Thanksgiving in Phili

We took advantage of a parent living only a day's drive away. How often does that happen to us? Only this year! My mom and her husband are in Philadelphia for their mission at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania scanning family history documents. We decided to see what Phili has to offer over Thanksgiving weekend. As it turns out, it has lots!

The drive there was longer than we hoped because of holiday traffic (lots of cops!) and tolls that we decided to avoid. (We used to have an easy pass from when we lived in Maryland and it did make everything easier!) Luckily, the stay there was smooth, fun, and exciting!

We stayed at their apartment, in a different room, right down town. We were on the 18th floor! The first day, Thanksgiving, we got to see the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade, the longest running parade in the US. We just had a quick jaunt outside from the apartment to get there!

The Philadelphia Temple is being built just outside their apartment and behind where we were standing for the parade!

 Swimming in the pool was a must! We swam and had races until it was time for turkey! We enjoyed all of our favorite fixings, on a smaller scale. Still just as good!

Erik didn't eat any Thanksgiving food:(

Another quick jaunt took us to the Museum of Art, and yes, we ran up the stairs, Rocky style!

Tree at the top of the stairs.

Just thinking...

The next morning we caught a ride with the apartment shuttle to Independence Hall. History in the making! We've been to a lot of church history sites lately, but not many US history sites. It was wonderful to be where our freedoms first started. We sometimes take them for granted. It was a spiritual experience for me. That is until I was majorly rebuked by a security guard for trying to take a short cut to the bathroom for some tissue for Austin's nose. Poor guy (and Jason) was suffering from a cold and needed to blow his nose. They have security guards and rails there for a reason. I was able to demonstrate to our kids how safe we are here (they've been wondering about our safety in the US after what happened in Paris).

Erik loved the shuttle!

Independence Hall

Let freedom ring!

The horses on the street were a big hit.

We walked to the Reading Market to enjoy soft pretzels which are very popular in Phili, a sandwich place Jason said was on some top list, and the local crowds. Then we went to the Mint. The kids sure did like that! No encounters with security there, luckily.

Swimming again and a football game with turkey noodle soup, a must after Thanksgiving, was our wind down time. Then we went to see a Christmas video/light show on a huge wall at the Comcast building.


On Saturday we went to Macy's to see their grand light show and huge Christmas tree. Karissa got her bear re-stuffed at Build-a-Bear and we saw the Charles Dickens Christmas display (display and a half, actually!) It was like Disneyland, except we were walking instead of sitting in a boat, and it was free! We even got to visit with Santa Claus himself!

Erik didn't want to sit with Santa, no surprise there.

This is the only picture that really turned out. It was dark in the Dickens display.

Charlies Dickens

We went to the German market and had some German foods, but it was more crowded and crazy than we liked, so we didn't spend too much time there. It was at Love Park, though.

Having fun downtown.

After another football game we got some Phili cheese steaks at a local place. The only place we drove to so we could get the best! On the way back we saw some lights on boat row.

We enjoyed every minute of it! Being with family, seeing the building of the Philadelphia temple, the big city experience, and the few moments of down time with the kids playing chess (or checkers). We have a lot to be thankful for!