Christmas Festivities

Sometimes celebrating Christmas can be so tiring - We had to host and/or go to three parties in four days! We had Jason's family over (seventeen people) on Saturday and my mom's side of the family over (twenty people) on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas day we were off to my dad's house to celebrate with them. Even though we were so busy, I had a nice time. It was so much fun watching Dillon open his presents - although it took him quite awhile before he caught onto it - on some of his bigger presents he actually stood on the boxes and unwrapped them from the top - silly little goose!

I cooked forty potatoes for the Slagle Party:

Our toilet broke during the party:

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Here is our beautiful Christmas tree...

Notice it is only half decorated. When we brought the tree home, Dillon was so interested in it. He kept poking and prodding it. I decided to let it sit for a day so that he would get used to it and he did and eventually left it alone... that is until I put the lights on it. As soon as I turned the lights on, he tried to pull them off! After he was used to the lights, I finally decided to decorate the tree. Once again, Dillon was back at the tree - pulling off the ornaments he could reach and swatting at the balls that were just above his grabbing point (he reminded me of King Kong which is why Jason put a monkey on the top of the tree). Hopefully next year things will go better and I will be able to decorate the WHOLE tree!

So Happy...

to be home with this little cutie!

Day Eight – Liberty

Our day began at six o’clock this morning – way too early! We had reservations to go to the Statue of Liberty at nine forty-five and they said that you had to be there two hours before. Our train this morning went through Courtland Street which is where the subway collapsed on Nine-Eleven. It was eerie to see it still all torn up.

We got off the subway in Battery Park and that was cool to see because I’ve seen it so many times watching Law and Order. There were statues all over the place. We were so cold on the ferry ride there and we were sitting inside – I can’t even imagine how cold it would have been sitting outside.

I didn’t really think I would be “all into” the Statue, but it was really cool. It looked so small from the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center – but in actuality, it’s huge. There was a museum inside that showed the history of it and I learned a whole lot. The views of the Manhattan skyline from the observation deck were incredible.

After our visit to Lady Liberty, we hopped on the train to Brooklyn and went to get some pizza. It was the best pizza I have ever had – and I really don’t love pizza all that much. They put fresh basil and sliced mozzarella on the pizza and oh my gosh it was yummy. After pizza we went for ice cream and it was so good. The only downside was that I had to use the bathroom while we were there and I got locked in – I could not get the lock to turn! Thankfully it didn’t take too long to get out.

I am so wiped out – it’s only a little after eight and I’m ready to go to bed. We were gone for over twelve hours today.

Day Seven – Busy, busy

We had a very busy day today. Our first stop was Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. This was by far the best museum we went to. Some of the wax people were so real you couldn’t tell that they were fake people. We are all such big dorks – we had so much fun posing for pictures with the "celebrities."

Next we went to the Toy’s R Us in Times Square – it is the biggest one there is – its three stories tall. There was a really cool Ferris wheel inside the store. They also had a huge Barbie house, giant Lego figures and a candy land area.

After our window shopping spree, we met up with Susan’s cousin (who coincidentally just happened to be here at the same time as us) and headed off to lunch at Carnagie Deli. Holy cow the food was huge! It was big enough to split and still be full. I am so thankful that I made the intelligent decision and did just that.

We walked to Rockefeller Center for coffee at Starbucks after lunch and then went over to Radio City Music Hall to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes. I am totally amazed at how they are so perfectly in sync all the time. I really enjoyed watching the show.

For dinner we went to a place called Crumbs - for cupcakes. They were so yummy and it was fun to eat a cupcake for dinner! Later we went to McDonalds for “dessert.” What a life!