PA Holidays #4: The Finnster's Big Day!

One of the most special parts of our time in PA was being able to attend our nephew Finn's baby blessing!! It was so wonderful!! LOOK AT THIS LITTLE GUY!!! Don't you just want to squish and cuddle him?? (It's hard being all the way over in CA again and no longer being able to squish-cuddle that little nugget.) Finn weighed over 10 lbs. when he was born, and fortunately he still has lots of that gleeful, smiley squishiness for Auntie Jean to enjoy. :-)

That Sunday morning, I happened to actually (gasp!) get ready with a little extra time to spare, so I passed the time by taking a bunch of photos of Weston in his church clothes. He LOVES this ottoman at the window at Gangy's house:
Peekaboo!! (Yes, the Mommy-razzi is taking pictures of you again.)

Love him.

Ahh, love him even more now...

After Sacrament meeting, I attempted to gather the folks who participated in the blessing, but a few disappeared to Sunday School before I could snag them. However, here's a nice picture of the family members, plus Jason (there in the back) who is a close friend of Dana and Jay's. (Look at Finn staring at Grandalf!! Precious!):

And here's the cutie patootie Carlin clan. Isn't this a great picture? I love those guys:

And the man of the hour!!! Awww, we love Finn:

Weston and Killian hung out in the chapel while we all visited and took pictures. Weston's looking at Killian and thinking that looks pretty comfy:

"Hey, maybe I'll give that a try..."

And that's what brings us to this last photo...

Does Sacrament meeting end any other way, really? Haha!

PA Holidays #3: Peddler's Village

Wow, I'm moving really slowly with these PA posts! Probably because we're all sick over here at Team Anderson, and all I want to do is lie in bed under the covers and feel miserable in the peace and quiet of a dark bedroom. But, obviously that's not an option with a cranky toddler in the house, so I'm up and blogging instead! Hopefully we'll feel better soon, but for your reading pleasure, here's the next installment of our PA vacation series.

After Christmas, the Anderson clan headed over to Peddler's Village to check out the gingerbread house displays and admire the Christmas lights. Peddler's Village is a charming outdoor shopping center, complete with historic Colonial-style buildings, windmills, walkways, bridges, grassy open areas, and lots of trees. There are a bunch of shops (selling candles, clothing, kitchenwares, baked goods, etc.), plus a few pricy restaurants. It's adorable!!! And it's very nice for wandering around aimlessly (unless the temperature happens to be below freezing, I have learned).

First, we headed over to the gingerbread houses, and then took pictures looking cool:

There was a long, slow line, so we were outside for quite awhile:
So, I asked Killian (Weston's cousin) to smile for a picture, and this is what he did (the "Killian Standard Camera Smile," or KSCS, as I like to call it):

Weston has NEVER smiled on command for me, but I asked him anyway, and guess what... he followed Killian's lead (this is one of my favorite pictures!!):

We waited and waited, and the wind became a bit bitey (to the point of disfiguring Brett's face a bit, unfortunately):

And finally we got in!!! There were over a hundred gingerbread houses on display in the gazebo, and some of them were really spectacular:

Although it was crowded inside the little gazebo, it was good times with gingerbread (especially when I quickly and secretly ate that last one... what?). Next we ventured back out into the cold to make our way to the shops:

Weston loved this tunneled path:

Check out this toy shop... oops, I mean, toy "shoppe." Isn't it darling?

And guess what was inside... YEP. A train table.

Here, Weston is eyeing Killian suspiciously. I'm pretty sure that he had a "MINE!" ready on the tip of his tongue, just in case. (Despite our ongoing efforts, the concept of sharing, especially with trains, remains far from his strong suit.)

Weston freaked out and bawled when we finally had to forcibly remove him from the train table, but Tim and I appeased him by taking him back to the tunnel for a few more passes:

And as it got darker, all the pretty Christmas lights appeared!!!

Aaaaaaand, here we are. Yeah Peddler's Village!!! (Thanks for the gingerbread houses and the pretty lights and the scenery. Next time, please provide chloroform at the toy "shoppe" train table for customer use on unwilling toddlers. Thank you.)

PA Holidays #2: HIBACHI!!!!

From now on, any time that one writes or says "hibachi," one must say it really drawn out, with great emphasis and lots of exclamation points. Because it is awesome. HIBACHI!!!!

Over the holiday, Tim and I had the wonderful opportunity to get together with some of our high school friends at a restaurant called Ooka Hibachi. YAAAAAAAY!!! (Don't you just love Facebook? I'm so glad that I ended up joining last year, because I've been able to get back in touch with some of my favorite people ever.) We went with these fine folks:

Mikey & Lauri (okay, okay, Mikey didn't actually go to high school with us, but we adore him, so he was an honorary North Penn grad that evening):

Lindsey/Webby & Jon:
Allison & Mike:
And yours truly, Tim & Jean:

It's amazing to see all the changes that we've all experienced since we graduated. We all went off to college; we're all married now; there's one child and two more on the way; ... and I was going to say that we all have careers and houses now, but that really only goes for everyone else but me and Tim. Hahaha! But we're working on it. :-)

This was my and Tim's first trip to a hibachi restaurant, and I discovered that we were in for a real treat. Our hibachi chef was wicked awesome!!! He balanced and tossed eggs:

He chopped and flipped and cooked like a whiz:

And he unleashed his pyro side for our enjoyment:

The only thing that he didn't do was toss vegetables into our mouths (which they supposedly do from time to time), but he made up for it by getting Mikey & Mike to drink from a sake bottle that was aimed at their mouths. It was really fun to watch them manage to drink from a super-long stream of sake! AHAHAHAHA! They are troopers.

Our chef was also fantastic because, holy schnikies, look at this bounty of Japanese goodness:

Mmmm!!! Tim and I split a California roll and a hibachi combo of shrimp and filet mignon. It was so tasty!!! At the end of the evening, we took some pictures and then exchanged lots and lots of hugs. What a hot group we are:

I adore these girls! I cannot even recount all the fun and crazy times we shared in high school. It was wonderful to get to relive that for an evening. :-) I MISS YOU ALL! Until next time!!!

PA Holidays #1: Lancaster County

Well, we're back. Again. From Pennsylvania. Whoo!!

As usual, our visit was awesome, featuring wholesome family fun, gift-giving and getting, Beatles Rock Band at night, day-trips to nearby attractions, cows, cold COLD weather, fantastic friends, that fabulous Philly accent, hoagies, soft pretzels, Asher's chocolate, and Tastykakes. :-) It was everything that a PA visit should be, especially the opportunities that we had to see Gigi (Tim's grandmom) one more time before her passing. We love our Gigi.

I've decided that instead of spending seven hours at the computer, reviewing and organizing and compiling my bamillion photos into one ridiculously gargantuan blog post, I'm going to publish several mini-posts that highlight some of the activities that we enjoyed while we were gone. Starting with... Lancaster!!!

Tim and I took Weston out to Pennsylvania Dutch Country one afternoon for some sightseeing and shopping and eating. After trucking up the turnpike for awhile, we came to this lovely sight:
As you can see, Weston was beyond thrilled:

Our first stop was the Shady Maple Farm Market, which is technically a supermarket, but in a beyond-awesome kind of way. In my opinion, it is the best supermarket that I have ever experienced in my life. I could spend hours just wandering their massive produce section, bulk section, and bakery section, not to mention the rest of the store. Oh, it is heavenly. We picked up some sticky buns, shoofly pies, and whoopie pies to share with the family, along with a new stash of PA Dutch egg noodles for my private stores. :-)

Then it was off to the Shady Maple Smorgasbord, which was PACKED, but which is fortunately large enough to accommodate a small city-state of hungry diners. Like I said, my poison is the buttered egg noodles, which are plentiful and deeeeelicious:

I did not expect Weston to become as obsessed with those buttered noodles as I am, but yes... he did:

It became a full-handed effort to smush them into his mouth:

Got 'em all? Yes.

He really appreciated all the pictures that I was taking during his mealtime:

(We all got to experience that scowly little face many times during our trip! We have come to love it.)

Next, it was off to Rockvale Outlets!! Shockingly, we looked but did not buy. It was cold. And Weston was tired. And despite forgetting every other time, we actually remembered that our suitcases MUST be 50 pounds or less on our return flight. We are learning. :-)

We were on our way back to Lansdale when I was hit by a sudden urge to visit Strasburg Railroad. By the time we arrived, it was mostly deserted (because for some reason, it closes at 3:30 PM in the winter?!), but we were able to peek longingly into the gift shop windows with their big "CLOSED" signs. Haha! Don't worry, it was actually really nice to walk around the trains and take pictures:

Tim happened to notice that the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania across the street was still open, so we braced ourselves against the freezing wind and ventured over there:

We did not even need to buy admission to the museum because, guess what... the gift shop was open, and it had a train table. Yes, a TRAIN TABLE.

Train table + Weston = JOOOOOOOY!!!!!

Naturally, we haunted the train table corner of the gift shop for quite a while, and ultimately decided to spring for a Thomas engine for Weston (best. present. ever), in order to express our gratitude for the playtime:

And that was our afternoon in Lancaster County! FYI, Jesus Christ works out of Lancaster. We passed His office:

So, now you know that if you're ever in dire need of the guidance, help, and/or comfort that only Christ can provide, you know where to find Him (at least during office hours).

More PA Holidays posts to come...!