It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

For my twin sister's birthday, her husband, Christian, planned a trip for the both of them to NYC!  They stayed with us in our apartment (kicked Kate and Taylor out of their bunk beds), and Rebecca and I got to celebrate our 35th together- something we had not done for too many years.  They were only here for a couple of frreeeezing days, but they made the most of it by getting out and doing lots of fun things.  We joined them one night for a broadway show, "Matilda", and dinner altogether.  This was Christian's first broadway show and I'm pretty sure he was blown away because he mentioned feeling a lot of regret for having waited so long in his life to partake in the broadway magic.  And, "Matilda" is nothing short of magic.  Its one of my favorite shows-- I've seen it 3 times!  We ate dinner at one of our favorite places, Jacob's Pickles, on the UWS and it was delicious, rich and filling, as usual.  I loved having them in town and staying up way too late laughing and catching up.  Also, I don't think I've ever bundled up so much in my life because it was ridiculously cold out while they were here.  They need to come back when you don't have to cover every inch of your body with layers!

Next up, Beau and Amy and their 3 cute boys visited just before Christmas.  We ate a yummy pizza dinner at Patsy's and then saw the Rockettes together to ring in Christmas.  Its a really cute show- my favorite part is at the end when they do a live Nativity, with real animals (even a camel!).  I love that they conclude, even here in NYC, with the true message of Christmas; it brings such a sweet spirit.  Beau and Amy also had great tickets to "Hamilton", so they saw that one night while we babysat and then we met them for a really late dinner at The Smith- always a good choice.  We even made time during their visit to see the gorgeous Angel Christmas Tree at the Met, on the east side of Central Park.  Beau and Amy are some of our very favorite people and we will gladly take any time we get to spend with them!

One of the coolest Christmas decorations in the city are these giant red ornaments at Rockefeller Center.  We also walked down 5th Avenue to see all of the famous festive store-front decor and of course, the ribbon-wrapped Cartier store.  Santa Claus is definitely coming to our town!

Love these girls and love seeing them all dressed up for Christmas!

The Christmas shops in Bryant Park are really cool to browse around because they sell some really unique items.  These pop-up shops spring up all over the city this time of year and its kind of magical.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, we met some friends at the Brick Lane church on Park Avenue for their annual Christmas sing-along and lighting of the trees all down the famed street.  It was such a cool night, as thousands gathered and sang sweet Christmas songs together for over an hour altogether.

We also discovered the sheer magic of snow in NYC...its the BEST!!

For Christmas Eve dinner, we were invited to eat with the Buckner's at their home, along with a few other families and a group of missionaries.  It was a yummy dinner, but the entertainment was what made is extra special.  They have a tradition of putting on a talent show after their dinner, so our girls prepared to sing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and the Pelo's (another awesome family from our ward) all sang a few numbers and the Buckner kids played some piano- all so talented and such an incredible Spirit was shared as we ended the evening talking about the birth of Christ. 

These two Pelo sisters are crazy good at singing.  We loooove their family so much!

Because Christmas was on a Sunday this year- which is pretty much the best thing ever- we got up early and all cuddled in our traditional Christmas pajamas, opened a few presents, then got ready for church at 10.  Only sacrament meeting was held, so we made our way over to Columbus Circle for one of the best meetings, which was filled with gorgeous music and beautiful words.  We finished up with our gifts and relaxed around the house to finish off a perfect Christmas.  (Is there anything better than a crackling fire on the TV?!?! ;))

One of Taylor's favorite gifts was this Romo jersey picked out by her Dad.  We were also mildly obsessed with our pencil Christmas tree.  I think its 1 foot at its widest berth and it was the ONLY tree that we could squeeze into our over-stuffed tiny apartment.  It was really perfect though.  

Over the school break, we spent as much time together and outside as we could.  We met our good friends, the Todd's, in Central Park to play some games.  We also made our way to the American Museum of Natural History to see their origami tree- incredible! Man, I just really love Christmastime!!

Manhattan 1st Ward Christmas Pageant

Our ward put on the most magical Christmas pageant ever this year.  Our bishop and his wife organized and put it on, and assigned parts to all of the primary kids that wanted to participate.  The moms bought gorgeous matching feather wings so the girls matched, and then had gold tinsel for all of their halos- it was the perfect touch as they really sparkled up there.  They also wore their own white dresses and it turned out so pretty.  Lauren was a shepherd as well, with her staff and robes.  We have the BEST group of primary kids.   Everyone looked great and the little ones were all so reverent as the narrators (Taylor and two of her friends) spoke and they all sang about the birth of Christ.

After the pageant, typical Israeli food was catered to our building and we all sat on blankets on the floor and ate together.  It was really a unique and lovely Christmas party that definitely brought the true reason we celebrate this season into focus.

The Wise Men ascending the stage.   There is the best little boy, Henry, in our ward that walks with the aid of a walker.  He's been working really hard on getting around without the assistance of it as much as possible.   This was one of the first opportunities that he'd had to walk on his own in front of the ward, and it was such a sweet moment for everyone.  

The angelic angel narrators- Ellie, Taylor and Lauren

This was such a special and well-done Christmas party--huge thanks to our bishop and his wife for pouring themselves into making sure it turned out as gorgeous as it was.  I just can't get over how lucky we are to live in a place where people give so much of themselves for the benefit of others- our ward family is the best.

Thanksgiving with the Sedgwicks

Our first Thanksgiving on the East Coast provided us with a chance to spend the holiday with family!  We LOOOOVE that we live (kind of) close to my sister, Jessica and her 6 kids, as well as her husband, Dave.  We bought tickets on the very (un)fancy Megabus that leaves from 34th Street and drives the 3-4 hours to Baltimore.  Riding on Megabus is never without its glitches, so I purposefully reserved seats for our family and paid a little extra to make sure we were all sitting together on the top of the double-decker buses.  However, when we arrived at our pickup, there were only single-decker buses (making our top-deck seats wholly invalid).  Because we arrived shortly before departure- I mean, sitting outside with 4 kids and all of their STUFF isn't the most enjoyable thing- most of the seats were taken already.  Obviously, we expressed our reserved-seat confusion with their attendants, for which they could do nothing.  We weren't feeling too comfortable with scattering our kids all over with strangers for 4 hours, so we told the attendants our concerns.  They got on the bus and explained the situation to the customers and people shifted around and made space for all of us to sit together in two groups.  Taylor and I sat close and Brian sat with the other 3.  It worked out great and we were really grateful for people's understanding.  We watched a movie and then once that was over, Taylor and I swapped telling each other what we were grateful for the remainder of the ride.  It was a great start to a weekend filled with gratitude and family.

We arrived at the bus drop-off in Baltimore and unloaded all of our stuff onto the sidewalk and waited for Jessica to arrive to drive us the 30 minutes to their home in the suburbs.  She came, we loaded up, and then left.  The Sedgwicks live in a gorgeous part of Maryland, on a big piece of property with zip-lines, fire pits, trees to climb, woods to explore and hills to run down.  We settled in and got stuff going for our big dinner while the kids played and we even snuck some initial zip-line runs in.  We stayed up that night talking and then headed to bed.  Brian was so tired that he fell asleep in his clothes and everything!  He woke up the next morning, anxious to get ready for the day, and couldn't find his luggage anywhere.  We looked and looked, to no avail.  We figured that we must have somehow missed loading it into the car at the bus the day before so we drove quickly back and it was nowhere to be found.  We made some calls to see if it had been picked up by any other busses or people and then realized that it must've been stolen.  Luckily, Brian had his backpack with his nice camera and work laptop inside, so his luggage was filled with clothes and some medicine.  We figured that if someone really wanted to track us down, they could have easily done it, but it never happened.  Brian borrowed some clothes and other essentials for the weekend.

Their property is just amazing...and so are these two cute little girls who also happen to be the cabooses of each family.

Lots of time spent cuddling, relaxing and talking on these couches in their family room.

The kids spent most of their time playing with their cousins in the basement full of fun toys, outside in the woods and on the zip-line.  No bored kids this weekend and plenty of space to spread out! Can't ask for much more! On Thanksgiving morning, the older kids and adults went on a gorgeous run nearby and then came home to cook/bake/eat.  We made a delicious dinner, the kids made the cutest candy turkey favors and it was a really great evening.  There was a little bit of football sprinkled in there as well as a nice talk about all of the things we were deeply grateful for.

The next day we went to see Moana as a family and did a little bit of shopping.  The movie was great and one of Dave's nephews did some of the movie's illustrations, so that was a fun connection to see.  That night we made a fire in their backyard and cooked s'mores.  Dave also took the kids on tractor rides on their beautiful property.  We made some more homemade rolls and ate leftover and watched Dave's favorite, "Man from Snowy River", which he said would change our lives. ;) 

The next day we helped the Sedgwicks clean their ward building- which happened really fast with all of those extra hands!  Afterwards, we went to their famous Amish Market and ate pastries and lunch to our heart's content...donuts, pretzels, hot dogs=yummy!  We then picked up a Christmas tree and brought it home.  While we decorated it, we drank hot chocolate and played music.  Dave then hired all of the kids to pick up sticks in their backyard for 10 cents a pop and that kept them busy and motivated for a long time.  That evening, the parents went to a really nice dinner downtown that was unique and delicious.  We loved it, but mostly loved hanging out and talking!  The next day, after church, we caught our Megabus back to NYC.  It was a great Thanksgiving full of fun memories.  Thanks Sedgwicks for hosting!