Christmastime 2021

Pittsburgh Holiday Market, Market Square

Technically, I guess it's called the Peoples Gas Holiday Market, but I refuse to call it that. You know how it is--Some sponsorship names can sound cool, but certainly not this one. 

Anyway, I love walking around here in December. It's so festive and gets me in the mood for the season. I went three times this year.

Ally and I capped off one visit with dinner at Gaucho, Pittsburgh's best Argentine steakhouse.

Hannon Family Christmas Party

Christmas Eve every year is the night for the Hannon Family Christmas Party. This year, Ally's parents hosted at her childhood home.

Instead of doing a White Elephant, or a "Yankee Swap" as we call it in Connecticut (a game where everyone brings a random, wrapped gift and each participant gets one turn to either pick a new gift from the "unpicked" pile or steal a gift already picked from someone else before opening the gifts to find out what everyone ended up with), this year we did a "grab bag" type of game where everyone picked from a pile a bag that contained a surprise inside. The surprise could be money, a gift card, or a challenge.

The challenges obviously resulted in the best moments. You can see below Tom having to drink hot sauce, Brett having to draw with lipstick on Ally's face, and finally Uncle Chuck having to pose as the Baby Jesus for a picture in the manger scene in front of the house.

Then, we finished off the night with some karaoke.

Home for the Holidays

Of course, I usually most look forward to going home to CT to see and spend time with my family.