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Showing posts from December, 2013

Gingerbread Extravaganza!

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Every year the Le Parker Meridien Hotel hosts a gingerbread extravaganza. Bakeries and restaurants around the city make gingerbread creations that goes a long with the extravaganza's theme. This year the theme was "quintessential New York". Being an amateur baker (at least I like to think of myself as an amateur baker) I really wanted to go and see the gingerbread houses. I also saw photos a friend posted on instagram and the gingerbread creations looked fantastic. A Christmas tradition I had growing up was making gingerbread houses, and I have tried to carry on the tradition the last couple of years so another reason to spark the interest to venture to midtown. It was worth it! The event is basically free, I saw on a website I found that tickets were a dollar, but once there the concierge said they just took donations and the exhibit was free.  The Empire State Building!!! This picture I saw on instagram of this one is the reason I wanted to come see it. It is a

Santa Land

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    Have I said how much I love New York during Christmas time? I am sure I have said it, but it is the BEST! It is so magical and there are so many festive things to do. We had a pretty jam packed week. I had a Christmas activity list I had to check off because we were leaving the next week for the holidays. The first thing on the list was pay a visit to Macy's to visit Santa. Macy's this time of year is awesome! The whole store is decorated so beautifully I kind of never want to leave.     This photo pretty much explains why I never want to leave. So festive! So Christmas! You have Santa on the 8th floor, the decorations around the store, and then the window displays out side.       We could not tear Cosette away from this particular window. For some reason she was enamored with it. I did not get photos of this, but there was a Dear Virginia window display on another side of the store. It has the whole Dear Virginia story depicted in the display.

it's gone

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For the last few months Lyndon has been growing out a mustache and today he shaved it off. I am kind of sad about it. I am going to miss it.  

Thanksgiving 2013

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Before I post anymore about Christmas going on I should post about our Thanksgiving. We had family from both sides come into town, which made for a full house. It was great! We went to the parade this year (post here ), so we had our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday to make it less stressful/busy day. I even started making some food ahead of time, but that did not seem to make a difference. Basically after cooking the Thanksgiving feast I never want to cook again. We even got take out last night because thinking of cooking was making me nauseous. But I am going to have to cook again, and I am fine with that.  Look at that beaut! I am so happy it turned out, especially with that nice golden color. I am proud of myself because I cooked a 23 pound turkey in my tiny oven. It turned out beautiful! I hate cooking meat just because I hate touching raw meat. it is so Gross! So many germs. I scrub my hands after I touch raw meat because I am afraid I might die or contaminate anything I

It's Beginning to look a lot Like Christmas

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  Christmas in the city is my favorite time of year. Christmas has always been my second favorite holiday of the year, but since moving to the city I think it is now pushing out Halloween as my favorite. The lights, decorations, and events make it such a wonderland. Songs like Silver Bells play in my head as I walk around because "it's Christmas time in the city". I love it!    Holiday dinosaurs outside the Natural History Museum.  Shop window down by the Rockerfella Plaza. I can't wait to walk down 5th Ave and see all the store windows. It is so beautiful every year!       The church to the left with its beautiful wreaths. Columbia Campus, to the right, puts up their Christmas lights on the trees. It makes the campus look magical. I always feel like I am walking through a winter wonderland with the lights up.   Columbus Circle.   Just about every building weather apartment building or the lobby of a office buildi

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2013

  We went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade again this year. We went last year and really enjoyed it so we had to do it again. It was freezing cold. Our fingers and toes soon went numb after we got to our spot. We had grate front row seats for the parade thanks to Lyndon and Sam and friends from church who got there super early (5:15 am!) to reserve our spot. This year it was really windy and they did not even know if they were going to be able to use the giant balloons because of the weather. We lucked out and it was a beautiful Thanksgiving Day. I got to see one of my all time favorite bands, the Goo Goo Dolls. That fulfilled one of my life long dreams. And yes, I did scream when I saw them. I am a fan! This year the new float for the parade was "Toothless" the dragon from "How to Train Your Dragon". So cute and I think the balloon was a life size replica of the dragon. I think going to the parade has become a family tradition of ours now. Two year

Birthday Party

You might have thought Birthday Week was enough, but no. We had a party, a Star Wars themed party! It was fantastic! With all the decorations and everything it looked like and eight year olds birthday. Like I said, it was fantastic. We invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate Lyndon turning another year older. I made a massive Star Wars cake. Lyndon wanted a two tiered cake and I kind of did that. I baked a circle cake and put it on top of a sheet cake and decorated it like the death star. Not exactly a tiered cake, but it had two levels. We got really into the star wars theme. The cake was a marbled vanilla and chocolate to represent the light vs. the dark side. Lyndon was happy. He got Star Wars t-shirts for him and Henry. He made the video below with all the pictures from the party.   For the last time this year, Happy Birthday Lyndon!  

Birthday Week

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Husband's birthday was in November (I am so behind on getting this post up). It did not go amiss. In fact we turned it into a week long affair. We started one week before the husband's birthday which is the best day of the year, the day Lyndon came into the world (there was so much cheering). So everyday we did something special for husband's birthday. Day 1 was a trip to Max Brenner's for some sipping chocolate (husband is a huge fan of the Italian sipping chocolate) and to Black Hound Bakery for some cake. We called it Max Hound night. Lyndon picked out these cakes because Cosette had checked out a book from the library called " Ladybug Girl and Bumble Bee Boy " that she was obsessed with at the time. Day 2 we had movie night. We watched the French film Rules of the Game. It was very though provoking. Day 3 was date night which turned into order in take out night since our babysitter fell through. It turned out grate though. We got some delicious