Thursday, December 28, 2006

What We've Been Up To

Like everyone else, these past couple of weeks have been incredibly busy. My in-laws are here and between all the usual Christmas celebrations we've been trying to squeeze in some touristy things.

Last Saturday we took a ride to Amish country and started out at the Intercourse Canning Company in Intercourse, PA.

I'll give those of you with dirty little minds a minute to stop snickering.

*
*
*
*

Actually, I don't think it matters how pure of thought one is, the name does give one pause. But the Random House Dictionary says:

in·ter·course
–noun
1. dealings or communication between individuals, groups, countries, etc.
2. interchange of thoughts, feelings, etc.
3. sexual relations or a sexual coupling, esp. coitus.

[Origin: 1425–75; late ME intercurse < ML intercursus communication, trading, L: a running between. See inter-, course]

Okay. Now that that's out of the way, I'll continue. The canning company has some of the best jams, jellies, salsas, dips, picked veggies, teas, coffees, etc. Before we even arrived there I had in mind to buy another jar of seedless black raspberry jam and a bag of Chocolate Peanut Butter coffee. What I hadn't planned on, however, was the incredible 75% off sale they were having on all their tea paraphenalia.

So I walked away with a $90.00 tea set for only $22.00. CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY! Isn't it lovely? Simple, yet elegant. Plain, yet beautiful. Makes me truly happy.

After driving around and gawking at the poor plain folk in their buggies - though I don't really feel bad because we spent enough money in various places to keep their draft horses in oats for years - we came home and stopped for pizza from Vince and Tony's. Pizza from Vince and Tony's is one of the advantages of living here. It beats the pants off Pizza Hut!

Sunday was a day spent going to church and finishing with our Christmas preparations. It was nice and relaxing.

Christmas itself was nice. Now that the kids are older and have lost their Christmas innocence it seems to fly by even faster. I'm not sure what we did between opening presents and eating dinner. I don't have Christmas dishes, so we used the good china and I decorated around that color scheme. Maybe not such a big deal to those of you with an ounce of decorating talent in your pinky, but for someone like me this was HUGE! lol I wanted to post a picture of the decorated table, but blogger isn't cooperating with me. I probably wouldn't choose the same china 20 years later, but I do still like them. They're white with tiny flowers in various shades of blue around the edge and rimmed in silver. Obviously, I did a blue theme.

Tuesday we went for a ride along the MainLine - a rather swanky, old money part of suburban Philadelphia - and stopped for lunch at Kelly's Pub in Bryn Mawr, which happens to be right next door to Hope's Cookies. Of course we had to buy a dozen or so.

Yesterday we went into Philadelphia, walked to the beautiful and historic Christ Church, stopped at Sonny's Famous Steaks for - what else - a cheesesteak, and then toured Independence Hall.

After that we took the City Trolley Tour and got off at Macy's, which used to be Lord and Taylor's, which was originally Wanamaker's and is the department store that unforgettable cinematic wonder, Mannequin was filmed in. They have a Christmas light show there that we popped in to see. Infinitely more impressive than the light show was the $60-something t-shirt my mother-in-law bought for $6.50. We then jumped back on the trolley and continued our tour.

This is the third time I've done the trolley tour and every time I learn something new. If we lived closer to Philly I think I'd like a job as the tour guide.

According to my counter, my surgery is now officially looming. So today I'm packing and trying to catch up on my board/bloghopping since it will be several days before I'm back on-line again. Though I am planning on posting once more before I go to bed tonight.

What are all of you doing for the New Year's weekend??
Mused by Jenster :: 1:28 PM :: 4 People musing:

Post / Read Comments

---------------oOo---------------