NYC at Christmas

For Christmas, Dave gave me an overnight trip to NYC! He arranged for our niece to watch the kids and the day after Christmas we headed to NYC. We both absolutely love this city and, with it being just a 4 hour drive away, it makes it relatively easy for us to get there. After checking in to our hotel, we headed to Little Italy, which was all decked out for the holidays, and had dinner.

Next stop: Dylan's Candy Bar

And then "The Big Piano" (from "Big" fame) at FAO Schwartz

And then we wandered around Rockefeller Center where we watched people ice skate and saw the beautiful Christmas Tree.

And before heading back in for the night, we went out for a late night snack at Pigalle -- we have been to this place 3 times because Dave has yet to find a place (or a recipe) that can match their Croque Monsieur (one of his favorite dishes).

We've been to NYC enough times now that we mostly just repeat doing our favorite things and just enjoy walking around the city and eating at new restaurants, but we always try and do at least one new thing we haven't done before. This time, it was an easy choice -- the 9/11 Memorial built at Ground Zero, that was just completed in September in time for the 10 year Anniversary of 9/11. It was beautiful and a fitting tribute to those that lost their lives on that fateful day.

There are two "pools" and the names of each person that lost their life that day is engraved along the sides of the fountains. I made it a point to see the name of Todd Beamer since I read his wife's book "Let's Roll" this past year and learned a lot about him and his life.

After seeing this beautiful monument (which by the way, takes a good chunk of time because you have to get tickets, wait in line forever and go through a million security check points), we had a delightful breakfast and then headed home to relieve our niece of kid duty! And now, as I listen to Tanner scream at the top of his lungs because Lacey ate the last M&M, I think I might be ready for another little getaway..... :)

Christmas Day!

What kid doesn't LOVE Christmas? I have so many memories of waking up at the crack of dawn, tackling my parents on their bed and begging to go downstairs. Well, this is the first year that my kids have really "gotten it", so I had all these envisions of how they would be Christmas morning. Well..... here's what happened. Tanner jumped in our bed at 6:30 am and said "I want a show." In other words, it was no different than any other morning. Riley and Lacey were still asleep and our family tradition is that we all go downstairs together, so we spent the next hour occupying Tanner upstairs until I finally heard Lacey stirring at 7:30. I went in her room all excited and she just kind of laid there with her eyes open. I said "Lacey, do you know what today is??" (I knew she HAD to know, because we have spent ALL month talking about it, counting down to it, etc), but no response. I asked again and she finally says, "Mom, I know today is Christmas, but I'm tired" and then she rolled back over. That girl is NOT my daughter! :) Luckily a few minutes later, we were able to coax her out of bed and we all went downstairs and ran to our stockings. Take note they are out of order..... my Tanner insisted on being next to me. Every time we switched it back, he took notice and announced "I want to be next to Mommy!" As much as that kid can drive me crazy, I have to say that his cuteness redeems him on a daily basis :)

Lacey...

Tanner opening his favorite gift - a remote control truck (one of two he ended up getting and he loves them both!)

And my sweet Riley Jane. Can't believe this girl was just a 7 week old, tiny little baby last Christmas. What a difference a year makes!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year and both Dave and I wanted to make it a special day for the kids, so we planned out the whole day filled with fun activities. Gaylord National Resort on the Potomac is listed as one of the "Top Ten U.S. Hotels Decked Out for the Holidays" and it also happens to be within an hour drive of us, so that's where we started out the day. We got tickets to see the "ICE!" show which had the theme of "Merry Madagascar" this year. Thousands of Chinese artisans are flown in and create amazing ice sculptures out of 2 million pounds of ice. It's pretty incredible!

Once you go inside, each person is handed a really warm coat to put over the coat they're already wearing. They keep the inside between 5 and 9 degrees.

Everything you see all around us is made out of ice -- amazing! And, as a side note, looking at this picture, I just have to say that Riley was the cutest little snow bunny!

Then.... the ice slide. That's right! What you see here are 5 slides all made out of ice. We all had a blast going down over and over again. Very fun!

And Lacey's favorite (aside from the slides of course!) - the ice Nativity. Lacey has held hostage every nativity I own (which is actually quite a few). She LOVES them -- especially Mary and the baby Jesus. She role plays with them for countless hours and she was very excited when she saw this one!

After exiting the ice area, we had a meet and greet with the Madagascar characters....

And then we wandered around the resort. They had this great fountain that synchronized water dance shows to Christmas music (Bellagio on a much smaller scale!) They LOVED it!

And our finale was at 1:00 when we went outside to see the waterskiing Santa!

After that, we went home and let Riley nap for a couple hours, then headed back out to dinner (a Mitchell family tradition). From there, we drove all around town seeing Christmas lights. Then, we came home, poured the reindeer food on the grass, set out the cupcake and milk for Santa, showed the kids a short video about the true meaning of Christmas and then let them open one present a piece - Christmas pajamas. Here they are sporting their pj's. It was a delightful day!

Pre-Christmas Festivities

What have we been up to during this Christmas season thus far? Well, we made cookies....

And plated cookies and delivered them to friends....

And we made a Gingerbread House.....

And we saw Tanner perform in his preschool Christmas Concert (Love that he goes to a private preschool where they can actually have CHRISTMAS concerts!)

And we visited Santa! Riley didn't even cry. She didn't smile, but she didn't cry. She just sat there and looked somewhat confused. Anyway, no tears = success in my book!

And now, today is Christmas Eve Eve and that means that tomorrow is my FAVORITE day of the year. Why tomorrow? Because I love anticipation! Christmas day comes and it's all over before you know it. But Christmas Eve.... the anticipation and excitement just lingers in the air. Love it. Can't wait for the next two days and all the Christmas festivities! Yeah!

Things I Love......

about the Christmas Season (in no particular order):

1.) Watching people drive home with Christmas trees tied to the top of their car

2.) Listening to "The Prayer" sung by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli

3.) Driving around at night and seeing all the homes decorated in lights

4.) Decorating my Christmas tree and hanging up all the meaningful ornaments

5.) Putting out my nativities, especially my one from Israel and my "O Holy Night" by Lenox

Lights, Christmas and Elder L. Tom Perry

Last night, we had the opportunity to attend the 2011 Lighting Ceremony at the DC Temple. Elder L. Tom Perry gave the Christmas message and we were delighted to be able to meet him afterward!

In addition to Elder Perry, we heard from J.W. Marriott, Jr. as well as His Excellency Mauro Vieira, the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States.

We got a baby-sitter for Tanner and Riley, but decided Lacey was old enough to come with us. A highlight of the evening is when all the children were invited to come up to the front and sing Christmas carols with the Choir.

And another fun surprise was running in to Duane and Margaret Cardall. Duane is my mom's cousin (and they are the parents of Paul Cardall, for anyone who follows LDS Music. He is a FABULOUS pianist and has released several albums) and they are serving as Visitor Center Missionaries.

And, of course, the main event..... the lighting of the temple grounds. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!

#300: Thanksgiving in the Windy City

Several weeks ago, I announced to Dave that I wanted to drive to Chicago to spend either Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family. We haven't been back to Chicago since last year and, although my parents have been out here to visit us, it was important to me that my kids see their Aunts, Uncles and Cousins on my side at least once during the 2011 calendar year! We decided on Thanksgiving and pulled out of the driveway at 6:15am last Saturday. A little over 12 hours later, we pulled into my sister's driveway! We really tried to make it a vacation for the kids, and took them out to do something fun every day. Tanner started calling my sister's house our "vacation home" which made us all laugh! Here we are at the Cosley Zoo, a local zoo in Wheaton. My dad took the day off work and came with us. Cousins Jace and Eli joined us too!

The following day, we took the kids to the DuPage Children's Museum. They all had an absolute blast!

Lacey's cousin is named Jace, so they are "Lace and Jace." And, since they are both 4 and both have fun, spirited personalities, they were instant pals! They played together every single day we were there and Lacey cried when we came home because she missed him so much.

Tanner had fun with his 2-year old cousin, Eli.

And even Riley joined in the fun on the play train.

Last year, we took the kids to a place in Oswego called BounceTown. They LOVED it, so we decided to head back this year. It has 3 huge rooms FULL of various moon-bounce type contraptions with slides, obstacle courses and such. Being a year older, they had even more fun this year, so we ended up taking them twice! Here's Lacey going down the Batman slide...

No trip to Naperville is complete without a trip into Chicago! So, we packed up the kids the day after Thanksgiving and headed for Lincoln Park Zoo!

They had a great Children's exhibit with this fabulous piece of art that came down from the ceiling that the kids could climb through. And at the bottom, were cages of turtles, toads, etc.

Didis!!!! Lacey grew attached to a pink flamingo stuffed animal as a baby and by 6 months, wanted it with her constantly. She is almost 5 and she still LOVES that stuffed animal. She named it "Didi" and that is what we have called flamingos ever since. By default, I suppose, that is now her favorite animal. So when we saw a group of them at Lincoln Park, Lacey was THRILLED!

Despite all the fun outings we had, the best part of the trip by far was spending time with family. Here is my sweet mother making her famous sugared almonds.

And here is my brother Ryan with my favorite 1-year old!

And the whole gang! My parents have 7 grandchildren and we had them all together for Thanksgiving this year! From left to right, Jace, Riley, Reagan, Eli, Lacey, Tanner and Parker.

I am thankful for many things this year. But I am especially thankful for my sister and her husband, Kevin for hosting my crazy clan of 3 young and rowdy kids for 8 NIGHTS (3 of which one of us spent throwing up and passed on to her daughter!) Despite the short bouts of flu that we dealt with (and Riley's refusal to sleep at night), we had a fantastic trip! And one more thing I'm thankful for.... this blog. I have loved being able to chronicle the lives of my family. I started this blog when Lacey was a baby. She is now almost 5 and this is my 300th post.

The Evolution of a Trophy

Reaching for it...

In my hands.....

Got it!

And posing with it! This is the very first trophy Lacey has ever received. And she was just a little excited about it! It has a prominent place on our mantle (requested by Lacey "so that nobody can touch it or break it.") And in this house.... I think that's a smart move!

Lacey played soccer for the first time this season. And she LOVED it!

She loved that her name was on her uniform and she loved getting "goalies" every Saturday. They had a 45 minute practice every Wednesday and a one-hour game every Saturday. And she played for almost the entire hour every week! Pretty intense for a 4-year old!

What a great way to spend the Fall!

Go.......

Sharks!