Sweet Sixteen : Phase 3 : Christmas Day!

Christmas Day was spent at my mom's house. I did not even put on shoes all day long!! B&B and their kids came over as well as Brian's bro John. We made a good traditional turkey lunch. After lunch was gift time. I've gotten to where I think I have more fun giving that receiving. It's so fun to find something that someone really loves! It was a relaxing day!

Ryder got a fire engine and fireman outfit to go with it. He loves his new hat!

Sweet Sixteen : Phase 2 : Christmas Eve!

Monday morning, my family went down to Brother Bill's, a place in East Dallas where my old church serves the community through many different ways. I taught VBS there for a week one summer several years ago. On Christmas Eve, they always have a toy-give-away for the neighborhood children and my family went to help. The lady who runs it has a family that goes way back with my family...her father and my grandpa were old Baylor friends and Dallas S.S. friends; she went to high school with my dad; her oldest son went to church with me in Dallas for a while; and her middle son was Beth's age at Baylor and they are still friends and he has kids Ryder & Beau's ages who are now friends. My family was in charge of the 0-2 year-old gifts. We had a whole room full of toys and books and stuffed animals and wrapped presents. Each child left with 4 gifts. It was so fun to see the excitement on their faces! My family really enjoyed the time serving together. Even Ryder helped in passing out toys to the children his own age!

Sunday night we all went to the Christmas Eve service at B&B's church. It was good. We sat on the 2nd row as B&B like to be up close and those were the only close seats left when we arrived! The good thing was that my old friend, Gary, was sitting right in front of us - he's a minister at B&B's church now, but he used to be a minister at my old church in Dallas. It was great to see him! Actually, my current pastor in NYC used to be on staff here in Dallas at the church where Gary's brother is the lead-pastor - small world!

After church, we went to B&B's house for leftover White Bean Chili along with salad and breadsticks from Olive Garden. Homemade soup or chili plus OG salad used to be an annual tradition, but it's been a while since we've done it! It was fun to revive an old tradition. B&B's family got dressed in their Christmas PJ's. Then, we went to see if the Easter Bunny's were outside of Crazy Liz's house...lots of people were there, but only one bunny.

I moved all my stuff to mom's house on Christmas Eve and will stay there for the rest of my time in Dallas. I had a late night wrapping my gifts for Christmas Day. I didn't want to try to travel with them wrapped and I left all my wrapping supplies in Dallas when I moved. I love to wrap and especially make the bows, so it was fun for me!

The boys in their Christmas Eve outfits





















































Christmas PJ's!

My gifts for my family....

Sweet Sixteen : Phase 1 : Canyon Crew

My plane got in very, very late on Friday night. I knew it was going to happen, but didn't expect it to be 3AM before I arrived!!! Luckily, my cousin and her husband were up for picking me up (although if they had known my flight would keep getting delayed, they might have changed their mind)! It wasn't until I arrived to Dallas baggage claim that I realized my friend, Brennan, from church had been on my flight! Crazy! My family from Canyon, TX arrived to Dallas Friday night before I came in. My aunt, Becky, uncle, Chris, cousin, Nicole, her husband and their 4 kids all came. We missed cousin Amy and her husband, Nathan, who were stuck in Canyon due to the fact that she's basically 9 months pregnant (she'll be having a c-section next week as baby Jaxon is breech...keep them in your prayers!). We also missed cousin Christopher and fiance Abbey who were stuck in Iowa due to weather. But, the rest of us had a BLAST! It was two full days packed with lots of fun and entertainment.

All the "kids" and grand-kids stayed at Beth's house and the four grandparents were at my mom's house. I must say, I wake up a lot earlier in a house with 6 kids ages 10 and under! Saturday, we took it pretty easy in the morning. We did have a delicious breakfast including special chocolate brioche I brought from Levain in NYC...Beth made scrambled eggs to go along with it. After playing around the house all morning and getting everyone showered and dressed, some of us went ice skating at Plaza of the Americas in downtown Dallas - we figured it would be much less crowded than the mall rinks and we were right! It was a great place to go. Nicole's 3 oldest kids skated for the first time ever, while Beth, Nicole, and I had fun reliving our childhood memories of ice skating together.

Playing at Beth's house

Me dragging Beth around the rink

The newbies - they did a GREAT job!!

Beth & Nicole helping the littlest out

Saturday dinner brought White Christmas Chili at Beth's. Afterwards, we all piled in a rented 15-passenger van to go see Christmas lights! I provided snacks for that....a couple of boxes of Starbucks cocoa (so convenient since it comes with their cups with lids), cookies from Levain, and my family's favorite NYC popcorn. We had so much fun seeing lights. The Canyon crew was pretty impressed with Dallas lights...although, I think we ALL were. They've really started going crazy the past couple of years. The best houses are those set to music, which you can turn your car radio to. If you haven't see this yet, check out the youtube link below. It's pretty impressive (you'll have to tune out my family oooing and ahhing to hear the music). We also went by a house that was featured in the newspaper this year - whoa!! Talk about over-doing it. But, it was so over-done, that it was actually cool. This lady and her friends sit outside the house on Christmas Eve wearing Easter Bunny costumes and smoke cigars - weird, right? My family went back on Christmas Eve to witness this, but only saw one Bunny costume.

KayKay (my mom) our tour guide for the night

Big Daddy (cousin's hubby) - our driver for the night

Front Row - Cousins!

Middle of the van - Granny (aunt Becky), Pops (uncle Chris), and Ryder enjoy the lights.

Back of the van - Buster (my dad), Brian, and the Canyon kids...plus little Beau down there between Buster & Brian

We had to wake her up to see the lights - she wasn't so happy at first!

Crazy Liz's house

Coolest house ever...turn on your volume!

Sunday morning was church day. We all sort of split up to go to churches of our choosing. I went to my old church- PCBC- and Beth & Brian and fam came along since their church wasn't meeting. We took their kids to the nursery and brought Nicole's two oldest to Sunday School. Her 2nd grader made the coolest project in his class!!

Sunday afternoon was a trip to NorthPark mall for everyone except my mom and dad. We went to see the train show where Ryder & Beau had their very own train car on display (Brian buys them and proceeds go to Ronald McDonald House). We also went to see the short Scrooge play they put on there - really cute and funny! I also ran into a family from my church...in town for 3 days and already seen 2 people from my NYC church - crazy - although, maybe not so much since most of us are from Dallas.

The kids loved their train hats!

The toddlers squeezed into the back of Beau's stroller for a ride around the mall

Sunday night was a party at my mom's house. All the Canyon crew was there, plus my parent's mutual cousin, Susie, and her clan. It was a Christmas Party/Birthday party as it was also cousin Bella's fifth birthday! We had a great roast beef dinner and lots of fellowship. The BIG surprise was when a knock came at the front door and it was a REAL Santa who came in with candy for the kids and took pictures with them. The adults later learned that it was my Dad's idea and mom and Beth immediately jumped on it and bought a costume. Brian wrangled his friend, Matt, into wearing it. Matt loved the idea so much that it was his 3rd party as Santa and he had more to come! He did great and the kids loved it! The kids also loved opening all their gifts. The adults played the gift-exchange game. I made a cute "Taste of New York" basket for the exchange, which I filled with some little food items, such as a packet for make-your-own Serendipity Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate. My basket went over very well! I ended up with nice salt & pepper shakers which I really needed! After the party, Nicole and I went with our moms on a wild-goose chase for a last-minute gift for JB...a Fuzion scooter. They were sold-out ALL over Dallas. Luckily, Jason found one at a store on their way home on Monday!

Santa greeting the kids upon arrival

Birthday Girl with Santa

Jake with Santa

Nicole's Kids with Santa

Ryder & Beau with Santa

Kids opening their gifts - madness!

Moments before this pic was taken, even the toddler was mesmerized by the TV. What was on? The home shopping channel. What were they selling? Shower-heads. I guess the party was over!

The Canyon Crew left early Monday morning - we were sad to see them go, but can't wait for the next McCanstonwrightis Christmas in Dallas!

Adding to the chaos of the weekend, my parent's are keeping my uncle's birds for the week. I'm disgusted by them and shocked at how my mother has taken to them. This is her as the Bird Lady...

Sweet Sixteen

I'm headed home to Dallas tomorrow night. I'll be in Texas for a full 16 days and I couldn't be more excited!! It's like being in college again or something. Some of my friends in NYC think I'm crazy for going back for that long, but I think I will enjoy every minute of it. I'm in a little bit of a different situation than most of them because I stayed in Dallas for so many years after college. Thus, I still have a lot of friends there. Plus, all my family! I'm not worried at all about getting bored! Plus, in addition to just Christmas, I have a lot going on! I'll be sure to update frequently while I'm away!

The Grinch

I got to knock something off my NYC Holiday to-do list this week! There are still a couple of things that I didn’t do last year and haven’t had the chance to do this year. Where did the last month go?? Anyway, I finally got to see the Grinch on Broadway! It was cute. Not the best Broadway show ever, but enjoyable. The Who’s down in Whoville had really bright, fun costumes. The Grinch was a bit creepy! Tonya was in town again for work, so she got to go with me and we went to Vintner and got tapas and fondue beforehand. Lots of fun!

Christmas Chaos

This weekend felt chaotic! I am not nearly as busy here in NYC as I used to be at this time of year in Dallas - just don't know as many people to have as many parties to go to! And in Dallas I almost always threw some sort of party myself - I thought about it this year, but didn't get it done. Anyway, I still felt super busy this weekend trying to get some shopping done and finally got my Christmas cards done! I didn't end up making my own. Thank goodness - that would have taken forever! I also had a Christmas party last night - a girl I knew in high school was throwing it. I was hoping some other high school people she invited would be there, but no one else was in town. So, I didn't know ANYone there! It was okay though - her friends were all very nice. She's into singing, so they were mostly theatre people. I met a guy from Canyon, TX - where my aunt, uncle, cousins and their families live. My cousin's husband grew up in Canyon so this guy knows who his family is. It was pretty funny to make that connection! Oh, and Shana's apartment is amAzing!!! I should have taken pictures - she's on the 44th floor of a building around 42nd and 10th...not far from Times Square. The view is to-die-for....you can see both the Empire State building and Statue of Liberty from the windows that wrap around the entire apartment. Gorgeous.

NHL Party

We had our Holiday Party on Wednesday night after work. It's a nice party and was a good time. It was held at the legendary B.B. Kings - same place we had it last year. When I told my dad that's where it was going to be, he was very distraught that he wasn't staying longer to be my date! I had no idea the place was so famous! The party included lots of drinking (ANYthing you wanted...really...I was introduced to Green Apple Goose martinis that were yummy), lots of food (but it wasn't that great), a good band, and lots of conversation. One of my co-workers sent some pics, but they're really terrible with people's eyes closed and stuff!! Some people were probably not too happy about these...I can't believe she sent them out, actually! Anyway, since they're all I've got, here ya go!


Me with Lecretia, one of our Accounts Payable ladies. Cathy, our entire payroll department, is sitting at the end of the table.
















That's Carol from IT on the left - I spend lots of time in meetings with her...very nice lady! On the right is Evelyn, our Accounts Payable manager and extremely nice! Nobody knew who the girl with the short dress is!
















Evelyn again and Roberto, my boss! He's the director of accounting and one of the nicest most laid-back guys you'll ever meet. To the right of Roberto is Tamara - you can barely see her. She's definitely the person I'm closest to at work. She's our Accounts Receivable coordinator and I supervise her. She's really cute and stylish and speaks with a fabulous Russian accent. She's a lot older than me...has a daughter in law school. She's a hip mom, though!















That's Regina in the purple, a Finance Manager...I'd like to get to know her better, but we never work on the same things. Debbie, one of our admins is in the center and Evelyn, again.















That's Cathy again in red and Carol again in the middle and Alice on the right....a CRAZY IT lady.
















This is Pete. I'm not sure of all his responsibilities, but I know he's in charge of all our game tickets, thus a good person to know. I do the accounting for the game tickets, so I talk to him often. I used to think he was sort of mean and rude, but I guess he's warmed up to me because lately he's been super nice! Hopefully that's the case because I'm waiting to hear back from him on some personal ticket requests!!

Parent's Weekend

My mom and dad got in Friday about the time I was leaving work so I headed for their hotel to pick them up. We quickly headed out to begin our weekend o' fun, including....

- diner at the Hudson Cafeteria- my mom loves this place. It is very swanky and the food is delicious comfort food- great for the very cold evening that it was! Plus, it's just a short walk from my place and their hotel.

- we went by Columbus Circle to see the pretty stars that light up to the tunes of Chrismas Carols.

- we walked to Lincoln Center to see their tree in what is already a gorgeous setting

- I took them on a huge (yeah, right) tour of casa de la Boatwright, so my dad could see it for the first time

-Saturday, we got up and walked to Macy's. I tried to tell my mom we shouldn't wear ourselves out at the start of the day with a long walk, but she insisted she could handle it. She was pretty much worn-out by the time we got there! But walking really is the best way to see the city and she did enjoy that part. We stopped by Tinsel Trading - a craft store she'd seen featured on Martha Stewart and saw several other things along the way that we enjoyed looking at. Finally at Macy's, we went inside to see their Chrismas decorations - so pretty!- then went outside to see the store windows all decked out for Christmas. It was fun and they really enjoyed it.

-brunch at Penelope's - quite possibly my new favorite brunch spot. My mom loved it, too!

-shopping at Saks. It was also decorated beautifully for Christmas and we enjoyed looking at their floor of Christmas decorations, ornaments, cards, etc... We also walked by their storefront Christmas windows.

-a walk through St. Patrick's. I love their big Nativity Scene. My mom had somehow never walked inside here before and she was very impressed! It is a really pretty place!

-saw Rockefeller Center during the daytime and later at night! I really think everything in NYC is more magical at night...from my neighborhood to Lincoln Center to the Rock Center tree and skating rink!

-took them on a tour of both the NHL Office and our new store. They loved seeing my office and were impressed with my view. I finally took a picture, although it didn't turn out very good with the window glare. Basically what you see here is Avenue of the Americas aka Sixth Avenue. A little ways down on the right, you'll see Radio City. And, if you look allllll the way at the end of the street, you see Central Park between the buildings (just barely in this pic if you have good eyes)!

-Went to Chinatown- mostly to eat, but we did stop in a few stores for purses, but didn't buy anything. I wanted them to experience Joe's Shanghai for dinner - it's too different of an experience to miss. We had fun!

-Took them to Beard Papa's to get cream puffs!! Cream Puffs hold a special place in my family as my paternal grandma was known for hers. I was soooo glad that my dad really liked these. He said they weren't just like Mammaw's, but he was definitely impressed!

-Mom and I saw Lion King on Broadway and it was really fun! I'd seen it years ago in Dallas and was glad to see it again. The costumes are amazing and the singing was, too!

-They got to visit my church. I was excited to show it to them. Dad really enjoyed my pastor, so I was glad for that.

-Went to Grand Central Station. Mom had been wanting to see it, so we ate lunch there in the big food court downstairs. Then, we did some browsing in the Holiday Market they have going on during this season.

-We walked through Bryant Park. It is so festive at Christmas. A big tree, an ice skating rink, hot chocolate and cider, and another Holiday Market. I actually want to get back there one more time before Christmas!

-We walked up Fifth Avenue to see all the shops that are decked-out and the Store Windows at Bergdorf Goodman. We also wandered into FAO Schwartz, which was a total madhouse!!

-Saw the Christmas tree at The Met. Probably my most favorite tree in the city. It is gorgeous and I especially love the nativity scene at the base of the tree...it's like the whole village of Bethlehem. Although, my parent's were quick to point out that the people's clothes were not representative of the right time-frame. Oh, well, it's still beautiful!! Last year I obeyed the signs and took no pictures. This year I disobeyed since everyone else was!

-Dinner at John's Pizzeria. Mom had read about it somewhere and it is good, so we went!

-The Rockette's. I love this show! It's so cute and fun and great mind-less entertainment!

It was a great weekend, despite the HORRENDOUS crowds! I've got to figure out the ideal time for Christmas sight-seeing in NYC. I'm pretty sure it's not the second weekend in December!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

It snowed a couple of times this week adding to the Holiday cheer. NYC is definitely the best place in the entire world to be at Christmas time. There's Christmas trees and lights and decorations everywhere. I love it!!! I saw the Rock Center Tree last Sunday night on my way home from church. It was the first time I've seen it this year since they put the lights on it. I expected it to look the exact same as last year, but it doesn't. The lights seem to be different colors and blink, unlike last year. While there, I also got to see a proposal on the ice skating rink. I saw one last year, too, and it is soooo exciting to watch. There are always tons of people around Rock Center at this time of year and everyone just goes crazy for the couple. My parents came into town tonight so they can experience an NYC Christmas themselves. My dad hasn't been here since I moved here, so he was due for a visit anyway. We started out the night with dinner at Hudson Cafeteria (my mom loves it). It was really good. Afterwards, we walked by Columbus Circle to see their big light-stars that "dance" to Christmas music. We then went by Lincoln Center, which is always beautiful at night, but especially so with their Christmas tree up. I brought them to see my apartment as well, then they headed back to their hotel for the night. We have a FULL two days ahead of us...should be fun!

I got some pics from the Hot Chocolate 15K emailed to me this week. Pretty funny! My cousin asked if they really had hot chocolate. Yes, they did, afterwards. They had a party afterwards at a public school right down the street with bagels and hot chocolate. I was going to stop by and pick some up on my way to the subway, but the line was horribly long and I didn't want to stand outside for 30 minutes waiting. Although, I warmed up pretty good during the run, as soon as I slowed down, I was freezing again!! So, I went home and stopped by my favorite bagel place near my apartment!

15K DAY!

So, I made it to the Hot Chocolate 15K. I have to admit, these last few weeks were not easy! I was finding myself getting bored with the routine and it's been SO cold some days...running outside seems miserable, but I can't run more than about 2 miles on the treadmill without going crazy. And this past week was super hard as I came down with a cold that zapped my energy away. I spent a good 10 minutes this morning psyching myself up to go, between my cold and the fact that temperatures were only around 30 degrees, I did not want to go! But, I've been planning it for too long and wanted to follow-thru. I'm not sure it was the wisest decision health-wise, but I did it! I've heard that as long as your cold is only from the neck-up, it's okay to run, now 9+ miles is probably over-doing it, but my cold has primarily been a head-cold. At least until about mile 2 this morning when I started coughing stuff up. Gross! Yes, the cold has moved to my lungs now, I believe. But, I finished. Not as quickly as I would have liked or planned, but I had to walk more than normal as my body just wasn't feeling well, plus multiple stops to blow my nose and I stopped many times at the water-pits, which I didn't think I would do much of. Anywho, I ended up taking about 1 hour and 47 minutes...about 17 minutes longer than I'd hoped, but that's still an 11.5 mintue/mile pace and with all the stops and walking, that's not as bad as I thought I'd end up when I was walking the entire 4th mile this morning! I've decided that 15K's are a good length for me to train for and run...10K's would be good, too. So, I'm going to try to look for more of those...maybe around JUNE though, when it's sure to be warm! My favortite part of the race was the t-shirt...a super cute one that's my first t-shirt from a Central Park race! There's a Holiday 4-miler in 2 weeks and depending on how I feel these next couple of weeks, I may try to show up for that one, too.

All-Star Bound

Exciting news at work this week! I was selected to go to the NHL All-Star Game in Atlanta to help out our events department! This is great for me. Not only am I excited about a business trip away, but I also get an opportunity to spend 5 straight days working with our events department. It's a great chance to gain actual work experience at a huge event and to network with the personnel in our events department, who I currently do not know. My goals in working at the NHL and taking the NYU events classes were never to end up in the NHL events department, but any chance to gain experience in events would be great and if I somehow did end up being able to transition to that department, that would be pretty cool too! I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing there, but I do know that I'm working with the transportation group and it has something to do with VIPs...fun!!
The trip means an addition to the whirlwind of travel already scheduled to occur between mid-December and mid-January. Between December 21st and January 27th (38 nights), I will spend only 12 in my own bed....14 in Dallas, 2 in Austin, 4 in Whistler, 1 on a red-eye flight, and 5 in Atlanta. But, that also means almost a month away from the city when I dislike it most -- winter!! It will be a crazy time, but I'm looking forward to it!