grocery essentials. Margery spent most of the day in bed, but felt well enough get up later in the evening. We both struggled to watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV, then headed off to bed.

Spending two days together in a closed vehicle was just too much for Paul's immune system, and he woke up with flu symptoms on New Year's Day. We found a walk-in clinic in nearby Inverness that was open, so Paul was able to get a prescription for Tamiflu as well.

Margery started feeling a little better after a few days, and Paul never did get too sick. We hung around the motor home and kept to ourselves for several more days hoping not to infect anyone else. We'll have another update soon, so stay tuned.

Christmas Celebrations

Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Wednesday, December 24 to Thursday, December 25, 2014

On Christmas Eve, J. Michael's family gathers at his brother's house for a buffet dinner. We are blessed to be included. We spent the evening chatting, laughing and eating.

Lora, Lydia and Margery

On Christmas morning, we started off our gift giving with gifts for the dogs hoping it would keep them busy and out of everyone else's gifts.

Gunnar opening his first gift

Lora and J. Michael got Freeway a toy duck that looked like Phil Robertson from "Duck Dynasty." Freeway loved it. Freeway loves cloth toys, but he is very hard on them. However, except for Phil's beard, which was the first thing to go, this toy looks to be very durable.

Freeway with his "Duck Dynasty" dog toy

Lora and J. Michael started a new family tradition of giving new pajamas on Christmas Eve. J. Michael got Lora long johns complete with a trap door in back that says "Bear Cheeks." On Christmas morning, every time Lora bent over to pick up a gift or to do something with Lydia, we all got a chuckle.

Lora and her "Bear Cheeks" PJs

Lora got J. Michael Minion PJs. Minions are small, yellow, cylindrical, rambunctious characters from the animated film, Despicable Me. This kind of turned into the year of the Minions because Margery also crocheted Minion hats for both J. Michael and Lydia.

J. Michael in his Minion hat and PJs holding Lydia with her Minion hat

Margery also crocheted coordinating hats for Lora and Lydia. These had a more of a "girly" style.

Lora and Lydia in their coordinating crocheted hats

One of the projects Paul was working on before we headed to Pittsburgh was making a wooden ruler growth chart for Lydia. He stenciled the ruler markings and decorations. After Christmas, he put it up on the wall in Lydia's room.

Lydia's growth ruler

Paul's big gift from Lora and J. Michael was the latest edition of Photoshop Elements. One of Margery's favorite gifts was a framed photo of Lora, J. Michael and Lydia.

Framed photo of Lora, J. Michael and Lydia

After we opened gifts, we had our traditional Christmas breakfast of home made cinnamon rolls. Margery used to make them when Lora was growing up, and now Lora has taken over the job. The rolls were yummy!

Sometimes J. Michael's family goes to his mom's house for dinner and the annual family gift exchange on Christmas day and sometimes it is the Saturday after Christmas. This year it was on Christmas day.

Instead of getting everyone a small gift, each family member draws the name of another family member and gets larger gifts for just that person. They all have a lot of fun trying to guess whose name everyone has and trying to fool each other into thinking they have someone else's name. Each person gets a turn opening their gifts.

Lora opening gifts

J. Michael with his gift

This year, J. Michael's mom made a delicious standing rib roast. She asked Margery to make Yorkshire pudding, which is an English dish made from a batter consisting of eggs, flour and milk. The batter is poured into the hot drippings from roast beef or mutton. The result is much like a popover. In the photo below, the ladies are looking through the oven window to see if the fat is smoking yet indicating that it is hot enough to add the batter.

J. Michael's mom and Margery checking the oven

Christmas dinner

Dinner was delicious, and the company was wonderful. We laughed so much our sides hurt. We still had a few days before heading back to Florida. Stay tuned for our next report.

Phipps Conservatory

Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Sunday, December 21, 2014

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden was founded in 1893 by Henry Phipps, who was a Pittsburgh steel and real estate magnate. The conservatory and gardens are located in Schenley Park in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The conservatory has a number of special events throughout the year, but their biggest events are the Spring Flower Show, the Fall Flower Show and the Winter Light and Flower Show.

Last year, we went to the Winter Light and Flower Show in the daytime to see the flowers. This year, Lora thought it would be a good idea to go in the evening for Lydia, who likes lights. After Lydia's nap and afternoon feeding, we stopped at the nearby Qdoba Mexican Grill to use our Groupon purchase for supper, then headed to Oakland. Parking around Phipps Conservatory is hard to find, but we eventually found a spot on a side street.

Trees at the entrance to Phipps Conservatory

The ticket line was long, but it moved quickly. Admission at Phipps is $15 ($14 for seniors over 62 and students).

This year's winter display includes over 20 varieties of poinsettias as well as other flowers like cyclamen, amaryllis and fragrant paperwhite narcissus. However, the lights are the primary attraction if you go in the evening. The beds along the walkway through the Serpentine Room were lined with poinsettias mixed with lighted glass sculptures and Christmas trees.

Poinsettias and lighted glass sculptures in the Serpentine Room

The conservatory itself has numerous rooms, all of which are decorated for the holidays. The biggest light display, however is in the outdoor garden. That's the reason Margery gave Lydia the blanket she crocheted early. It was cold outside, but Lydia was bundled up all toasty and warm. Unfortunately, the blanket can barely be seen because it is under the zip-up cover of the car seat/stroller.

Lydia bundled up in her car seat/stroller

A prominent feature of the Light Garden is a series of orbs and cones that glow with changing colors.

Lighted shapes that change color

A tree-lined tunnel of lights covers the main garden path.

Tunnel of lights

The garden is filled with lights. There are lights in the trees, lights in the shrubs, strings of lights along the paths, lights in the shape of snowflakes and lights in the shape of Christmas trees.

Lights in the shape of Christmas trees

Another tree of lights

Another part of the outdoor display included a row of lighted snowmen. We paused for a photo beside one of them hoping that was as close as we would come to snow for this trip. Notice how Paul is indicating his aversion to snow by standing a little farther away.

This is as close to snow as we want to get

Lora, Lydia and J. Michael in the outdoor garden

From the outdoor garden, we headed back inside to finish our tour of the rest of the conservatory. Another room featured lighted spheres under the tropical plants.

Lighted spheres under the trees

Spotlights highlight numerous displays of container plants.

One of many displays of container plants

There was also a large wreath made from bromiliads with a beautiful evergreen arrangement in front that featured cedar, juniper, magnolia leaves, holly berries and a pomegranate. The arrangement reminded us of Colonial Williamsburg.

Bromiliad wreath

Closeup of evergreen arrangement

A favorite feature of the Winter Light and Flower Show with kids of all ages is the miniature railroad.

Miniature railroad

Paul has been going to Phipps since his grandfather started taking him as a little tyke back in the 1950s. The Broderie Room with its formal design was always one of Paul's favorite rooms. We paused there for a photo of Lora with Lydia in the stroller.

Lora and Lydia in the Broderie Room

We remember the Christmas tree and the reflecting pool of the Victoria Room from our visit to Phipps last year. It is beautiful in the daytime, but it is even more spectacular at night.

Christmas tree in the Victoria Room

The East Room featured an outdoor winter scene with three bears.

Three bears

Poinsettias decorated the Sunken Garden Room.

Sunken Garden Room

After our tour of Phipps, we headed to the car and back to the house. We all enjoyed the lights, especially Lydia. She was looking all around wide-eyed the entire time.

We had a couple more days of preparation before Christmas. We'll tell you all about our holiday celebrations in our next post.