Celebrating the New Year includes enjoying many traditions. For years, Tommy and I have enjoyed celebrating the New Year in Philadelphia. We drive up on New Year’s Eve, and our celebration begins with lunch at this amazing restaurant on Rittenhouse Square. It is called Rouge. It is a very festive spot, with great food and interesting “people watching”! After lunch, we relax at the Rittenhouse Hotel. Before dinner, we have a glass of champagne in the lounge at Le Bec Fin, and then we walk to The Prime Rib for a fabulous bottle of wine and amazing steak dinner. After dinner, we change in to warm clothes and hike to Penn’s Landing for the fireworks. This year’s display was very impressive!! After the fireworks, we head back to Rouge for a night cap. Rouge always has helium balloons floating around, and Tommy and I grab a couple as we head out the door for our traditional “release” in Rittenhouse Square Park. We hold on to the string, think of a wish for the new year, and at the count of three release our balloons and watch them float off into the night sky. It’s pretty fun to see how high they soar. This year, they almost got caught in a tree. But, they took a hard right turn just in time and went so high that we lost sight of them – a very successful flight :-).
On New Year’s Day, we enjoy a relaxing breakfast before heading out to the Mummers Parade. An annual tradition, the Mummers Parade features 10,000 men and women dressed in colorfully lavish costumes as they twirl, sashay, pirouette and strut up one of the city’s main streets. An unforgettably wild ritual, the parade and subsequent performances are all family-friendly and fun for everyone.
If you’ve never been to a Mummers Parade, you really should include it on your “bucket list”. It’s a lot of fun for the whole family. I just have one very important piece of advice……DRESS WARMLY!!! Author ~ Connie Cooper
COOPER REALTY WISHES EVERYONE A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!
