Looking Back : Christmas with Family

For several months before this trip to Dallas, I had been keeping a list of things I wanted/needed to do in Dallas.  I started receiving Daily Candy emails last year for both NYC and Dallas and anytime I read about somewhere interesting in Dallas, I added it to my list.  I checked several things off that list and still have more to check out next time I go back.  So fun to explore new things that have popped up since I moved away!

Mom and I were up and at 'em my first morning in Dallas.  We picked up Ryder and Beau and took them to Uptown for a ride on the McKinney Avenue trolley.  Mom had been wanting to take Ryder to do this for a while, but knew she couldn't manage both boys alone, so I told her I would help so Beau could come too.  I am pretty sure that the last time I was on that trolley was when I was little and my own Grandmother (Mammaw, dad's mom) took us.  We had a lot of fun doing this with the boys!  It's such a cute trolley and Uptown is such a cute area.  We went down to the West Village to catch it because there is plenty of parking there.  It worked out so well!

Kay Kay waiting for the trolley

Ryder looks pretty excited about this!

Beau, too!

While we waited, we met this HUGE dog!

Clearly these boys are not as afraid of

dogs as I was (still am sometimes!)

Here comes our ride!

Our driver was a bit of a grouch and yelled at us when the boys started playing with this steering wheel at the opposite end of the trolley from where he was driving.  It was completely open, so we thought that's why it was there.  We didn't know that he would later drive the trolley from that end.  After he yelled at us, we shut the door to that end - why wouldn't he have done that???

Ryder taking it all in

Beau had trouble sitting still!

So much to see!

Just hanging out

Mom and I checked out a bunch of stores on West Lovers Lane.  Before I moved, they had started opening up stores in little houses there, but there are more now and some really nice ones.  We had a lot of fun browsing in all these cute stores - mostly home decor, which is what we love!  I saw a plant I wanted that I really liked, but wasn't sure I could get home. The owners were really nice and we chatted with them for quite a while and they assured me I could get it home on a plane if I really wanted it.  They packaged it up real nicely and I'm happy to say it's sitting on my window sill now!

I babysat the boys a couple of times while B&B had plans.  They are quite easy to babysit, although the first night I stayed with them they were more HYPER than I have ever seen them.  Literally bouncing off the walls.  When Beth got home, I told her they had been in rare form and she asked if they'd had a lot of sugar.  I told her no and then started to list off what they ate...oops.  I learned that lesson!

My dad and I got to take Ryder to his first hockey game.  We all had a blast!!!  My dad was on the fence about going and I'm so glad he did.  He had a lot of fun.  Ryder loved the game and asked questions and my dad and I tried to explain to him what was going on.  The very first thing that happend when we got there (a few minutes into the game), was a big fight.  It was totally for show to get the crowd growing...the refs just watched these two guys go at it for a few minutes before breaking it up.  Dad and I were worried about exposing Ryder to the fighting, but I tried to explain that it was just for show (I really think it was) and then the best part was when the guys were sent to their Penalty Boxes.  Real life, adult time-out!!  I think Ryder got that they were in trouble.  Ryder was really into it for the first 2 periods.  He had trouble sitting still for the 3rd period.  (Okay, okay, maybe I didn't learn the sugar lesson.  Beth later clued me in to the fact that it was probably the Sprite I gave him between the 2nd/3rd period that riled him up.  I thought I was being smart just to not to give him a caffinated drink)!

I love that when I asked to take Ryder's

picture he put up his #1 finger.  Where

do kids come up with this stuff??

Next time, he went for a thumbs-up

Unlike last Christmas, when I think I saw 5 movies, I only made it to 1 this year.  Mom and I went to see Brothers.  It's not a happy story, but I really liked this movie.  As I type this, I realize that it wasn't nominated for any Oscars.  Not sure I agree with that!

Beth and I took Ryder to the Christmas windows at Neiman's downtown (the original!).  This was a LOT of fun...especially for Ryder.  Unfortunately, you have to be 4-years-old to go, so we had to sneak off during Beau's nap time.  Neiman's window displays were interactive...kids could actually climb INTO them and run through them.  From the outside, we could press buttons that were speakers to the inside so we could talk to Ryder as he ran through the tunnels.  It was very cool!

Ryder running through the tunnels (you can see him

behind the words on the window)

Ryder sliding down one of the slides

Ryder went through the windows multiple times

and RAN through as quickly as possible each time.

At this window, there was loud music playing and

it told you to dance here.  Ryder would stop for

about 10 seconds each time, do a quick dance  and

then get back to running through the rest!  So cute!

The last tunnel to get out of the windows

Christmas Eve was spent going to Watermark (B&B's church) followed by dinner at their house.  This was Ryder's first year to participate in the church service.  Beau went to the nursery and my mom and I volunteered to sit in the balcony with Shep.  We were prepared to take him out if he became fussy, but he was so great!  He slept for a while, but when he woke up, we were singing and he LOVED the music.  Then, I fed him a bottle during the message.  It was perfect.  The service was great too.  Watermark always does a meaningful Christmas Eve service.  In fact, I highly recommend you take a look at the Cardboard Testimonies they did during the service this year that display the life changes people in their community have experienced this year.  A great way to celebrate what that little baby born so long ago is still doing in the lives of those who choose to believe and trust in Him today.  Grab some kleenex before you watch...some of the stories may bring you to tears!

Christmas Eve dinner was fabulous-o!!  My immediate family as well as Brian's immediate family were all there.  A total of 16 people.  Beth did fondue and it was oh so good.  We had cheese fondue with meat, bread, apples and potatoes to dip.  Beth's sis-in-law, Melissa, made a delicous salad to go with it.  It was all amazing!  For dessert, we had chocolate fondue with an assortment of dippers that was equally as yummy.

After Christmas Eve dinner, Beth again pulled out her costumes for the kids to put on the Christmas story play.  Always so cute and fun.

Joseph & Mary (Robert & Harper)

The Inn Keeper (Jackson) explaining to Joseph

that there is no room in the Inn!

Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus (Shep, of course)

(Love Harper's little hand on Shep's head)

A little bit of chaos is okay in our Christmas play.

(Ryder & Jordan as wisemen, Melissa as an angel)

Have you ever seen a cuter Sheep (Beau)?

It had been snowing all day long on Christmas Eve.  Such fun!  Beth's house looked so pretty in the snow as mom, dad and I headed home that night.

Christmas morning brought brunch at Beth's followed by gift opening at their house.  We ate a quiche I made and Beth made something sweet (it's escaping me now....it has been like 6 weeks)!  That morning, we just opened the gifts under B&B's tree and saved the ones under mom and dad's tree for later.

The boys loved the headlamps my Uncle

Don sent them from Colorado!

There was just enough snow to make a snowman on

Christmas Day!  They made a bigger one in the back,

but I didn't get a picture of that one.

After a morning at Beth's, mom, dad and I went back to their house for an afternoon of cooking for Christmas dinner and some relaxation time, too.  The Mc Family stayed home so the boys could nap...actually, I bet they all napped!  They came over to my mom's late afternoon to open gifts under my mom's tree and enjoy a yummy dinner.  My mom made brisket and I made all the sides...my fav potato casserole, green beans, strawberry jello/pretzel salad and a chocolate tort for dessert.  All our Holiday favorites!

Do you see the sweet present under this tree?

There he is!  He layed under the tree so sweetly for

a very long time...loved the lights!

The boys had quite the time in their PJs unwrapping

gifts all day long!

Later that evening, we went for a drive to see some Christmas lights.  We always love Crazy Liz's lights.  She had a huge Abominable Snowman in the front yard and Beau was terrifed of it.  I know it's not nice to make fun, but his reaction was absolutely hilarious to me.

As many of you know, it's the day AFTER Christmas that is my favorite of the Holidays.  I just love spending the morning shopping the sales with the girls.  Mom, Beth, and I were some of the crazy people waiting in line outside Container Store when it opened.  I don't know why we bother going there as they seem to sell out of EVERYthing before Christmas.  They have the greatest wrapping paper, but it's just too expensive.  We did have a ball at Crate & Barrel and bought some things and especially enjoyed all the free samples of their goodies they give away that day.  We went to several other stores like Pier 1, Hobby Lobby, and the Wisteria warehouse.  Lots of fun!

Mom and I spent part of an afternoon/evening putting together this puzzle I got at the All-Star game last year.  I get tons of the most random things working at the NHL and give most of it to my dad or the kids.  We had fun working this puzzle.

My last evening in Dallas was spent having our annual Cousin Christmas (not MY cousins, unfortunately).  As I've explained before, my mom and dad share a blood cousin (and I'll remind you again, my parents are NOT blood related)!  So, it makes for a unique relationship.  Susie and her family have always been around at so many of our family events.  Now that my parents live in Dallas, its been fun to see their relationship grow.  Susie and her husband really have become great friends of my parents...they're even planning a getaway to France this fall!  This year, my mom hosted the party, so Susie and all her gang came over.  It was fun to see everyone...the kids did their regular gift exchange and the adults all got caught up. 

My last morning/afternoon in Dallas was a quiet one.  I packed up and then B&B and the boys came over for lunch before I had to head to the airport.

It was a wonderful trip!  Ten days is a long time to be there, but I have to admit it seemed a lot shorter than the 16 days I was able to take the 2 years prior.  It'll probably be a long time before I can ever swing a 16 day trip to Dallas again, but I'll take what I can get!

Looking Back : Crazy Christmas Travels

I arrived to Dallas late on Thursday, December 17th.  It was, again, a crazy travel experience.  Not quite as crazy as last year, but more crazy than I'd prefer.  I was scheduled to fly out of Newark and 1 train stop away from the airport, I realized I had an email, so I opened it.  It was from American saying that my flight had been rescheduled to the following evening...24 hours later!  It was the oddest email ever - no explanation at all and it was almost like a confirmation of a request I had made, but I obviously hadn't made any such request.  Since I was only 1 stop away, I kept on and went on to the airport.  Newark was a ghost town - it was like they were shutting down for the night.  At the American counter, they were packing up to go - they informed me that my flight had been canceled and there were no more American flights to anywhere that night.  I don't know for sure, but I highly suspect that my flight was canceled because it was not full.  That makes me angry.  And I felt like the situation was handled pretty poorly with the timing and wording of the email and the fact that they thought it was no big deal to reschedule me for 24 hours later.  So, I complained and then told them they could do better than that.  They tried to tell me that there were no flights I could get on before that, but I kept telling them that there must be, that they could do better, and then started offering up ideas...another aiport in NYC?  Another airline?  ANYthing...there has got to be something.  Finally, they succombed and got on the computer and realized that, oh yeah, they had a flight out first thing the next morning I could get on.  Oh, and wait, if I left right now, I might make a flight out that night from LaGuardia.  Did I have bags to check?  Yes, of course I did.  They weren't sure I could make it to LaGuardia in time to check bags.  I debated, if it was worth trying to get there and decided to go for it...after telling them that they WOULD pay for my taxi fair.   LaGuardia and Newark are pretty far from each other and I have never had a reason to do a drive from New Jersey to Queens, so I had no idea how long it would take, expected there to be traffic, and figured we'd be driving into Manhattan and back out to Queens, both of which can be nightmares at any given time.  My taxi cab driver was awesome.  No traffic and he went around the bulk of Manhattan instead of through it.  It only took about 30 minutes.  Thankfully, American did foot that bill - it was an $85 cab ride!  I got to LaGuardia in enough time to even sit down and have dinner before I went through security and I was only an hour later into Dallas than my original flight would have been.  The new flight was not full, so I had extra seats to spread out in and it was a smooth flight from there.  Pretty crazy getting to that point, but not so bad after all.

Making $$

So, I'm expecting my first (hopefully not last) trip to the Olympics to cost me a pretty penny. As a result, I've wanted to start making some extra money to help fund this little adventure. Luckily, a couple of things just happened to come up to help me with this.

I've got a temporary Saturday night babysitting job. I started last weekend and will be doing 3 more Saturdays this month. I'm just taking over for my friend, Mindy, who is currently in a play for the next month. Hopefully, once her play is over, I'll be able to continue to do it sometimes when she can't. It is the easiest job ever and good money! The kids are a boy who is almost 3 (just one week younger than Beau!) and a girl who is 6. They are extremely sweet and good kids and they go to bed between 7:30/8:00. I pretty much get there, put them to bed and then get comfy on their couch and read for a couple of hours until the parents get home. This past week, the parents even gave me extra cab money, but I opted to pocket it and take public transportation instead! And they feed me dinner and it's a night where I am not out spending the money. So, I'm earning and saving all at the same time. Nice!

I also made my first Etsy sale! I put my Game Day Beads on there a while back, but didn't advertise to anyone as I was trying to make some decisions about how/if I wanted to proceed. But, someone randomly found them and bought 3! Yea! I had to buy some more beads in different colors. I'd already bought a bunch of different colors of ribbon on sale after Christmas, so I was set for that. Anyway, I don't expect to ever get a ton of business, but it's a fun hobby and they're quick and easy to make, so if I can sell some more, that'd be great! I'm also going to start making bracelets as an alternative to the necklaces.

Taxes! I filed my tax returns and am expecting a big refund. Now, I know that getting a refund is not ideal...it's better to just get the money up front when you earn it, but I have to admit, I kind of like getting that extra cash deposited into my bank account each spring. On that note, if you don't tithe, I highly recommend it....it is the #1 reason I get a big refund every year. Obviously, I don't REALLY think that getting a tax refund is a good reason to tithe. But, I do think tithing is important to be obedient to God's commands and believe God blesses obedience. As my pastor always says, "would you rather have 90% of your income with God's blessing or 100% without His blessing"? I just consider that tax refund a little blessing in my pocket every year :)

DKNY & Restaurant Week

It's Winter Restaurant Week in NYC again. I was a little less impressed with the list this time around, but did end up going out for two dinners. Last week, I met Kim, Rosella, and Lucy at Mr. Chow in Tribeca. I loved this place! The ambiance was so cool and sleek. The food was amazing. They serve it family style and there were four options for the appetizers and entrees, so since we had four people, we got one of each and all got to try everything. For dessert, we had ice cream and sorbets, which seems pretty typical for Asian restaurants. I would definitely go back to this place - it was a fun experience and great food!

Last night, I went to Japonais with Rosella and her friends Kianti and Deyvis. This place was huge, especially for NYC. It was also packed, so I took that as a good sign. I wasn't as impressed, however, with the meal and the service. It was veryyyyy slow and their timing was a bit off on brining out our food. My appetizer, a crab cake was amazing. My chicken entree was good, but not great...I did however love the veggie rice it came with. For dessert, they only had one choice - a cheesecake, topped with pineapple mousse on an almond crust. Again, good, but not great. We still had fun.

Before dinner last night, Rosella and I went to The New School at Parsons for a Donna Karan speaking event. It was fun to be there...we were hoping to have a Tim Gunn sighting! Alas, no such luck. Donna Karan did an interview and she was a very interesting lady. She mentioned twice how much she loves uniforms - hilarious! She also loves belt bags and wore a HUGE one. She was very different - don't know how to explain it, just different, but in an interesting sort of way. I thought she was supposed to talk about women's workwear, but they really talked to her more about how she got her start, where her inspiration comes from, etc....

Guess Where?

Guess where I'm going to be in one week?

And guess what I'm going for?

Eeek!!  I'm getting so excited!

Looking Back : Christmas with Dallas Friends

While in Dallas for Christmas, I got to see many of my friends, which was nice. It can get kind of crazy when I go back trying to balance time between friends and family. For shorter trips, I tend to just plan one dinner or something and hope that all my friends can come, but then it's hard to really talk to anyone and not all my friends are friends with each other, so it's not always the best scenario (not saying that any of them dislike each other...my friends are too nice/mature for that!). It's always fun for me though :) This time, I tried to spread it out a bit more...I probably packed too much in as it made things pretty busy and it made the time go by way too quickly!! I enjoyed seeing so many people though and we did some pretty fun things!!

Michelle, Jennifer, Brooke, and Andi came over the Friday before Christmas week. I was at Beth's baby-sitting so they came over around 8:00 after the boys were in bed. We ordered pizza and salad and then made Christmas sugar cookies. It was really fun and we made A LOT of cookies. Brooke brought some awesome decorating tools and is really good at it....I learned a thing or two and may be a bit more confident now to stray from my normal simplistic decorating. While the girls were over, I also had them assemble their own Christmas gift from me. I made all my NYC and Dallas friends ornaments this year (stole the idea from Kelly's blog). But, I ran out of time that day to finish assembling the ornaments for these 4 girls so I let them make their own. Does that still count as a gift??? (Oh, and Kristen, I had one for you with an "r" for Ray and forgot to give it to you!!! I left it in "my" drawer at my mom's house so I can give it to you some other time I am back).

Brooke, the master cookie creator

These were probably all Brooke's creations

Another Brooke cookie

Um, probably not Brooke's (Andi?)

Random mix of fun cookies!

We forgot to pull out the camera until Michelle left,

but here I am with Brooke, Andi, and Worley

and some of our cookies!

Worley brought us each one of these brownie bites!  I
love how she stuck the candy cane stick in it and I
LOVED how they were brownie bites instead of cake
bites. Y'all know I love cake bites, but I think I
might like brownie bites even better!

On Saturday, I met my old Ernst & Young gang for brunch. It is always fun to see these girls and get caught up. I wish I had the chance to see Kelli a bit more that week, but things were just too busy for us!

This trip to Dallas was the first time I met up with some of my New York friends. Many of my NYC friends are from the Dallas area and now some have started to move back to Texas. So, I had the chance to catch-up with both Sarah and Kristen while I was there. All of us were in Community Group together until Kristen and Sarah moved to Texas in August/September. It was really good to see them and they are both doing so well and enjoying their new lives in Texas. On Sunday I met Sarah for church and then brunch. We went to Watermark so she could try it - she's still on the church hunt. After, we went to Gloria's for brunch - yum! On Wednesday, I met Erin and Kristen for dinner at Taco Diner. Kristen had a small ranch wedding soon after moving back to Austin and she brought her album to share with us which was so fun. It was a really sweet, intimate wedding.  I love my NYC/Texas friends.

On Sunday night, I got to (kind of ) participate in Bunco for the first time since moving away. I used to be a regular with the group. We didn't end up actually playing Bunco, but instead had an ornament exchange and a cookie exchange....two of my favorite things!! I made Gingerbread Chocolate Chunk cookies. My friend Jen made these last year for a NYC exchange and they were amazing. I don't think mine turned out like hers, but they were still good. The cookies Tamara brought were my favorite -- Chocolate Mint cookies, made with Andes Mints (which I love).

I had lunch with both my old Dallas roommates. I went to Deanna's house one day for lunch so I could see her and her boys. We had a good time catching-up and her boys are SO cute. They might be the happiest brothers I've ever seen. Smiling ear to ear the whole time. Another day, I picked up Kristen from work and we went and had a Greek lunch. It was good food and good conversation as always!

Andi and I did the Jingle Bell Run and it was so fun! I used to do it every year in Dallas, but then they quit doing it after Hurricane Katrina (it used to benefit Carter Blood and they were too busy with other things that year).  It's finally back and I want to do it every year! A lot of people came out for it...many decked out in crazy Holiday gear. The run/walk (we did a little of both!) took us through the Design District and there are a lot of new stores popping up down there. It was interesting to see what's there and I may have to go do some shopping down there some time. After the run/walk there was a little party inside The Anatole and we had fun there, too.

My week ended with an amazing mani/pedi date with Michelle at Julie's salon. Julie used to work at Maile Nails...a salon I went to almost every other week for about 5 years. I loved it! I had read that Julie had branched out on her own - she was always one of the best at Maile. So, I wanted to check it out and it was amazing!!! I actually ran out of time for my manicure, but the pedicure may have been the best I've ever had and I cannot wait to go back!! They massage your legs and feet for a very long time and even use hot stones. It was heavenly.

So, as you can see, I was busy, but got to do a lot of fun things with some fun friends! It was great to celebrate Christmas with everyone!!

Looking Back : Christmas 2009 in the City

Community Group Christmas! My CG got together for a night of good food and celebration! Robyn made delicious BBQ chicken and we all brought a little something to go with it. I ran out of time to make anything and we didn't have any bread coming, so I picked up Popovers w/ strawberry butter from the Popover Cafe....yum! We sat around talking for hours. I love this group of girls!

This city is seriously the most festive place during the Holidays!! I love it.  All of the big business buildings decorate to some extent.  They usually bring out the same decs every year.  This year, a couple of the buildings on 6th Avenue right by the NHL building had new decorations which was fun and exciting!!

The Fox building put out these new red trees

And the building next to them had these huge, fun lights!

Mindy and I decided to spend an evening after work checking out all the Holiday lights and decorations. We started out with dinner at the Burger Joint - I haven't been there in ages and LOVE it. It is so good and a little hidden treasure. Plus, it was close to the start of the Holiday Department Store Windows. We walked by several of the Department stores to see their windows....Bergdorf's, Saks, Lord & Taylor, and finally Macy's. Bergdorf's was by far the best. Their Holiday windows are beautiful! I love how they incorporate their clothing into the displays, unlike the other stores that just have crazy displays that don't actually relate to any of the products they're selling. Also, Bergdorf's windows each had a different material they used to create a work of art - one was all green grass/plant materials, one was all glass, one was all paper, etc.... They were really amazing! We also walked up 5th Avenue and saw all the smaller stores that are decked out for the Holidays. We walked into St. Pat's and got to see their choir rehearsing and see the Nativity Scene inside. We saw the Saks light/music show and the Rock Center Tree and skating rink. We stopped along the way at Magnolia Bakery for some delicious Hot Chocolate - I'd never had theirs before and it was so good! It was a very fun night and I'm glad I had a chance to enjoy the City lights before I left town.

There was a choir practicing when we stopped

in St. Pats, so we stopped for a bit to listen

I love Nativity Scenes!  This is the one

inside St. Pats.

Rockefeller

I always love the snowflake show at Saks!

Windows at Lord & Taylor

Macy's windows were interactive.  At this one, you

got to fill out some answers to questions (Mad Libs

style).  It used your answers to create a letter to

Santa.  Here's mine!

Craftacular Fair -- I decided to go to a craft fair I'd read about and it was so great! When I got there, the line to get inside was very long - they were at capacity. It was cold and I debated leaving, but decided that if all those people were there, it must be worth it. It was really cool. I didn't buy much - one baby gift, but they had a lot of really great things I enjoyed looking at. I also got to help make my own bag using cool machines that cut fabric, iron on stickable fabric, etc.... Fun!

The bag I helped create for myself!

Holiday Markets - One of my favorite things between Thanksgiving and New Years are the holiday markets that pop up all over the city. I made it to 3 of them this year - Bryant Park (multiple times), Grand Central, and Union Square. I love to browse through these things and always find at least one Christmas gift for someone and always end up buying some sort of jewelry for myself. I got some earrings and a bracelet this year.

The Holiday Market at Union Square

Bryant Park is so festive!

Kim's candle -- One of the girls in my community group lit the Candle of Peace during Advent. Kim started going to our group just weeks before she was going in for a double mastectomy. I had met her a few times through Baylor stuff, but she was a new friend for most the other girls. It was a scary time for her and she was in need of a support group, as her parent's were in Houston and her mom was recovering from a 2nd round of breast cancer herself. The girls in my group really stepped-up to help Kim out during this time and we provided her lots of meals to make it through the weeks where she wasn't feeling well and in a lot of pain. Jen and Erin made a video about the experience that was shown at the church service and then Kim lit the candle. It was a neat experience to have together.