A quarter past Christmas

Christmas Eve I needed to get out of the house. I looked on line and found this area in Brooklyn as one of the "Must See's" in NYC. So we loaded up the car in the rain and drove out to Brooklyn to see a spectacular light show. Kajsia loved it almost as much as I did. It was a very Merry Christmas to me (9 months pregnant!)
Some homes hired local people to do their lights! I can't imagine the electric bill!

Santa brought Kajsia her first car! Pretty in Pink...

It has been a whirlwind since Brannick was born, but here are some of the highlights from our holiday!


Our 4th Annual christmas card, taken at lil' joey's blessing. We pulled this out and put it together.



This is the morning of Christmas, she wasn't in great spirits as she started teething molars. With a fever, a few tears and lots of crankiness we opened all her gifts. We were expecting her to scream and ooh and ahh at her new books, doll and toy car. Why out of all nights did she have to start teething on Christmas Eve? Such a bummer as a parent, I hate molars!
Visiting Santa at Macy's. A once in a lifetime experience... she loved him until we left her to sit solo on his lap. She lost it! Santa said he remembered her from last year, he left Bloomingdales in search of a longer waiting line I guess. However, if you're going to wait it might as well be Macy's. It is like standing in line at Disney (about 30 minutes), but it went so fast with all the things they have to occupy your mind. Dancing dolls, trains, toys, bears singing, ice-skating animals and lifesize candies, murals and such. Hopefully this next year she'll feel the love for Santa!

Its been a While... here's Thanksgiving 2009

This is the first thing I think of when I think of Thanksgiving... pies. Yes there were only six of us, but I made 5 pies. Here's pumpkin!






Mixed Berry!
One of my favorites, coconut cream!
The other 2 I made were pecan and tollhouse! This was the icing on the cake after a delicious meal with my parents and Tage's.
She loved herself some pie!
My labor of love... the first Turkey dinner in NYC! The only thing I didn't make was Turkey. It looked better than it tasted unfortunately. We ordered it from a place in Brooklyn that specializes in deep fried Turkeys. It was honey pecan... tasted dry, almost brittle! I think we were all a bit disappointed, especially after it cost nearly $100. Luckily the show went on and we ate green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, olives, stuffing, tamales (thanks to Sis. Pabon who gave me a personal cooking lesson!), mango jalapeno relish, cranberry pear tart, Pa Tom's famous cranberry relish, olives and homemade bread with honey butter.
The flowers came from Katrina Paris, a local florist I love! 119th and Lenox.
Quite a feast, with reminders of what was to come as shown above!
You have to do this at least once in your lifetime... Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A dream of my mothers to check of her list was finally accomplished this year. My parents got there about 5:30 to stake out a front row seat at 64th and CPW. We came later with Kajsia and 8 1/2 months pregnant. Here's the end of the parade with us all...
Do you Believe? A significant and inspiring ending to the parade to kickoff the Christmas season .
If this doesn't make you feel like a kid again.... our first glimpse of Santa and Mrs. Claus. The crowd erupted into loud cheers and adult and child alike started their wishlists in their heads. I know Tage has a wish list year round on Cabela's should you ever wonder what to get him!
Andre Boticelli.... wish his Christmas Album was better than it was.
Instead of a red-hat club, this granny group rides trikes! Hilarious and ultra-motivating!


Girls just wanna have fun!!!!
The parade seen thru the eyes of Kajsia! She loved everything except for the Clowns... who kept coming over and oogling over her and throwing confetti to which she screamed in fear!
Loved the hem on this dress!
You can tell this is earlier in the parade, look how clean the street is. The energizer bunny just keeps going and going.....
I love this shot, it shows the excitement and enthusiasm felt about the parade at all ages. My mom is a HUGE parade lover and this was one of those "bucket list" items she's always wanted to do. After 10 years in the city, I was thrilled to be able to SIT, not stand, and watch the parade for the first time. It was MAGICAL!
Kermit and the might balloon staff that walks him down the street.
Each balloon had it's company of carriers dressed up to match the balloon they were manuvering. To give you some perspective, this is about 10 stories high and about 50 people helping on the ropes.
The weather was amazing, about 45 degrees. This was before the parade started and Kajsia just needed to get out and walk. Look at the crowd we had to pass thru to get to the other side with my parents. Holding Kajsia and being 8.5 months pregnant I didn't get a lot of sympathy or help. One lady wouldn't budge, so I just ran her over! First time I'd encountered such rudeness, I'm hoping she wasn't a local.
Happy Thanksgiving our sweet girl!
To pass the time she's watching Backyardigans on the ipod. My dad had to watch Twilight, such a good and patient man! Thanks mom and dad for staking out such an awesome spot! Front row is definitely the recommended way to go. Hope you all had as much fun and ate as well as we did this year. What a blessing it was to be with family, to have the resources to share such a fabulous meal and enjoy such a NYC tradition. I'd do this every year if possible!