Trek to Pittsburgh Part I

Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Wednesday, December 19 to Tuesday, December 25, 2018

On Wednesday, December 19, we headed to Pittsburgh to spend Christmas with family. We made our usual overnight stop at the Hampton Inn in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Barbara and Dick, who are RVing friends of ours who live near Rock Hill, met us for dinner at the Texas Roadhouse located near the motel. We had a great time chatting and catching up.

We made good time on both days of travel since traffic was fairly light. We pulled into Lora and J. Michael's driveway around 3:00 on Thursday afternoon.

Lydia is growing by leaps and bounds. We see a big difference in her just from last September when we all spent a week together in Orange Beach, Alabama.

On Friday morning, we went to Lydia's pre-school where she played Mary in the Christmas program. The program was very well done, and the kids were adorable.

Lydia (to the left of the angel) playing Mary in the pre-school Christmas program

After the program, the two of us headed to the North Hills of Pittsburgh for some appointments. We stopped for a late lunch at Chick-Fil-A before heading back to the house.

One of the things Margery wanted most this Christmas was to spend some mother-daughter time with Lora, so Lora took her to tea on Saturday afternoon at the Johnson House Tea Room as an early Christmas present. The Johnson House is located to the north of Pittsburgh in Mars, Pennsylvania. They had a nice time.

Lora and Margery outside the Johnson House Tea Room

On Saturday after  dinner, we drove to the nearby town of Clinton to see their Christmas light display like we have done in previous years. Thousands of lights are put up by volunteers every year along a 1-mile drive though the municipal park. The display is really remarkable. Proceeds from the $10 per car admission fee go to local charities.

Santa's workshop

Tunnel of lights

In addition to lighted figures, lights strung on trees, and decorated Christmas trees, they also use some of the picnic pavilions in the park to create winter scenes. The pavilion in the photo below is made up to look like a cabin in the woods all decorated for Christmas.

Cabin in the woods

After the light show, we headed back to the house. Lydia headed off to bed soon afterward, and the adults relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Sunday was Christmas Eve Eve. Like many churches, the church Lora and J. Michael attend combined Christmas Eve services with regular Sunday services since Christmas was so close to Sunday. They also added a couple of Sunday afternoon services to help spread out the crowds.

It was a nice service with many of the traditional carols. Unfortunately, Paul felt he might be coming down with a cold earlier in the morning. By the time we got home, he was sure of it. He started taking Airborne and took a long nap in the afternoon.

On Monday, Margery also started to feel the cold coming on. Neither of us felt too bad, so we went with Lora, J. Michael, and Lydia to J. Michael's brother's house for Christmas Eve. We steered clear of hugs and handshakes so we didn't spread our germs. It was a nice evening.

On Christmas morning, we weren't about to let our colds dampen our holiday spirit, and we had a good time watching Lydia open her gifts. She started by opening her stocking.

Daddy and Lydia opening her stocking

Lydia's big gift was a Barbie Dream House. The next photo shows her before opening the gift.

Lydia with her big gift

It turns out the box was empty. Lora and J. Michael had wisely assembled the house beforehand and had hidden it downstairs in the laundry room. Lydia was thrilled to say the least.

After we had all opened our gifts, Margery headed back to bed while the rest of us had a delicious breakfast of scratch-made cinnamon rolls. After that, Paul also went back to bed for a nap while Lydia played with her Barbie Dream House downstairs in the family room.

We were invited to go with Lora and J. Michael to J. Michael's family Christmas celebration later that afternoon and evening, but our cold symptoms were getting pretty bad by that time, so we decided to stay home and not spread our germs. Margery went to bed around 5 p.m., and Paul joined her around 8.

We'll tell you more about our trip to Pittsburgh in our next post.