You know, I just realized that we went from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas in three posts! I knew that time flies, but not that much!
Our chronicle is heading slightly out of order now, as the following events happened last weekend. And to get to bottom of why that is, we have to go back to the beginning of the November. At that time, I contracted a horrible respiratory infection that left me fairly incapacitated for two weeks. By the time I started getting better, Mark hurt his back while raking leaves and refinishing our floors. While that was going on, Marcus developed a taste for baseboards, followed by drywall, leaving us with a hole in our power room wall. This ultimately lead him to having a bout of explosive diarrhea.
All the while, we were preparing for last weekend when my cousin Noreen and her husband Nick were scheduled to visit us from a far away place called Michigan. After that, it was time to get ready for for Thanksgiving. So now you know why there were no blog posts for most of November!
Getting back to last weekend, we were super excited to show Noreen and Nick around town. They couldn't have picked a better weekend because the Friday of their arrival was Light-up Night, when hundreds of thousands of Pittsburghers descend upon the city to enjoy the start of the holiday season with lights, music and fireworks. Normally, we would stay as far away as possible from this event, but not even throngs of drunk holiday revelers could stop us from showing my cuz a good time!
To be on the safe side, I made reservations at Bucca di Beppo in Station Square. We picked it because Crazy Uncle Craig works in Station Square and could easily meet us there. Not-so-Crazy Aunt Phyllis was not so lucky, as she had to fight her way through traffic to get our guests to the restaurant.
While we waited, Mark and Crazy Uncle Craig debated the merits of Sofia Loren and Jayne Mansfield.
Happily, our guests arrived only a half-an-hour later than expected. We then got down to business of getting caught up after many years and chowing down on dinner. Since this was the first time that we had eaten at Buca, we weren't sure what to expect, but everything we ordered was very good. Because the portions are family sized, everyone got to sample apple gorgonzola salad, manacotti, braised short ribs, and of course, spaghetti and meatballs.
After dinner, we strolled around Station Square and enjoyed the sites. I have to mention that, once again, despite all the waiting and boring adult conversation, Lauren was a total trooper. This may be due to the magic of the iPuppy app on mommy's iPod Touch, but I like to think that it's because my child is perfect.
By the way, the blue shiny thing on her sweater is a necklace that I got her by donating to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. It broke yesterday. *sigh*
Here she is enjoying the fountains at Bessemer Court. Lauren desparately wanted to ride the incline (or "trolley" as she called it), but the line was just too long. She didn't even fuss too much when I broke the news, once again proving that she is the perfect child.
The evening was topped off by a lovely fireworks display.
Since I have a lot of photos to share, I'm going to break up our adventures into separate entries. Next will be Saturday's tour of the sites of Oakland...
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