Casa Blanca: Winter Holidays Begin

My dear friend, Sissy, is from Wilbur, NE, which claims to be the Czech capitol of Nebraska. A long-standing tradition is to have Tom and Jerry's during the winter holidays, so the evening before Thanksgiving, Sissy invited a group of us to share some holiday cheer.


Rum and Brandy pair up with an egg batter and boiling water for a "goes-down-easy" drink.

Rusty and I had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner, followed by pie with the White family.

Roasted chicken, cranberry salad, sweet potato latkes and yummy salad.

Lindsay, Rusty, Di, Celeste, Anna

We took a very early morning flight into St.Paul, MN in order to attend the wedding of my cousin's son.

Bethany and Chris were a beautiful couple!

Di and cousin Barb (mother of the groom)

I also enjoyed visiting with my other cousin, Terry, and her family from Phoenix.

David (son), Terry, Di and husband Chuck


The bride wore her grandmother's wedding dress for the first part of the reception, and her mother's wedding dress later in the evening.

Rusty and I had fun dancing to the music, despite the fact that Rusty is scheduled to have a total knee replacement in January.

From St. Paul we flew to Philadelphia to spend time with the Caviezel family. Ruby really wanted some pumpkin pie, so how could I resist?

Ruby and GiGi roll out the pie crust.

As usual when in Philly, most of our travel is on foot. We enjoyed the statues in Rittenhouse Square.

Ruby and Felicia

Ruby loves the statues in the park.

Two of the most beautiful women in my life!

We went to Macy's to check out the Christmas light show and the Wannamaker organ.

Waiting for the show to begin...

Music and lights and flying reindeer!

Watching the light show.

The Wannamaker organ originally played at the St. Louis World's Fair.

After the light show, we traveled through the world of Dickens on our way to see Santa.

Ruby checks out the almost life-sized portrayal of characters in the Dickens story.

The ghost of Christmas Past warns old Scrooge about his evil ways.

Felicia, Ruby and Rusty--enjoying Santaland at Macy's.

Ruby was very brave and sat on Santa' lap for the first time. She told him she wanted a Christmas tree!

Sam watches while Ruby demonstrates her skill at assembling the puzzle.

Sam, Felicia, Rusty and I attended the Philadelphia Art Museum and toured the Leger collection.

You may recognize his most famous piece, "The City".

For a good sampling of the exhibition, check out this website.

Afterwards we went to Vetri's Pizzeria. The Rotolo, which consisted of pizza dough, mortadella, ricotta, and pistachio pesto was incredible! It was constructed like a cinnamon bun, only WAAAAY better!

I wanted to take a horse-drawn carriage ride. Our ride toured the historic spots in Old City and included an informative and humorous narrative from the driver.

Brian, the driver, was most entertaining and charming.

Waiting for our steed, Butters, to pull our carriage through Old City.

The Cianfranie Park put on an extra special celebration to light up the Christmas tree.

Lots and lots of kids and families turned out for the celebration.

The Mummers played and sang.

Ruby enjoyed the music.

Sam stood in line with Ruby so she could get another chance to visit with Santa.

Ruby seemed just a bit more hesitant with this Santa.

Ruby, Sam, and the newly-lit tree.

Rusty and Sam enjoyed the evening with a good-tasting cigar.

Two nefarious characters.

Rusty and I were pleasantly surprised that all of our holiday travels went smoothly. After enoying 50º weather in Philadelphia, it was a shock to come home to sub-zero wind chill temps.