Hello from Sewickley, PA, outside of Pittsburgh! Matt and I and the kids have been here for the past week visiting his parents. It’s our year to spend Christmas with my family, but the kids didn’t have school this week, so we figured it’d be fun to come up and do some pre-holiday fun! We head back to DC later today.
It’s always gorgeous here at Christmas time with all the decorations in town and on the houses (the picture below is more featuring the sunset than the holiday lights, but you can kind of see the white lights they string around some of the town areas – super pretty).
Here’s what we’ve been up to and what we’ve eaten since getting here!
Holiday-Specific Adventures
We’ve had two holiday-specific adventures, the first of which was when my mother-in-law took me and Riese to see The Nutcracker ballet. What a treat!
It was put on by the Pittsburgh Ballet Company, and the show was in the city – big excitement for Riese.
All 3 of us enjoyed the performance! Riese got pretty antsy by the middle of the second act and I was wishing they offered a shorter kid-specific performance, but overall I’d call it a success. It was fun to dress up and get to go into the big city on a girl’s outing!
Riese requested a special “braid crown” for the occasion – not my finest work ever but I did my best. 😉 It’s hard to braid hair that’s super tangled, but Riese freaks out if I try to brush it, soooo… (if any of you have a rec for a hairbrush for kids that is gentle but actually gets out tangles, I’m all ears).
The other holiday activity we got into was exploring the light show at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, which is a bit west of the city. This was so cool, highly recommend if you’re in the area!
Our tickets were for 5:45pm, right when it got dark, and we got to walk around in a big loop on the trails in the woods, checking out all the cool light displays. It was really nice to have a spot where the kids could run free and get out energy but still be safe/within sight!
I want to come back in summer, too, I bet it’s awesome.
Food We Ate This Week
We’ve stuck with mostly simple meals this week! I’m writing this post on Thursday afternoon, and tonight Matt and are actually going out to dinner with some friends, but as for the rest of the week we’ve eaten at home and kept it simple.
Spaghetti and homemade meatballs with salad one night:
Chicken with roasted potatoes, broccoli with parmesan and lemon, and string beans:
Taco night – always a win!
Plus an array of topping options, of course:
We also had my father-in-law’s signature cedar plank salmon – always a favorite of mine! He tops it with mustard, lemon juice, and a little maple syrup before grilling.
With rice, pickled cucumber and onion, grilled pineapple, and some more string beans.
As for lunches, we’ve had a lot of soup and leftovers! This picture below was of some canned chicken and rice soup that I added some more veggies to (celery and spinach), plus some extra chicken and leftover black beans. It was quite good!
Also, I’ve discovered that the secret to good savory soup is to add a tiny splash (not much!) of soy sauce. It really adds some depth of flavor and richness!
I also went out to lunch one day in Sewickley with my friend Sarah from college who lives here – always fun to catch up with her! We went to Lula, which I’d never been to before.
I had a salad with salmon – it didn’t blow my mind (needed some more toppings, there wasn’t much going on) but it was pretty good. I liked the fried balls of goat cheese the most. 🙂
For breakfasts, we’ve stuck with simple stuff – fried and boiled eggs, oatmeal, toast with nut butter, yogurt, fruit, cereal, etc. Matt made us all omelettes one day, too, which was delicious.
Workouts
Matt and I got in a run earlier this week – we don’t get to run together much these days so this is always a treat!
We did a short jaunt around town (about 2.5 miles) and then ended at our favorite coffee shop, Adesso Cafe, for lattes.
We’re getting in one more run today with our friend Thomas before hitting the road back to DC. Will be good to move a little before sitting for the long drive.
As for other workouts, I made it to Salt Power Yoga, my local fave, a couple times as well. I went to one warm lower key class, and then one hot power class which left me drenched. Both enjoyable in different ways!
It’s been a nice visit – I’m glad we were able to make it up to spend some time with Matt’s parents and our friends up here. Until next time, Sewickley!
