{"id":10354,"date":"2026-01-30T17:30:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T22:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themaddlife.com\/?p=10354"},"modified":"2026-01-30T17:30:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T22:30:36","slug":"winter-vacay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/?p=10354","title":{"rendered":"Winter Vacay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our house decorated for Christmas and Hannukah brings a peacefulness and a sense of pride.  We waited years for our renovation and \u201creal\u201d furniture.  Scanning the room and seeing catalog worthy adult furniture exuberates gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hannukah started the Sunday we unexpectedly stayed in New York an extra night.  Nights two through seven we celebrated at home by lighting the menorah.  Despite the girls\u2019 activities, we always found a time to light the candles, even if very late in the evening.  The last night of Hannukah we celebrated at my parents\u2019 house with latkes, sou-vide chicken, green beans, and chocolate mousse cake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The girls had a marathon baking day with Ms. Pat and made a variety of cookies that we all enjoyed for days!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Karolin came a few days before Christmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas Eve somehow became a little chaotic and instead of stressing, we took it all in stride, but that meant that we chose to not go to church.  We took our time and took pictures by the fireplace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Followed by a stroll through the neighborhood to see the luminaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinner was at PF Chang\u2019s, an annual favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I was grateful we didn\u2019t rush to church, I was a little sad we didn\u2019t make it because we missed out on the reinforcement of the meaning of Christmas.  We\u2019ll come up with a better plan for next year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The morning didn\u2019t start as early as some years.  Emerson wanted to sleep in; Avery and Harper wanted to start early; we settled on 8:30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We saw what Santa brough first\u2026a lot of shared home gifts this year.  He wrote the girls a letter about how wonderful it had been to witness the girls come together and be present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stocking time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Followed by a delicious breakfast.  Avery made her delicious cinnamon rolls and Harper made citrus scones.  We also had bacon, sausage, fruit, and eggs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We spent a lazy morning after breakfast drinking coffee (me and Justin anyway) and opening presents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My parents came over in the evening for a delicious Christmas dinner of brisket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The following day it was almost as though there was no evidence that Christmas or Hannukah had even existed!  We started putting gifts away and taking decorations down and within days, it was all behind us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent an afternoon going to Gravelly Park to watch planes take off from Raegan Airport followed by a stop at the Torpedo Factory and then dinner out at Bear Branch Tavern.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Karolin left a few days later.  It was great to have her spend the holiday with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Year\u2019s Eve we stayed home.  We all cooked a yummy pasta and turkey dinner.  Justin went to bed at 10:00, probably the first time he hasn\u2019t stayed up until midnight on New Year\u2019s Eve in at least 30 years.  The girls and I completed our packing for Pittsburgh, where we were headed the next morning, turned on Ryan Seacrest\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve Show and toasted with cider.  It was fabulous to stay home!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New Year\u2019s Day we packed the car and headed to Pittsburgh for two nights, our first time staying in our place.  It was also the first time the girls saw it.  There was a combination of snow, ice, and slush on the sidewalks, so we didn\u2019t walk as much as we wanted.  That combined with most shops and restaurants being closed on New Year\u2019s Day allowed us to have some leisurely time at home.  We took advantage and did some house maintenance and deep cleaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had some good eats: Driftwood Oven, The Pitch on Butler, Millie\u2019s Homemade Ice Cream, Enrico Biscotti, Caf\u00e9 Moulin, Peace Love & Little Donuts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next time we want to try: Papa J\u2019s for pizza in the Strip District, Frio Ice Cream on Butler, and Baby Loves Tacos in Bloomfield<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also had a fun pasta night at home.  We used pasta and sauce that we bought from Penn Macaroni Company.  Next time, we go to Pittsburgh we decided we would plan our meals more in advance so that on nights that we planned to cook at home, we could buy items directly from the cheese shops, sausage shops, seafood market, bakeries, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We all enjoyed our time together and look forward to doing it as much as we can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We came home Saturday so that we had a day to get ready for school and work. Sunday night was rough\u2026school seemed to be the enemy.  We got through the week though and its already mid-January and for the first time in my life, I think I have accurately written 2026 every time I have had to write the year so far. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our house decorated for Christmas and Hannukah brings a peacefulness and a sense of pride.  We waited years for our renovation and \u201creal\u201d furniture.  Scanning the room and seeing catalog worthy adult furniture exuberates gratitude. Hannukah started the Sunday we unexpectedly stayed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10354"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10398,"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10354\/revisions\/10398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themaddlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}