Moving On

I came down with the flu on Thursday, which is highly unusual. My body usually waits until April or May to get sick, but now it's actually the proper season to get sick. Being sick is no fun and being around me when I'm sick is even more not fun. Just ask David. Or don't because he'll tell you and I wouldn't want him to! Anyway, we stayed in Friday night and watched the very long, yet very good, Pirates of the Carribean 3 movie (A).

By Saturday, I was over the fever part of my sickness and felt well enough to go into the city to visit Macy's, formally Strawbridge's, formally Wanamaker's, because they put on this light show:

The holiday light show is a hallowed Philadelphia holiday tradition, delighting families since 1955 with thousands of colored lights, a “magic” Christmas tree and the sounds of the famous Grand Organ.

A perfect family outing, the Holiday Light Show and Organ Concert at Macy's is a Philadelphia tradition that dates back half a century. Come to the famous Center City store to watch snowflakes, ballerinas and reindeer float beyond the four-story-high velvet curtain of the Grand Court atrium.

The show features more than 100,000 lights combining to create fantastic holiday images. The light show is accompanied by wonderful music from the world-renowned Wanamaker Grand Organ.

Academy Award-winner Julie Andrews narrates this year's Holiday Light Show.

The past couple of years we always said we'd get there at some point, but it's right across the street from City Hall and parking is a huge pain, to put it mildly. So when D suggested we make a point of going this year, I was excited. I'm pretty sure my grandma (Dad's mom), who grew up in the City, and my dad have attended this show in years past. It plays every hour on the hour for about 10 minutes. I'm sure it was much more impressive years ago when colored, moving lights were something of a novelty. But it was nice to participate in a long-standing Philadelphia tradition that has some family connection. D insited on taking some video, here's Part 3. Parts 1 and 2 are on YouTube if you want the fun to continue:



We were sitting on the floor looking up four-stories at the lights, so that's the perspective the camera caught.

I heard there was a Dickens' village display on one of the floors, but our parking meter was running out of time so we had to hurriedly make our way back to the car. It would have been nice to see. But, D assures me, we will be going Christmas-light-looking this weekend. Our annual drink-hot-chocolate-and-drive-around-neighborhoods-gazing-intently-at-light-displays-trying-not-to-look-strange outing. And I look forward to it every year!

In other news, yay for Sara, she guessed all the Christmas picture songs correctly. Here are the last few that I liked, most of the other ones are too easy or not easily readable: