Party Time!!!

It's been a busy week/weekend full of Christmassy fun!  On Wednesday we had snow showers.  Kids up here get just as excited to see it falling down (or sideways, as the wind was fierce).  

None of it stuck to roads or sidewalks, but it was pretty to see on the grass and trees.

New transportation method: I took the East River Ferry on Friday over to Brooklyn to pick up a Christmas gift.  It picks up right behind my school and was a quick, easy trip over to Greenpoint.  Not all that exciting, but I had to document it.

Matt got some good news this week - he got a promotion to Assistant Vice President of his group! I'm a proud wife : )  We went to a new and delicious Italian restaurant, Giano Restaurant, in the East Village to celebrate.  Our food was awesome, as was the atmosphere there.

Saturday marked the arrival of Santa-con, the day when thousands of Santa-ly clad people descend on the bars in Manhattan to drink shamelessly and vomit on the sidewalks.  For the rest of us, it's a day to stay inside and avoid the crazies.  I feel sad for any kids that were out - they must have been shocked and disappointed.  We were able to do avoid the madness, mostly, because I hosted a cookie exchange for work friends.  It was fun.  I fell down on the job of taking a picture of this event - I was too busy hosting.  But, I made some new recipes that turned out nicely, including some holiday sangria that I plan on making again very soon -- yummy!

After the party, Matt and I headed out to meet up with more friends and hang out for a while around town.  I snapped some shots of the holiday hooligans.  They must spend a lot of money on these costumes...some were pretty elaborate.

In the evening, we went to some friends' ugly Christmas sweater party on the upper west side.  Matt and I bought some sweaters for the occasion:

Not entirely ugly, but definitely not going to get us on the 'nice' list.  Forgive us Santa and Jesus.

We had fun meeting new people, playing some games, and eating some more.  At one point, I turned to see Matt surrounded by a whole bunch of guys.  I didn't know what was going on, but no punches or foul words were being used, so I got closer.  Upon further inspection, he was giving a tutorial of how to tie a bow tie...I thought that was so funny.  All those Yankees had no clue.  

On Sunday afternoon, we braved Fifth Avenue to see some of the holiday windows.  I have never seen them in person, and I always had the impression that they were more whimsical or kid-centric than these were.  I liked the ones at Tiffany best.  

Saks had a cool light show that projected on the side of the storefront.  There was a line wrapped around the building just to see the windows.  I thought they were kind of "eh".  We got to see the tree at Rockefeller Center (from a distance).  There were SO many people!

We had one more holiday party on Sunday evening.  This time it was at our minister's apartment for the 20s/30s members.  Man, oh man, what an apartment!  It had sitting rooms and a real fire place and an awesome kitchen and it was huge.  There were 55-60 people and we weren't crammed in.  We met more really interesting, nice people.  We ate and drank and talked a lot.  We really like this church for it's people and its "pray hard, play hard" kind of attitude.  

This week is busy, busy, busy!!  At school, the whole first grade is creating our own farmers market on Friday, so there's tons to do to get the kids ready for that.  We also have an author's share and a school sing-along on Thursday.  So, lots of events.  Plus, we have to get everything ready for leaving town on Friday.  We are So ExCiTeD!!!  I can't wait to get back to see our families.  Safe travels to others who might be traveling this week or during the weekend!

Until next week...

Anna  

"Hey! Unto you a child is born!"

Besides our house closing (phew!), it's been a pretty banal week.  I have ordered and wrapped almost all of my presents for people -- in record time!  Since we are leaving the 19th to head home for the holidays, we wanted to make sure everything was ordered and arrived in time.  Charlie's been very good about leaving the tree and presents alone.  What a good boy.

~

One of my favorite ways to prepare for the holiday season is to read some good Christmas books.  If you know me, you know that I read every night, and during the day too on the weekends.  At this busy time of year, it seems a special treat to take the time to slow down and crack open the pages of some well loved stories.

Every year I read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which is what I'm currently reading.  It's nice because it's a very short story and easy to read.  I love watching the George C. Scott film version too, which stays very close to the text.

Here are some others that I've enjoyed reading over the years:

The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg.  It tells the Christmas story from Mary and Joseph's perspectives.  Thought-provoking and an easy read.

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.  This one made me laugh out loud and think about going to the Bahamas for Christmas.

The Shepherd, The Angel, And Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry.  True to form, Barry induces guffaws and belly laughs through this sweet and poignant tale.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.  Imogen Herdman.  Enough said.

Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon.  This is the eighth book in the Mitford series.  Father Tim finds the reason for the season.

Do you have Christmas books that make it into your repertoire each year?  I'm always looking for more.  Post for me and others to see!

Thanksgiving Feastivities

I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!  This week/weekend has been jam-packed with Thanksgiving festivities for us.  Matt's parents came by bus on Tuesday and stayed with us until today (Sunday).  Freezing, feasting, and festooning were all done.  Here are some pictures that show my week:

Wednesday: 

After work, we (Matt's parents plus us) went to the Met to see a Christmas exhibit, consisting of an intricate Baroque nativity scene and Christmas tree.

Then we went to see the parade balloon inflation near W. Central Park.  It was freezing, rainy, and very crowded, but it was really neat to see the balloons being brought to life for the next day.  It got us excited to be at the parade the next day.

 

                                                                                      (Dinosaur lights at Nat. History Museum)

Turkey Day:

We got up at 4:45am to get out to the parade route and get good seats, which we did.  It was another really cold day.  We had snow flurries as we stood outside watching the parade.  Matt got a NY Times and we got hot drinks to tide us over while we waited, so it wasn't bad.  It was SO much fun to be at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade!  What an iconic tradition, a bucket-lister that I can now check off.

            Parade clowns                                   Clowns jumping over clowns

    Go WCU!

 

                   Snoopy and Woodstock - my faves!                      It's Santa! I know him!!!

After the parade, we warmed up back at the apartment.  Then, we went to dinner at a new restaurant called The Cardinal.  Aptly named because the owner is from NC and was serving traditional Southern Thanksgiving fare, family style.  Our waitress was from Winston-Salem.  We ate well.  Eating out on Thanksgiving was a new experience, but it was nice not having the rush and frenzy of cooking tons of food at home.  I couldn't quite imagine cooking a full feast in our small apartment that fits about 1.5 people at a time.

After dinner, we did some of our Thanksgiving traditions: watched Home Alone (mine) and decorated turkey cookies (Matt's).  I can pretty much quote the entire movie since I've watched it with my cousins every year since I can remember.  "When I grow up, I'M LIVING ALONE, I'M LIVING ALONE, I'M LIVING ALONE!"

Friday:

We went to the NY Historical Society Museum to see a holiday train exhibit.  It was small, but pretty neat.  Then we walked over to Bryant Park to see the holiday market that is set up.  These holiday markets are one of the neatest things about NYC around the holidays.  There are some really cool, unique items being sold.

Since we didn't have all the foods that I normally have, or leftovers to munch on, I did some of my own baking: Grandmother's rolls and apple pie are shown here.  I also roasted a turkey breast, made potatoes au gratin, sauteed green beans, and had some of Grandmommy's cranberry relish to go with.  It was a delicious dinner on Friday night!

Then we bundled up and went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes.  It was a good show!

Saturday:

Gale and Murray wanted to see another show while in town, so we got up and trucked back up to Times Square area (I've been there too many times in the last week) to get rush tickets (so much cheaper!!).  We scored matinee seats for "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," a fantastic show.  While we were uptown, we went to the Natural History museum to see a tree that had been set up in honor of the new Night At the Museum movie coming out soon.  All the ornaments were made out of origami ~ amazing!!!  Some of them were so intricate and complex.

After the show, we came back home and relaxed.  I wanted to start decorating the apartment for Christmas, so we got down the things we brought with us...only to realize we hadn't brought very much.  We had a tree stand, but no lights or ornaments (what were we thinking in May!???!?).  We had Matt's nativity scene, a miniature Xmas tree, my Santa pillow, and a little Christmas tree candle thing, but that was about it...not exactly eliciting a festive mood from me.  But...

Sunday:

Today is the first Sunday of Advent.  We went to church and enjoyed service.  Afterward, we participated in the Advent Fest that the church hosted.  It was PERFECT because it provided lots of decorations for us - just what we needed!!!  We came home with an Advent wreath, greenery for a wreath and other accents, pomanders to make our house smell good, and...get this, origami ornaments for our tree.  Considering we had just gone to see the origami tree at the Nat. History museum, this seemed very apropos.  After church we got a tree and some lights.  So, now our apartment looks and smells and feels like Christmas, though different than usual ("different than usual" seems to be a common theme).

I got creative and put our origami stars and boxes, plus Christmas cookie cutters that I had, with some pine cones and other decorations pilfered (they told us to take them) from the Advent Fest at church.  I think it turned out nicely; a little vintage/modern looking tree.

The countdowns have begun:

15 days of teaching until winter break.

19 days until going to NC.

Let's do this.