Well, another Christmas has come and gone and we are constantly amazed at how very blessed we are! We started out our festivities with a dinner with Grandpa Ed and Ellen in mid-December. Janice, Lily, and Matt were there as well to spend time with us. Ellen made her amazing fudge and everyone seemed to enjoy the dinner, the company, and the gifts!
Our next celebration was on Christmas Eve. We started at Grandma Garrett's house where we got to eat and swap gifts with the Garretts. We noticed that Anderson was not super interested in the actual opening of presents, but was very interested in all the toys that were suddenly available to play with! He also very much enjoyed the time with our family! After everyone left, Anderson, in rare form, stole a hunk of chocolate fudge out of the container and took a huge bite out of it. This all happened very quickly, and I took it away afterwards, but he was a big fan of the fudge!
After a quick nap, we headed to Great Grammy's house to do Christmas with the Andersons (the family). Anderson got to hand out the gifts (because he is the youngest, of course) and took some breaks in between to eat and play with his new toys!
The next morning, we had Christmas morning at our house! Anderson got a new wagon and a new Elmo sweatshirt! He wanted to ride in the wagon "with Elmo". He is so funny! He also got some new shoes that he was more excited about than I anticipated.
We headed to do Christmas morning at Grammy and Granddaddy's house! Each year, the grandkids have to wear something funny and get a picture before they can open presents. This year, it was mustaches and this year, Grammy and Granddaddy got a taste of their own medicine!
Okay...so Richard and I may have tried them out too! Don't judge, they were fun!
We then opened gifts and Anderson may have had a little too much fun. This does not give me hope for future driving tests...I guess we have some time to work on it.
He was quite entertaining and was easily entertained. We had a great morning with lots of laughs!
After that, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate! We had a great time there as well and Anderson was taken with his new train set.
We got to celebrate with Uncle Chris and Aunt Marilyn!
We also celebrated with Uncle Matt, Aunt Janice, and Lily!
Grandma and Grandpa celebrated with us and watched had pizza fixings so we could all create our own pizzas.
After some serious napping, we went to Aunt Phyllis' house to finish out our holiday! Anderson very much enjoyed the inflatable Spongebob they had at their house and continuously honked his nose!
We had a fantastic Christmas! Anderson was at a fun age for it as he was excited and surprised by everything! I am continually thankful that I get to be his mom and watch, and be a part of, every step!
Now, everybody knows that Christmas takes some major preparation...you can't just jump into the deep end of the season and expect to float. You have to ease your way in through various activities and events. We were very prepared this year as we slowly eased ourselves into Christmas 2012.
We started with the Westport Road Church of Christ Christmas celebration. It was a breakfast with Santa and Anderson was very interested in both the breakfast and in the big man himself. We went with NayNay and had a great time! Anderson was very taken with his NayNay all the decorations!
He was also very taken with the jolly man himself! He watched for a long time and by our turn, he willingly walked up to Santa without a whimper or hesitation.
We also took a photo opportunity with NayNay, Anderson, and myself to commemorate the day!
Our next preparation was to go to Build a Bear and create a Christmassy toy. We chose the Grinch. When you click his right arm, you hear Anderson say, "Ho Ho Ho!" and when you click his left arm, his heart lights up to grow 3 sizes. So cute! It was a fun experience that we will definitely do again!
Then, we did what every prepared Christmas enjoyer would do...we made a gingerbread house! Anderson's Grammy and Granddaddy were nice enough to lend us their kitchen table. Anderson was skeptical at first, but after he tasted it, he was on board!
There was, of course, our trip to New York that we used as a Christmas preparation (What?! We did some Christmas shopping there! It counts!).
Well, as you can imagine, we were very prepared once Christmas came around!
Well, we arrived in New York City late Wednesday night (Dec. 19) and stayed in a hotel in Astoria near the airport. Anderson was a trooper as we arrived well past his bedtime and he was still maintaining a smile. When we woke up on Thursday, we headed into Manhatten to stay at another hotel there for the rest of our trip. This was our first time staying in Time Square and it was amazing! It took us awhile to get the hang of doing everything (the subway, stairs, crowds) with Anderson. We had the stroller, which had to be folded as it would not fit in the turnstile, and we had Anderson, who had to be carried. I literally do not know how single moms in NYC do it. Whew! When we got close to our hotel, Anderson noticed "Melmo"! Turns out, to get a picture with Melmo, it costs money. So we grabbed a couple pics (Spongebob just sort of bullied his way into the pictures, Anderson didn't actually care at all about him), "tipped" Melmo, and quickly made our getaway to pass up any other characters.
We got settled in the room and decided to paint the town. We started at the largest Toys R Us in the nation. We met Geoffrey and a few other friends as well. Anderson was not sure about any of these guys at first, but once he warmed up, he seemed pretty impressed.
We also tried out a couple of the toys.
After some lunch and a long nap, we headed back out. We went to Macy's to meet "the real Santa!" Well, it seemed everyone else in Manhatten had that very same idea at that very same time. Luckily, Richard asked the right questions and got us an express pass from a very friendly elf. That means we didn't have to wait in line. Richard just downloaded the Macy's app onto his phone while Anderson and I tested some of the products.
Once, that was finished, we were in to see Santa in 5 minutes. It was awesome! We got to spend a good 5 minutes with Santa. Anderson gave him high fives and a hug! He didn't tell Santa what he wanted, but I've heard Santa has a knack for knowing that kind of thing.
When we were finished with that, we headed outside to admire the Macy's windows. They are always so incredible and we were not disappointed this year! We went through and spent time at each one and Anderson gave each window and good long stare.
We also got to see the Empire State building from far away. After Richard pointed it out, Anderson kept his eye on it. I swear he is better with directionality than I am.
After that adventure, we noticed that it started to cool down a bit, so we headed back to the hotel to add layers. Once we thawed, we went to get some dinner. Anderson had beans!
Full and content, we headed to Rockefeller Center to see the big tree. On the way, we ran into some good photo ops.
They didn't charge us...just saying. The tree was ginormous! Anderson's mouth dropped and in that moment, the whole trip was worth it!
After all of that, it was bed time in the Big Apple (at least for us).
When we woke up on December 21, 2012, we were glad to see that the world had, in fact, not ended. To celebrate, we went to FAO Schwartz. It was a long walk, but it was worth it! We passed the Plaza (a landmark to those of us who are Home Alone 2 watchers and the Apple Store (which, by the way, you descend into from the street level...crazy) and walked right up to the guard and said..."can we get a picture?"
He agreed and we were on our way in! We played with just about every toy in the store and had a great time! By the way, if you are interested in purchasing the Big Piano (it IS for sale), it will only set you back $250,000.
After we tested out all of their products, we walked out, without a purchase if you can believe it, and found a carriage to take us through Central Park. Buddy the horse took us through the park. It was cold, but we learned all kinds of fun facts about New York City!
After the carriage ride ended, Anderson was so excited to see all the pigeons. He fed them some Teddy Grahams and chased them around! He ran and laughed out loud from his gut (one of the best sounds in the world)!
We spent most of the early afternoon in the hotel room. Anderson LOVED the hotel room, it was his favorite attraction! There were at least a million pillows on the bed to jump on and wallow in as well as a great view of the street (where "Melmo" spent his time).
In the evening, we had dinner with Peggy and Anna and had a great time! They ordered in and gave Anderson a safe place to run around! Anderson very much enjoyed their company (as Richard and I always do) and it was so nice to spend time with relatives!
On the subway ride home, Anderson made friends with a woman in the same car we were in. He desperately wanted to honk her nose, but we were persistent that that would not be a good way to express his feelings for her. Near the end of the evening, Richard and I discussed the distinct possibility that by the end of the trip, we would spend more money on pictures with characters than on our hotel room. Ha!
We arrived at the hotel and said goodnight once again to NYC.
Anderson woke up on day three of our trip asking to see "Melmo" and ran over to the window to try to find him. After breakfast, Anderson took his first bubble bath! At first, he was skeptical…
…but after awhile, he decided that it was pretty fun! He splashed around and played until the water turned cold.
Once he was clean, we headed out to the 9/11 Memorial. It was so cold and windy, it started snowing a bit, but we pressed on…well, most of us did.
We arrived at the memorial sight and it was lovely. I believe the city of New York has worked really hard to ensure that those who gave their lives that day will forever be remembered. The pools were enormous and majestic and Anderson was very impressed with all the water.
After that, we got some lunch and went back to the hotel for a nap. Once fully rested, we played a bit in the room!
We decided to leave our little attraction to do some shopping. We literally walked into the Disney store for about 2 minutes and turned right back around because it was so crazy! Some parents would kill for a pair of "Wreck it Ralph" hands right before Christmas. Then, we went over to the M&M store where Anderson made a friend.
After the shopping, we decided to head to Rockefeller Center to get a better look at the tree. We ended up getting a lot more than that! Turns out, Elmo and Cookie Monster hang out there as well!
Once we broke Anderson from the "Melmo" spell he was under, we got to witness a light show on the side of a building. I'm embarrassed to say that I don't know which building, but it was a building right at the end of the entrance to Rockefeller Center.
From there, we inched our way to the Rockefeller Center entrance. We sat a while and just took it all in.
We ate a late dinner and settled in for our last night in The Big Apple.
We were thrilled to wake up and learn that Toys R Us was open 24 hours because of the holidays. We headed down with Anderson still in his pajamas to do some end-of-trip shopping (trust me, it's a thing)! We also went down (dressed in real clothes, this time) to Bryant Park to watch the ice skaters.
From there, we turned the corner and went to the New York Public Library. Although it was closed, we spent some quality time with the lions out front! We were not the only ones with this idea, but everyone was friendly enough. I suppose the calm atmosphere of a library will do that to people.
Once we got back to the hotel room, it was time to go to the airport and get ourselves home. It was a fantastic trip and really got us all in the mood for the holidays!
