Service!

Lots of different extra serving related opportunities have happened in 2011. I participated in Don't Walk By for the first time. This is an event that happens every Saturday in January in NYC. The goal is to make sure that every homeless person is found and spoken to during the month. I participated on the Saturday that it was in my neighborhood. We split into small groups of about 6 and were assigned blocks to walk in search of any homeless. My group was assigned the area between 59th and 66th from Central Park to Amsterdam. This is a very nice area that includes Lincoln Center and many highrise doorman buildings. It's not super populated with homeless, so we only encountered 3 during our walk. The point is to get these people a hot meal and place to stay for the evening and to direct them to resources for further ongoing help of all kinds. The first two people we spoke to were kind and engaged with us in conversation, but they were not interested in help of any kind and had an attitude of "I've got this. I'm going to be okay on my own". The final man spoke broken english but said he really needed help and told us that he is schizophrenic. He seemed to be waiting for someone and could not leave where he was to go back for the free meal that night. But, he graciously accepted the information we had for safe places he could go to for in depth help. I hope that he was able to make those calls and get to the right people/places.

I'm beginning to help get a children's ministry started for my church's evening service. I had our children's ministry leader, Angela, and another volunteer, Ilyse, over to my apartment one night to discuss the vision for how and when this will get started. Angela brought us a yummy dinner from Whole Foods and we had fun chatting and thinking about and praying for our kiddos. I am currently one of the lead teachers for the morning service but will be transitioning out of that role and into a similar role in the evening. I'm excited to be involved in that capacity at the service I prefer to attend and with the congregation I consider mine. We have 2 families that intend to switch to the evening service and between the 2 families they have 7 kids and one en-route :) So, that will be who we have when we launch in March and we won't require many teachers at first. Both these families are very missional minded and live near our evening service location and the hope is that they will be able to reach families in their neighborhood who will be interested in visiting church. My morning class is booming this year...we've grown from 6 kids to about 15 since the beginning of January!! Even crazier when you think that just 2 years ago I had only 1 or 2 kids in that class each week - wow. Let's hope we see similar growth at our evening service.

I served dinner at Ronald McDonald for the first time in a while. Lasagna was the menu and it was stress.full! After being in the oven for over an hour the lasagna was still completely frozen - something is wrong with their ovens! It all worked out in the end, but I hate that kind of stress. Katie and I were in charge of cooking up mashed potatoes.  I was disappointed it was instant mashed potatoes, but they turned out pretty good.  It was neat to see some of the kids who are still there from the last time I was over there - particularly one girl who had no hair last time I was there and it had grown in quite a bit over the last several months. I really like cooking and serving for these people and need to get back to doing it more regularly.

Random Mysterious Package

I was, yet again, annoyed with package delivery in Manhattan last week.  I've gotten to where I have most packages sent to my office because it is so much easier.  USPS, FedEx, and UPS usually won't leave packages at my apartment unless I am there.  And when am I ever there during package delivery times?!  Well, never ever, unless I am home sick.  They're during work hours and I think that is so stupid.  I have this idea in mind of a new delivery company that delivers in the evenings or on weekends.  It's not too bad with USPS because it's close to my apartment and only a slight hassle to pick something up.  UPS is way off the beaten path and I have had to go there multiple times to pick things up - big pain!  This week was my first time to experience a Fed Ex delivery.  There was a note left on the door that they were trying to deliver something on Valentine's Day.  I wasn't expecting anything and I thought maybe my dad was reviving his old tradition of giving me something on Valentine's Day (Can we take just a minute to discuss the issue of being a younger sibling?  The oldest sibling seems to come out best on the gift receiving end of things.  When Santa stopped bringing her gifts, he stopped bringing me gifts, too.  She got 3 more years of Santa than I did!  And when she got married, apparently my dad stopped being either of our Valentine's.  Hmmm, maybe I need to point this out to him).  Anyway, the note from FedEx said my package was in the Bronx and would be there for pick-up.  The Bronx?!?  Are they serious?  I never, ever go to the Bronx and it would take a good chunk of my Saturday afternoon to get there and back.  I was annoyed.  I called and they were still telling me it was in the Bronx.  I asked who it was from and when they said some company in Michigan that I had never heard of before.  I decided I might just let them return it to the sender, but I eventually got them to agree to a plan where they would at least deliver it to a FedEx store in Manhattan. 

I picked the package up on Friday after work.  What was inside?  Well, apparently I entered a Lean Cuisine contest at some point and I won a custom designed plate....created by none other than Teri Hatcher.  Random!  It is soooo ugly.  It's definitely going in the trash.  I would have thought Teri would have been better at a project like this.  The colors are atrocious!  I have no idea why it says "Yes" all over it, but it must have something to do with the contest or with Lean Cuisine's marketing campaign.

And look how she signed the back.  What the heck does

"The 8-Ball Series" mean?

So, thank goodness I didn't travel to the Bronx for this beauty.  I wonder if I could sell it on ebay for good money to some Teri Hatcher stalker?



Fun Stuff!

Since I spent January catching up on most of my December blogging, I missed a lot of what went down in January in NYC.  Here are some things that have kept me busy since returning from my extended holiday vacay that I never blogged about....

Katie and I finally finished reading our Beth Moore book.  It took us a while to get through it and although we both learned some things from it, I don't think either of us found it life-changing.  We did have some fun final dinners while discussing the last chapters.  We met one night in West Village.  We planned to get Brazilian food at Casa, but it was randomly closed, so we ended up down the street at Commerce, a nice Italian restaurant that's been on my list.  Afterwards, we had to go by Milk & Cookies for dessert since we were so close....yum!  Our final get-together was at my house eating Risotto!  I made risotto as part of my New Year's Goals and the recipe made way more than I expected so thank goodness Katie was up for helping me eat some of it.  Katie and I have decided to continue reading together and we're just starting Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  I am super excited about this one and hope that my affection for my Savior grows deeper through this book study and leads me further into a life that glorifies Him more.

I got a super special surprise visit from a very dear friend last month.  Melanie called me on a Thursday night to inform me she'd be in the city that very weekend!  Her husband had surprised her with a quick trip up for her birthday.  I was blessed to get to have brunch with them on Sunday.  I had not seen Melanie since she was in NYC in September 2006!  Wow - way too long ago.  And I had never met Brett before.  It was great to see them both.  Brett had already chosen the restaurant - One if By Land, Two if By Sea.  It is a very well regarded restaurant in the city and one I had not been to before, so I was excited to check it out.  It was very good, but very quiet!  I think it's more of a dinner spot, but brunch did not disappoint!  I also got to receive their latest news in person - they're having a baby!  Yea, fun.  I hope to visit them in Charlotte, NC sometime (probably in 2012) because I'm curious about that city and will want to meet their baby and see their adorable new house.

I mentioned that Rosella, Alejandra and I went to dinner at Victor's Cafe for restaurant week.  We followed dinner with a trip to Broadway to see Olympia Dukakis in The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here.  I actually really enjoyed this play and Olympia was fantastic!!

I went looking for a book at Borders one night and I ran into Sammy Brady!  Okay, it was really Allison Sweeney and she was more there in her Biggest Loser host role, rather than her Days of Our Lives role.  She was promoting her new weight-loss book for moms.  I can't believe she is my age...seriously, 25 days younger than me!  I remember watching her on Days of Our Lives when I was much younger and I can't believe she's not older than she is.  I also can't believe my mom let me watch that show when I was just in Junior High!

Joy and I went to dinner at Peels one night.  It's owned by the same people who own the way too cool Freeman's and I was excited to check it out.  I had previously walked by Peels and thought it looked so cute.  It is cute, but the food was expensive and not terribly great.  I had heard the burger was good and it did not disappoint, but I was really expecting more from their menu.

I started Porterbrook, the study members of my church are working through this year.  It is really interesting so far.  There are 4 different sections we are working through simultaneously.  One teaches how to better study God's word (theology), another teaches how to respond to difficult questions asked about Christianity (apologetics), the third is teaching us what our lives should look like when lived according to the Gospel we are reading, and the final is about living a missional life in community with others...reaching our neighbors together as a church community.  We are broken into small groups to discuss what we're learning - mine is made up of 3 ladies who live near me, two of whom are also in my Community Group.  We meet every other week at my apartment and it has been fun to have people over so frequently.  The study was written by British people and there are some terms and spellings that are clearly British and my pastor has loved picking up some of their terms and using them (for instance, we are meeting with our groups "fortnightly", rather than "every other week").  In light of this British theme, I served tea and scones at our first meeting - fun!

Even More Movies!

I've continued to check movies off my list of Oscar Nominated movies to see.  I've done really well this year and will probably end up seeing more of the nominated movies than I have any other year.  Here's what I've checked off since my last update...

Live-Action Shorts - I love that there is a theater in NYC that shows these.  They are so fun.  We saw all 5 of the nominated films in one sitting and it only lasted about two hours.  They were all good this year.  I think "God of Love" was my personal favorite.

Salt-this is one I Netflixed.  It was really good!  I love suspense and this one was easy to follow.  It's only up for Sound Mixing and I personally hope that Social Network wins that one.

Dogtooth-this is a foreign film that I Netflixed.  I knew nothing about it going in and discovered that it was very strange and disturbing.  It seemed like a very low-budget film with very little plot.  All that said, I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that some part of me liked it a little.

Best Picture Showcase!!  I spent the entire day at AMC yesterday with 6 of my friends, plus 2 more of Rosella's friends.  We had a blast!  Of course, I had some of my favorite Oscar cookies to keep us sugared-up throughout the day.

This was 4 movies in and my hair was haphazardly thrown up

by this point.  Otherwise, great pic with Mindy, Stacy and Joy and Oscar.

Here are the movies we saw:

Toy Story III
127 Hours
The Kids Are All Right
True Grit
The Fighter

The only one I had already seen was 127 Hours...it's much more bearable to watch the 2nd time through.  Still a lot of cringing, but less.  I liked all 5 movies and think that Toy Story III and The Fighter were my favorites.  I have now seen all 10 of the Best Picture noms and am sad to say that I don't really have an absolute favorite that I love, love, love.  In 2010 I had The Blind Side and 2009 Slum Dog Millionaire...I just don't have one of those this year.  I guess the closest I can come to a favorite is probably Social Network, but I don't expect it to win or anything.  My prediction is that King's Speech is going to sweep most of the major awards.

Decor for your Computor!

I love Cath Kidston and I just found out that she has FREE downloads for Desktop Wallpaper.  I'm currently sporting this one...

I just wish she still had a store in NYC!!

Oh, and I know it's spelled computEr, but computOr ryhmed!

Restaurant Week : Winter 2011 Style

So, I was a little unenthused and a not terribly excited for RW this time around.  I felt like I had done most of the better restaurants on the list and there are always some RW experiences that aren't so great which is always a big disappointment and makes you wonder if it's even worth the gamble.  So, I wasn't even sure if I'd participate this time around.  Well, after chatting with friends and browsing the overwhelming list some more, I somehow ended up going to 4 restaurants already!  And, there's still a couple of weeks left - yikes!  Here's my latest experiences/reviews....

Victor's Cafe
When : Thursday night in January.  The evening of the HUGE snow storm and my snow day!  Couldn't get to work (uh, sure I couldn't), but I could get there for dinner and a play!  Besides, we already had these reservations and tickets before the storm hit.
Who : Rosella and Alejandra.  Alejandra is Rosella's old friend/co-worker from Texas who recently moved to NYC to become Rosella's co-worker here.  This was my first time meeting her and it was really fun!
Why : We chose this restaurant because it was near the theater district and my friend Stacy had been during RW before and raved about it.
What : Cuban! Ham Croquettes, Ropa Vieja (skirt steak in a plaintain basket), Flan
Review : Croquettes were pretty good.  The Ropa Vieja was ok, but the plaintain basket was pretty cute and tasty.  The flan was kind of boring, especially because it was the only dessert they offered.
Overall : Wouldn't go back.

Norma's
When : Friday for lunch. The day AFTER the big snow storm (see Victor's, above).
Who : Co-workers!  Evelyn, Selena, Lecretia, Stephanie, Iona, Emilia, Anna, and Tamara all came!
Why : The Directors and above got to go to the All-Star weekend for fun (soooo sad I didn't get to go this year, but I'm not senior enough to go for fun and the Events team didn't take any extra workers from other departments this year).  So, the rest of the general accounting team decided to plan a fun, long lunch!  We picked Norma's because I'd been before (not for RW) and knew it was really good and everyone else loved the idea of breakfast!
What : They serve breakfast all day!  Three courses of breakfast?!  Yes, please!  I started with the bagel/lox/cheese/caviar followed by a frittata and ended with some yummy pancakes.
Review : They gave us all free smoothies to start - nice touch and so good!  The bagel was soooo good.  It was a very thin, crisp bagel so not as filling as if I had started with a whole big bagel.  The salmon, cream cheese, and caviar made it devine!  The frittata was also pretty good and the pancakes were delish.  Everyone else at the table got the chocolate french toast for the 3rd course...I decided I should be different and ended up with major food envy!  Steph let me try hers - so very good and chocolaty!
Overall : Two thumbs-up and 5-stars all around!  I think we'd all go back here.

David Burke Townhouse
When : Last Sunday for lunch
Who : Stacy and I
Why : We both had been wanting to go to this place and Sunday lunch was when we were able to secure reservations.  It's kind of nice to do RW for lunch because you still get 3 courses and it costs $11 less!
What : American?  A bit of everything?  I started with the pretzel crusted crab cake followed by chicken and potatoes and ended with an apple tart with ice cream.
Review : The crab cake was really interesting and very delicious.  The chicken was maybe the best chicken I've ever had and the apple tart was the perfect ending.
Overall : Very impressed with the food and the service.  The presentation of the food was impressive.  I'd recommend it.

Our fancy bread & butter were both cute & yummy!

My bellini was great, too!

Tom Colicchio & Sons
When : Last night (Friday) for dinner
Who : Rosella, Alejandra, and I
Why : Lucy and Amanda went last week and had rave reviews, so I just had to go!  Plus, Tom Colicchio's a famous chef so it seemed worth checking out.
What : American? A bit of everything? I started with the French Onion Soup followed by the Steak with Brussel Sprouts and ended with a lemon tart and orange sorbet.
Review : Soup was good, steak was great, I loved the brussel sprouts, and the lemon tart was so good!  I also enjoyed tasting Rosella's starter - bone marrow - it was so flavourfull!!  And Rosella and Alejandra's desserts were also fantastic - a red velvet cake/ice cream sundae and perfectly warm Zeppoles with carmel dipping sauce.
Overall : The food was great.  The experience was fun.  The restaurant is cool.  The service was great.  They even brought each of us a complimentary glass of wine to go with our steaks - amazing!  I definitely would go back here.

Martha!

To celebrate MLK Day, I went to the Martha Stewart show!  I have decided that going to see tapings on Monday Holidays is such a great idea because there is really no other time when I can go to these.  I work every other week day unless I'm out of town for vacation!  Martha was a lot of fun and they even gave me FOUR tickets!  Awesome.  Joy, Rosella, and Katie joined me and we all thought it was really fun.

The same crazy man who pumped up the audience for the Marriage Ref was there to wake us up bright and early and make sure we knew when to laugh and clap and oooh and ahhhh.  We received an email a few days before the show warning us that it was their HOT show.  It said to wear HOT colors (red, orange, pink, etc...), if possible and that there would be HOT treats, HOT guests, and HOT crafts during the show.  We all participated in our red and pink!

Rosella, Katie, me, Joy!

 The Garden area of Martha's stage

 One of the kitchen areas

It was very, very cold that day and they kicked off the show by giving us all delicious hot chocolate to drink while we watched the taping.  Then Martha introduced us to a chef who recently opened a fancy schmancy French restaurant in the city.  This chef was sooo cute!  Definitely fit in with the HOT theme.  He cooked up some delicious looking prawns and later a pasta sauce.

Zac Posen, the designer, was there for the crafty section of the show.  He gave us all a tutorial on dying pillow cases.  They turned out pretty cute!  Of course, they used HOT Rit dye colors like red and pink. 

A techy dude came to show us the newest HOTTEST gadgets that are coming out soon.  I was so hoping that after they showed us all these cool cameras and laptops that they'd say "And we have one of each for everyone in the audience today!"  Nope, didn't happen.  But, our next guest did come through with a take-home gift.

The final guest is some kind of chili pepper expert.  He was kind of a funny, old man.  Martha was pretty into his chili pepper knowledge though.  And, he gave us all a copy of his book to take home so we can further educate ourselves on chili peppers and maybe even cook up some of the recipes included in the book (I plan to as part of my New Year's Goals!!)

All the guests for the show (minus Zac Posen who had to sneak out early)

Chili Pepper Man, HOT Gadget man, Martha, and super HOTtie chef!

Martha stayed around for a Q&A after the show was done taping.  A poor girl in the audience asked her what she cooks when she gets home late at night.  I saw Martha's response coming before she opened her mouth and felt SO bad for this girl.  Martha, of course, went on and on lecturing the poor girl about how bad it is to eat late at night.  Had to have been a bit embarrassing for her!

Q&A!

 The crafty area of the stage - notice the bins full of dye for

Zac Posen's pillow project.

 My new Chili Pepper book!

 While trying to pump up the audience, they tossed out free

stuff.  I got this super absorbent sports towel.

Maybe I'll take it to the gym with me.

As we exited the show, they pointed us towards

a food truck that was passing out FREE food. It was

the weirdest thing.  You could pick out 1 drink and

one food product.  I got OJ and chips to take home

and save for another day!

After picking up our free goods, we went to Cookshop for lunch which is when we ran into Dean Sheremet.  Man, I've only been to Cookshop twice which is just not acceptable.  It was so good!

Happy New Year!

Yeah!  We're finally to my New Year's post.  Just a mere 6 weeks late.  At least from here on out we'll be blogging in the current year...2011.  Woo-hoo!

My New Year's Eve could not have been better if I had planned it.  And I definitely couldn't plan this one since I had NO idea I'd be spending it in Dallas.  The impromptu plans turned into one of my favorite New Year's Eves ever. 

When I found out I was stuck in Dallas, I immediately texted/called/Facebooked potential friends who might be up for partying the night away.  Most of my friends were out of town, but Michelle said she was on board!  We originally thought we might just have a low-key New Year's, just the two of us ordering in and planning our trip to Spain.  But, our friend Amber came through with a party for us!  First, I was so glad that Amber got to hang out with us since I hadn't seen her yet.  And, Amber and Michelle together are just toooo fun!  It was just a bonus that Amber had a fun and cool party for us to attend.  A friend of hers from church was hosting a small party at her apartment - a loft in downtown Dallas with views of the midnight fireworks celebration at Victory Plaza.  It was such a fun night! 

It was mostly girls from Amber's community group and it was a small group.  We all brought snacks and drinks and one girl brought a raclette grill!!  Have you ever had raclette?  It's a French thing that I wouldn't have known about if I didn't have a sister who lived there for 3 years and teaches me such things.  My family actually had raclette a few years ago during our Whister excursion.  It's kind of like fondue, but different.  The grill itself is double-decker.  You have little bowls that you place cheese (specifically raclette) in and place them on the lower level of the grill to melt.  On the top level of the grill you grill meats or veggies or potatoes.  You then placed the grilled items on a plate and pour the melted raclette over them.  Yummy!  And such a fun treat for a New Year's party!

This photo is not from our party - just an example from the internets!

After snacking/grilling/racletting, we sat down for some good old games.  First, we played some new game from the makers of Cranium - much fun, but I wasn't so great at it.  Next, we played catch-phrase, one of my favs.  I love game nights and they just don't happen so often in NYC, so this was a lot of fun!  And it worked out really well even though Michelle and I didn't know most of the people there.

After game playing, it was midnight!!  We poured some bubbly and went out on the balcony to watch the fireworks and ring in the New Year - such fun!

Amber & Michelle

 Michelle and I

Fireworks!

Michelle, Amber and I left pretty quickly after midnight.  It was a shame after the fun we had, but I had to be up at 4:30 the next morning to catch my flight back to the city.

New Year's Day was celebrated New York City style!  I met Stacy for dinner at Stanton Social.  I'd been wanting to go there for brunch for a while, but when Stacy suggested it for dinner, I was game!  They serve everything in small bites and family-style...similar to Tapas, but not Spanish food!  I think we got about 4 things and they were all SO good.  We also got delicious drinks and even dessert.  It was definitely a splurge, but hey, it was New Year's!  After dinner, we caught up with Mindy and we all went to see The Magic Flute at Lincoln Center.  This is a ballet performace that they do for a handful of dates during the Holidays every year.  Julie Taymor is one of the masterminds behind the scenes and I'd see anything with her fingerprints on it (she's known for her costumes and special effects).  I was SOOOO tired that night and don't feel like I got the whole experience, but it was good and I just loved being at Lincoln Center to ring in 2011.

 Sorry for the fuzz...my illegal shot at the ballet

More Movies!

I continue to check-off Oscar nominated movies from my to-see list!  In additon to ones I previously saw here and here, I've seen a few more in the past week or so:

- Mindy and I grabbed dinner at Whole Foods 2 Fridays ago.  Why don't we do this more often?!  So yummy, easy, convenient, and inexpensive!  Afterwareds, we saw Barney's Version.  I liked it.  Found it to be slow at times.  Didn't love it.

- Netflix sent me Animal Kingdom.  I didn't know what to expect of this.  Once I got used to the accents, I got really into it and actually kind of liked it.  Even though it is a pretty awful, depressing story.

- This past Friday, I went with Lucy and Angela to Dogmatic (love it).  Then we went to see Winter's Bone.  I nearly had no expectations for this one and quite liked it!

- Saturday night, Stacy and I went to see Blue Valentine.  I was soooo frustrated by this movie.  I really had been looking forward to this one.  There were parts of the story that were never explained and the ending felt totally unresolved.  Stacy asked if it was a book first?!  I don't know the answer to that, but maybe it was and maybe the book includes the rest of the story that I felt like we were missing!  Pretty much a disappointmment, but I did enjoy Michelle William's and she's up for the Oscar (though there's no way she'll beat Portman).

Family Christmas!

Okay, final Christmas vacay post!!  This one is all about the family.  With 14 days in the Big-D, there was plenty of family time!  I already blogged about all the time mom and I spent watching movies and our annual cousin Christmas.  Now here's the rest of what family time consisted of!

- My first morning back started with Ryder's Karate Belt ceremony.  It was awesome to get to see him perform.

They started out with a bit of stretching

 and some warming-up

 They listened carefully to their instructors

 And then did some moves with a partner.

Dallas folks...the man in the back?  None

other than Freddy Poole himself.  He's the

owner of the Karate studio, but you probably

know him best as the ex of Kelly Raspberry, of

Kidd Kraddick in the morning ;)

 Then it was Ryder's turn to test.  He had to do a very

long series of moves all by himself and from memory.

I think Beth and I both held our breathe the entire

time and then burst into applause once he had

completed the entire routine.  It was impressive!!

- I babysat the boyz a couple of times.  I always try to bring them something a little fun.  One night, I took them gum that made their mouths turn funny colors.  I also brought them cute little toothbrush holders, which was a great incentive to brush their teeth after that crazy gum!!

- I went with my parent's to their church my first Sunday morning back.  I was not overly impressed.  They love their church and especially the teaching of their pastor, Chuck Swindoll.  I know Chuck is big-time and many are a fan, but I actually prefer my lesser-known NYC pastor!

- We took the boyz to run through the tubes at Neiman Marcus...so fun!  Beth's cleaning lady was over that day and we were able to leave Shep napping with her.  And, in turn, we took her son Jose with us to lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then to check out the tubes.

Jose climbing through a tube

 Ryder & Beau making their way through

 Jose!

 Ryder!

 Beau!

 Inside the dancing machine

 Jose making his grand exit

 Followed by Ryder & Beau

The ladies in line behind us for the tubes had taken their girls for lunch inside at the Zodiac Room and had a Laura Bush sighting!  Mom and Beth were gracious enough to let me run in to see if I could find her.  They've both seen her multiple times.  In fact, back in the fall, Beth and Brian got to go to a dinner at the Bush home!  So, it was my turn!  Alas, I could not spot her.



- Beth and I ran the Jingle Bell 5k and had a BLAST!  We cannot wait for next year and plan to take the whole fam.

Beth found us some Christmas socks to run in

 She also insisted that we wear big plaid Christmasy bows in our hair.

I tied mine to look like a gift :)

 The crowd at the start of the race with the Dallas Ball in the background

- My family likes to work a puzzle at Christmas.  I found an awesome one of Manhattan and we all loved it!  My mom felt like it was so educational because we all learned new streets in the city.

- Of course, I spent some time wrapping all my gifts.  I found some super cute lollipops at Dylan's Candy Bar that I used as gift toppers this year.

- The night before Christmas Eve, I spent hanging out with my parents.  My mom made us a pasta dinner and while eating, dad suggested we go check out the Christmas lights.  We had planned to do this on Christmas Eve, but he thought maybe there would be less crowds.  We decided to go see the awesome electronic lights/music display on the Frisco town square.  It is so incredible!  We also drove through Highland Park for a while, but didn't see anything too terribly impressive there...hard to follow-up Frisco!



- The morning of Christmas Eve was spent doing our annual tradition of handing out gifts to kids in West Dallas.  It is such a fun morning and always so great to see the smiles on these kid's faces.  Our family was in charge of the gifts for 0-2 year-olds.  They streamed in and out of our room for the full two hours we were there.  We gave them each a wrapped book, a wrapped toy, and two stuffed animals that they got to choose themselves.  Besides visiting the rooms designated for their age range, each kid was treated to all kinds of other fun surprises...candy canes, Christmas ornaments, Bibles, and lunch!

 - On Christmas Eve, mom dad and I went to Park Cities (my old church) for their service.  It was nice, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I used too.  I just don't feel as connected to the church anymore and I think that can really make a difference in my worship experience.  Afterwards, we revived an old tradition and mom made clam chowder and we picked up Olive Garden salad and bread sticks.  Yum!

- We spent Christmas morning at the Mac house.  We had breakfast followed by gift opening.  We don't transport gifts on Christmas day.  We opened all the gifts under the Mc's tree and saved the ones under my parent's tree for later in the day.

The boyz got old school tiddly-winks.

 Ryder loved the remote control truck that Beau

picked out for him when I took him shopping.

 Ryder modeling his new guitar PJs, new guitar,

and his awesome new cowboy boots!

 When dad was in NYC at Thanksgiving, we discovered that

he has a weird infatuation with gnomes.  Beth found

him an Aggie gnome.  Can you tell he loved it?!

 Shep got a xylophone.  Ryder had a really hard

time letting Shep play with it first.

 Ryder really struggling not to take over!

 I think Shep likes it!

 The boyz got a real piano! Ryder has been asking for lessons.

 Beau wants to play, too!

 Look at the curls on the little one!

- Later in the afternoon on Christmas, all the Mc's came over to my parent's house where we continued gift opening and had a delicious dinner courtesy of mom and I's cooking!

 I gave Ryder & Beau their own digital cameras!

They were a big hit - even though the photo quality

is less than stellar.

 Ryder enjoyed his lollipop, too.

 Mom asked for some of these city glasses.  I gave her several-

all from places we have visited together!

 The boyz liked their NYC blocks (thanks, Kate for the idea!)

Brian also liked them and I think there's a good chance

they are sitting in his office now.

 Ryder & Brian had fun playing with KayKay's glasses at dinner.

- The night of Christmas, we piled in the car to go see Christmas lights!  Last year, I read about a retired man who goes all out with his decor and even has a train in his yard that you can ride.  Awesome!

Entering the man's backyard

 The train track with more decor in the middle and all around

 Beau, ready to ride!

 We all rode it and had a blast!!

 Ryder loved it!

 They even had SuperHero decor..perfect for the boyz!

- As usual, mom Beth and I went shopping the day after Christmas.  My favorite day!! 

Some of my loot : napkins, some that don't have to be Christmasy,

Holiday wall decor, ornaments to use next year as gift

toppers or for gift exchanges!

 An awesome pie plate, some tea, some bakers twine, and

some appetizer plates.  None of these have to be saved

for Christmas only...love those kinds of bargains!

 A votive holder and an owl for my apartment.

And some silver ribbon for gifts!

- Of course, we did lots of other shopping during my time in Dallas.  I made more than one trip to DSW and Macy's and I spent some quality time shopping the aisles of Target.  Shopping in Dallas is so much easier, efficient, and enjoyable than doing it in NYC!  Mom and I also hit up some smaller specialty stores we like as well as a couple of new ones she recommended.  And one day, Beth, mom, and I, along with the 3 littles went all the way up to McKinney to shop.  I had read about a store I wanted to check out and Beth had another one she wanted to visit.  I would love to spend a whole afternoon on the McKinney square shopping, eating lunch on one of the patios of one of the cute cafes, and wine tasting at the wine shop!

- Brian made us a yummy venison chilli dinner one evening.  Afterwards, the whole family played a game of "Minute to Win It", homemade by one of my mom's friends.  It was actually really fun and hilarious!

It was a great, great Christmas.  I had so much more family time and so much more relaxation time with the additional 5 days.  It was so nice!!  Can't wait for Christmas 2011!