Merry Christmas to All!

Well, this is probably the Christmas card for next year, but you'll have forgotten it by then hopefully.



We had a blast in NYC! We did a ton of stuff, but we'll start with the geocaching so I don't have to cut and paste so many pictures. This one was across the street from the Dakota building, where John Lennon lived, and under a very nice arch in Central Park.



It was actually a pretty big one - we were surprised.



There weren't too many muggles around, but I snapped this of Dean as a jogger was coming our way. (I think he looks like a bad guy from The Bourne Identity - scary!)



And we did the NBC tour (Drew's favorite thing in NYC was seeing the SNL studio getting ready for the show later that night) plus went to the "Top of the Rock" for some fabulous views.



Stupid poses, admittedly, but still fabulous views.



Lucas's favorite thing was seeing the Statue of Liberty. He grabbed Dean's leg and said, "Thank you for bringing me to see this!" (Sniff, sniff...so sweet) He later decided that going in the Times Square Toys'r'Us was the best thing. He obviously likes being shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of people so that you can only shuffle your feet to walk and workers constantly yell at you to keep moving. He also must love getting hit in the face with wayward remote control helicopters, as that is what happened to him. (Dean declared it akin to being in hell...I concur.)



We did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, then made our way to "Curry Row" in the East Village, I believe, for some fabulous Indian food that's ruined us for our local joint. Drew later decided this was his favorite thing about New York. And I just had to video Lucas walking down a street - that kid skips everywhere when he's in a good mood, and I missed that but caught some sort of hand antics I wanted to remember. Why don't adults walk down the street like this? (Uh, well, they'd be picked up by the police and taken to the psych ward, I guess.)



We went to the Museum of Natural History, rode the subway (another big hit with Lucas), ate NY pizza plus other fabulous food (thumbs-up for Scarpetta), shopped in Times Square, and walked through FAO Schwartz just to say we did it. I also had a few minutes to run in Paron and gaze at the fabric - shout-out to Sheila for hooking me up! I wanted to go in Metro Textiles, but we were in the area on Sunday and they were closed. Shopping for fabric in NY is totally different than running in your local Joann's - I felt like such a novice!

After all that, we came back to the beach to have Christmas with the whole family.



Of course, a family get-together with us means either karaoke or a dance party, depending on the sound equipment, so here are a few highlights, starting with Jester and his sidekick.



Junior and Joe smoldered in front of a full moon reflecting off the water.



And Drew and his cousin grudgingly sang (I use the term loosely) at their mothers' insistence.



Poor Jakey was even forced into the holiday spirit for a few seconds.



So now I'm back to become re-acquainted with my machine and hopefully finish my MIL's pants and my fleece before starting on my mom's fleece. Whew, so much to do - hope you all had a great holiday too!