The Last First Friday of the Year

Early last week, Shawn told me to call the babysitter for Friday night. I thought maybe he had special plans (he's extremely creative with dates at times), and I called Miranda who agreed to watch the boys for us. We ended up going to Lancaster's "First Friday" where the city comes alive at night for all the patrons who flock to see the various open art galleries, shops and restaurants. Shawn said it would give us a feel for what to expect in NYC the following weekend.

We parked in front of the library and walked to the square, where a live concert was playing. Unfortunately, I wasn't dressed warm enough to really enjoy the outdoor activities, so I was glad to have an idea of how many more layers I would need to be outside for an entire day. From there we walked to the Prince Street Cafe, and our timing was perfect. We walked in as a couple was getting up, so I grabbed the table while Shawn put in our order. The restaurant filled up while we were sitting there, with many folks standing waiting for somewhere to sit and enjoy their food. We ordered hot chicken corn soup to split and a hot apple cider, both of which were AMAZING on this cold night - he also got a small salad and I enjoyed cheese quesadillas. Once we were finished, we walked across the street to the new Millersville Performing Arts building, where students were dancing to Christmas classics (and I'm going to guess it was their rendition of the nutcracker). Shawn thought it was going to be an orchestra or music performance the way it was advertised, and we didn't stay terribly long. After we left there, we walked in a few extremely busy art galleries, saw a couple more musicians performing in the streets and then headed back to the nice heated leather seats of his car.

It was a fairly early night still, so we decided to go shopping for a couple more Christmas gifts before heading home. When we got home after taking the babysitter back to her house, we put the boys in their PJs and we all watched Frosty the Snowman before putting them to bed. Then Shawn & I stayed up and watched a little more TV before calling it a night. He also took the above picture of me that night - welcome, second trimester! Hopefully you're easier on me than the first!

I enjoyed my "hot" date on this very cold night. I have the greatest husband ever, I'm convinced. :) :) :)