Christmas in Connecticut

Grandma and Bumpa have a great home for celebrating Christmas.  The big living room is an old barn with a huge hearth and it feels so warm with all the decorating that Grandma loves to do.  We haven't been down to Connecticut in years, but decided to rally and make it happen this year.

Cally going to Christmas Eve church service with Grandma

Hazey in the cozy living room

Climbing trees in the sunshine

opening presents

Pictionary "losers"

Pictionary winners

Christmas walk in Selleck Woods

The whole crew!

Shirtless baseball 

   

Walking at Cherry Lawn

Cousin Love

Flowers for Maggie's Memorial

Maggie's Memorial

While it was strange to have such warm weather at Christmas, it was a treat to be with family in a special place. The kids loved being with their grandparents, cousin, aunt, and uncle.  We all loved relaxing and being together.

Radio City!

This year, we decided to delay Cally's birthday party until June (at which point we will celebrate her 7.5 birthday) and instead decided to do something different and special.  We took the 9am train into Grand Central:

Checked out the windows at Sach's and the Lego Shop:

We also braved the crowds to see the tree at Rockefeller Center:

  

We made it to Radio City just as the doors were about to open for our 11am show:

We paid a visit to Santa clause before settling into our seats.  It was a truly magical experience!  These kids, grandparents, and parents were thoroughly entertained.  There was a 3-d movie, lots of singing, lots of dancing, even camels, donkeys, lambs, and an angle. 

The rain had started to fall, but we walked to Bryant Park to watch some more skaters and ride the carousel:

Then we had a delicious and fun lunch at the restaurant right behind the New York Public Library:

Before heading home on the train, we stopped by the Metro North Train Museum/store to see a really cool model train.

It was such a magical day!  Even though it was 55 degrees and raining and we had to stand on the 50 minute train ride back to CT, the kids were so thrilled to be in the city, feeling the electricity of all the people and spirit of Christmas! 

Our Birthday Girl!

This beautiful, smart, funny, creative, strong gal turned 7!  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into or how our lives would change when these photos were taken seven years ago:

But this gal has brought so much sunshine and love into our lives.  She makes us think, she makes us laugh and she makes us proud all the time.  I count my lucky stars every day.  I couldn't ask for a better kid!

Cal's birthday was on the last day of school before break.  We opened presents in the morning:

John and Hazey delivered fruit kabob's to her class for a celebration with her classmates:

And then we jumped in the car and drove through a rainstorm after school.  It was a miserable drive, but we arrived to Nana and Grandpa's for a very special birthday dinner with Lynn, Mark, Chris, and the grandparents.

Nana made a great dinner and Cally's favorite carrot cake cupcakes.  More gifts were opened and we even got to exchange Christmas gifts early.

Holiday Lead Up

 Since we had the matching sweaters, we thought we'd go crazy and do the matching Christmas jammies.  What will be next?  A matching family set (even for the dog and cat)?

We went to our last solstice sing at Poker Hill School.  We packed ourselves into the school like sardines and sang some songs and shared friendship fruit salad with Hazey's classmates.

Even with all that seemed to be going on around the holidays, John and I managed to get out for a date night and a ski date. The skiing wasn't remarkable, but we were skiing and that always makes us happy!

Tommy, Cara, and Scott, the godparents, all came by for an early X-mas brunch.  They spoiled the kids with thoughtful gifts (electric toothbrushes and a donut making kid).