December Come and Gone

Where does the time go? I can't believe it is 2010 already. I realize I've been quite absent from the blog in the last month, so here is a summary of last months activities.

First off, Brittany's boys were in town. Oh, Brittany's boys meaning the University of Kentucky men's basketball team. They were playing at Madison Square Garden against U Conn, so with a little persuasion Carrie and I joined here to go cheer on her home team.



UK took an early lead (14-0 in the first 5 minutes of the game), but it ended up being quite the exciting game. Near the end it looked like UConn was going to take the game, but UK rallied back to win it all.

Obviously Brittany was quite happy with the outcome.

An added bonus is when say this guy on the subway...our old Punkin Chunkin friend who took close ups of Janna. So random.

Then it was starting to look a lot like Christmas...well, actually that started the week after Thanksgiving. Our apartment conveniently looks over South Street Seaport and we could see their annual Christmas tree. So lucky for me, I could watch the tree lighting inside where it was warm (well, at least warmer than outside...it gets kind of cold in our apartment).

The crowds began to gather...

...more still...

...Oooo, awwww! The tree was lit!

Speaking of trees, we decided to celebrate the season with a little Christmas tree of our own. Carrie, Brittany and I bought a tree from the little grocery store down the street and proudly brought our tree home. Unfortunately, we forgot to get the trunk cut, but fortunately Carrie owns a little hack saw.

Well, after two hours of the three of us taking turns sawing, we finally had success!

We showed our appreciation afterward.

Since sawing took up most of the evening (well, technically it had taken up the second half of the evening as the first half was a trip to Target to buy decorations for the tree), we untied the tree and then waiting until the next night to actually decorate.

Like I said, we decorated the next night...

Our happy little Christmas tree!

Continuing with trees, of course in New York you can't let the season go by without seeing the tree of all trees in the city. So one evening after work Brittany and I went to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree.

As Saks 5th Ave is across the street, we also stopped to see the window displays.

And of course Radio City Music Hall, home of the Rockettes!

Then it was finally time to go home to Arizona to spend Christmas with the family. For reasons I still don't understand, I decided to take a cab to the airport and didn't really give myself enough time. I thought for sure a cab would take 40-50 minutes tops, but when I got in that cab shortly after 3pm, I didn't get dropped off at the airport until about 5pm. My flight was at 5:15pm and I had a checked bag. Long story short, I had to reschedule my flight and after an hour or so of standing in line, I got on the airtrain/subway and headed back to the apartment.

So now I was scheduled to fly out the next day (Sat the 19th) at 5:15pm. Well, when I got back from the airport that night I decided to get online to ensure I was all set with my flight. Now as you east coasters know, that weekend was the big storm that left 2 feet of snow in DC and almost a foot of snow here in the city. Well, when I got online my flight had already been canceled and I was now put on the same flight on Sunday. I was upset, but I had sort of anticipated that happening. Well, come Saturday afternoon, I am again online checking my flight status to discover that Sunday's flight was canceled and there were no available flights to get me to Phoenix (everything was overbooked with Delta...no connecting flights, no nothing). So after a few tearful and frustrated hours, I finally got my refund from Delta and successfully booked a flight with Continental that got me home on Sunday night. I don't think I had ever been so excited to get out of the city and be back in Phoenix!

So here are some pictures of the stupid storm that caused all my travel woes. Early in the evening after the snow had stared around 1pm that afternoon.

And it kept coming!

Anyway, like I said, I finally made it home that Sunday night. Then it was time to kick Christmas festivities into high gear. Kari and I both cooked and baked a ton the first part of the week. With the parents gone, Kari made sure that we still had the holiday essentials! Holidays essentials included going to see the temple lights.

Aren't Marc and Kari so cute?

The beautiful Mesa Temple lights!

This is the money shot!

Back to the baking...these are the black and white cookies I made. They turned out pretty good...just took awhile to make.

Here's Marc H with Indi. We like to spoil dogs in our family.

Christmas eve we had the grandparents over, along with Sister Peterson, for a delicious dinner. We had a spinach stuff pork tenderloin, grilled asparagus, fruit salad, and rolls. We even had some appetizers beforehand. A comment was made by the grandparents that they didn't know that I could cook, and Sister Peterson mentioned that she didn't think she had ever seen me this much in the kitchen. I commented back that I don't think my mother has either! (Mom, I'm sure you would agree). Well, I didn't get any pictures from the evening, but you'll have to believe me that dinner was quite delicious and we followed up dinner with our Christmas tradition of putting together a puzzle.

Then Christmas morning, after opening the few presents under the tree and enjoying our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of eggs, toast and summer sausage, little brother Marc and I drove down to Tucson to see Derek, Melanie and the kids.

We also delivered gifts from the parents to the grandkids, so we got to open those presents. Surprisingly, Zoe was really into unwrapping the presents. She would just tear right into them.

The girls got twin bitty baby dolls and were so excited.

Maeley named her doll Rebecca and also decided Zoe's doll would be Charly.

Chase got a new bike (his last one fell apart on him)...

...and Marc also got him a coonskin hat! He looked too cute in it. Zoe also seemed to enjoy the hat as she carried it around.

Then the rest of the day was spent enjoying time with the kids. We played in Maeley's new pink kitchen, and we even played with bubbles that the kids had gotten in their stockings.

Then that night we snuggled up in the living room and watch a movie.
"I do not like the cone of shame."
"Squirrel!"
"I hide beneath your porch because I love you."

Ok, if you didn't get the clues we watched Up. Such a cute movie.

Then the next day, Kari and Marc (and the dogs) joined us and we all took a little trip up to Mount Lemmon to play in the snow. Yes, there is snow in places in Arizona. As we made the drive up there obviously wasn't much snow at first, but once we came around this corner
all of a sudden there was snow. The kids got so excited and talked about how they were going to make snow angels and a snowman.

We stopped on our way up at a lookout spot.

Very beautiful view!

We then continued on up the mountain. It was lunchtime when we got up there, so in the little town at the summit (literally like 4 or 5 buildings make up this town) we stopped at the Cabin and got pizza. After we were all well fed, we strolled up the street to find a good spot to play in.

We found a great spot to play and let the kids, and the dogs, have at it.

The kids loved it (well, not so much Zoe) and Indi had a ball. Linus however, enjoyed it briefly before he decided he didn't like the cold. My poor mister was really shaking. :(

Family picture in the snow. I just love little Chase and his big smile!

Then after we all got sufficiently cold we headed back to Derek and Melanie's. The four of us (plus the dogs) stayed for a few more hours before making the drive back to Gilbert. We had such a fun time and I just love getting to see my nieces and nephews!

Sunday was my last day at home before I had to head back to NYC (I had to work...bummer), but it was so nice to be with family. It was weird not having mom and dad there, but thanks Kari for making it as awesome as you did. It was fun having a baking buddy, and I look forward to being traveling buddies (finally) and making our trip to the Philippines in June!

I know this is a little late, but hopefully everyone had a great holiday season and here's too another great year filled with family, friends, and more adventures!