Happy Holidays Part 2

 So tomorrow Julie goes home to Seattle and it’s really true, she arrives in a burst of twinkling stars and rainbows and when she leaves, my world goes black and white and dull but okay, I’m good with that, I guess, I’m old. 

We baked literally 1,000 cookies, filled cookie tin after cookie tin, typed mailing labels, made two trips to the post office, and I am happy to say that all of Julie’s top tier Bandcamp subscribers will be receiving their special thank yous in the next couple days.

Other than marathon baking and mailing, I can’t believe what we crammed into a week.

The highlight was Sunday when Eric surprised us with a visit on his way home from a gig in Massachusetts.  Talk about kvelling, I had to fight back serious tears of joy because I knew everyone would make fun of me.

Before they hugged me, that is.

Besides going to a Flyers’ game, Gary and Julie had some really cool father daughter time, visiting a luthier who repairs vintage guitars and of course he knew Adrian so Gary got to do the Dad brag telling him Julie’s been his bassist for 16 years.  Gary has an extensive collection of said vintage guitars and he’s got a 50s Guild that needs rebinding so knowing this trip would include hours of nerd talk, I opted to stay home and watch the Holiday Baking Championship, because I, too am a nerd.

Also, because I do all of my holiday shopping while reclining on my sofa, I had to stay home for UPS.

The following day Gary and Julie went to the Italian Market and bought supplies for homemade pizza.  

Once again, I had to stay home and wait for UPS.  Yay me.  

Julie taught Gary how to make pizza dough from scratch using the recipe she got from Bedia Pizza and now my life is complete.  I’m not even lying, my life is now perfect.

Anyway, I was jealous of no Julie time so today the two of us hung out and it was like the pandemic never happened and she never left Philadelphia.

We walked into town and had a most excellent adventure.  We hit Macy’s to see the holiday lights and play with toys (I wanted to see Santa but can you believe it, you needed a reservation 😂), Reading Terminal Market for some gifts and snacks, all the Christmas Villages around City Hall and Love Park, we had an incredible Thai meal at JJ’s, popped into Long in the Tooth for some vinyl, and we finished with wine, cocktails, and a basket of hot, homemade potato chips at Tria Wine Bar.  I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but whatever, here’s the obligatory photographic proof.