Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve Dinner turned out quite nice. On the menu this year was our traditional roast but I decided to try three new dishes (scared... and I may have freaked out once): roasted garlic and Gorgonzola mashed potatoes, roasted butternut squash and croissants. The roast was very good.... the potatoes were decent... the squash was heavenly and the croissants were good but I think I need to cook them 2 or 3 minutes longer because they weren't as fluffy as I would have liked.

After dinner we donned our gay apparel... more commonly known as our Christmas eve jammie's!

This year we played Sequence, it was a really fun game and I would definitely recommend it. We played on teams, me and Liv against Nate and Lex. First game went to me and Liv and the second game Nate and Lex won. Liv was bored of it by then because it was taking to long to get to her turn!

The girls got busy making some cookies for Santa... this year they went with peanut butter cookies.... maybe we will dip the extras in some melted milk chocolate tomorrow... yum!

This year the Christmas book I chose for our reading was "Matchless" by Gregory Maguire. It is an adaptation of "The little match girl" by Hans Christian Andersen but slightly more heartwarming and not as grim!

Christmas morning started at quarter past 5 this year. Santa brought Liv some sleigh bells from his sleigh and Barbie's all doll'd up nails. Lex got the new ipod nano and an ihome.

I think everyone made out pretty good this year and hopefully nobody was disappointed! Here are some pictures from our Christmas morning.

Everyone needed to meet the orangutan... some of us think it is a little bit creepy!

I made our traditional breakfast of scones, buttermilk biscuits, sausage gravy, hash brown casserole and scrambled eggs... we are on our way to gaining 10 lbs this Christmas!

The kitchen is barely surviving the onslaught... really dreading cleaning up this morning!

While we ate we watched the Christmas Story and at some point we will break out the one and only Christmas classic, Elf! Liv is also dying to watch season one of The Muppet Show (me too!) which was a present picked out by yours truly.

Liv gave us a private Christmas concert... she is getting pretty good. We begged Lex to play her guitar but she isn't interested in showing off her talent and we aren't interested in pissing off the teen!

We are thinking maybe later we will go see Alvin and the Chipmunks the squeakuel. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, we sure do miss everyone and love you all tons!!!

Getting ready for the Holidays and stuff

I can't believe how fast the time has gone since Thanksgiving. I just finished up my semester on Thursday, it is such a relief! Next semester is going to be brutal, I need to start studying for our first Board Exam, so I guess that means I need to quit screwing around and do a better job with my time management! I have been making a mad dash to get my Christmas shopping started and finished... I think I am about done.

Nate got stuck in Buffalo for a couple of days during one of our last big storms, they closed down the thruway... I think 100 people got stuck overnight on the road so at least he was in the city and not on the road! He is still enjoying work and is looking forward to some new opportunities this coming year. I got the chance to meet some of his coworkers a couple of weeks ago at a hockey game, his company owns one of the suites and invited us. It was a fun date night so hopefully we'll get invited again!

The girls are keeping us busy as usual with their activities. They are both looking forward to their winter break, I can't wait to find out what they have in store for me!

Day 3 - Black Friday

After having a cup of the "world's best coffee" at Starbucks (sweet nectar of life) we made our way to Gimble's... I mean Macy's.

The window displays started with a touch screen computer that let you write a letter to Santa. After sending your letter to Santa the rest of the window displays tell the story of how your letter gets to the North Pole... very cute.

With all the colors and moving parts it was hard to get a good photo amongst the crowd. We were just amazed at how intricate these windows were... just darling!

The display ended with Santa and we couldn't help but hear Buddy the Elf's voice.... "You're not the real Santa, you sit on a throne of lies, you stink, you smell like beef and cheese!"

We walked inside the 10 story Macy's for a peek. Santa was on the 8th floor with a line a couple of hours long. He was well sequestered behind a beautiful toy train display of which none of us had the patience to wait through, so on we went.

We did some more shopping, Liv had a huge dilemma... to get an American Girl doll at the American Girl doll store (I can't believe we didn't get any pictures of it!) or go back to FAO Scwhartz to build her own muppet. In the end the doll of the year, Chrissa, won her over. Lex of course is all about the clothes!

Then we made our way to Times Square, Liv nearly died when she caught a glimpse of the Naked Cowboy... her reaction was hilarious. When we got back to the hotel later that day, she said she would have been devastated if she didn't get to see the Naked Cowboy... the girl kills me!!

It was Liv's lucky day because she also got to meet a "celebrity" (as she put it)... good old Spongebob.

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel to take a break from the crowds and drop off our bags.

After resting our feet for a little bit we decided to check out Grand Central Station. None of the pictures turned out... I was tired of carrying around our bigger camera and there just wasn't enough light for our little one to take a quality shot.

We grabbed some dinner there and walked through some cute holiday shops that were set up and called it a night.

I don't think any of us wants to go home to reality but we miss our furry family members soooo much and can't wait to see them tomorrow!

Day 2 NYC - Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! We decided to relive the first Thanksgiving... awkward if you end up having to sit next to the guy that is half naked at dinner!

We checked out the start of the Macy's parade route last night to watch them blow up the balloons and due to the ridiculous amount of people we just couldn't make ourselves go back for the real deal... maybe next time?

Instead we decided to head downtown to take the Staten Island ferry to get a good view of the city and the Statue of Liberty.

Of course our lady Liberty was by far the prettiest view!

We traveled back uptown to Rockefeller Plaza, we were really happy that we decided to skate the night before in Central Park... it was half the price, twice the size, half as crowded and much more scenic.

Liv couldn't resist another Elf moment on the escalator!

We took a ride 69 floors up to the Top of the Rock to get a birds eye view of the city...

BREATHTAKING!

Then we were off to the Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.

It was a darling show, perfect for putting you in a holiday mood.

I end up getting stuck carrying everything everywhere we go so at this point I ended up looking like a complete jackass.

Then it was dinner time! It was quite lovely to sit and enjoy a dinner that I didn't have to prepare or clean up, between the wine and the cappuccino we sailed through dinner with ease and I am sure widened our waistlines while we were at it.

Me and Lex are getting ready to go out and hit some door buster sales, our first stop is midnight at the apple store... feeling like this could be an insane idea but we are doing it anyways!