Christmas 2013

This is a REALLY long post! sorry.. there was so much to catch up on! 

We had such an eventful and fun Christmas this year!! We decided to stay in New York for Christmas and soak it all in. And we definitely did! We tried to do something each day and stay busy. There is SOO much going on here, that it was easy to find something to do and have our days filled with Christmas-y things! One of my favorites was seeing Santa at Macy's. So Macy's in Manhattan is the largest department store! So naturally, the whole 8th floor is converted into Santa Land during this time. The line took about an hour to get to Santa, but it seriously felt like 10 minutes because the whole time, you are going through Santa Land with lots to look at and see! It was super fun. 

I want to take Charley every year! This year, she didn't really get to appreciate what was going on, but I LOVED it! 

 One cool fact is that there are actually about 10 different Santa's there, but the elves direct people a different way that you only end up seeing one Santa.. that's how the line moves to fast and the kids can't even tell that there are multiple Santa's! Our Santa was legit! I swear he was the real thing. 

Santa Land

One day we also went to the Bryant Park Holiday Fair and another Holiday Fair at Grand Central Station. They were ok.. I liked the Union Square holiday fair 10x better! Union Square had a lot more booths with fun home-made things and the yummiest crepes you will ever find! YUM! 

We also walked through a fun market at Grand Central Station with tons of cheeses, breads, meats and spices! 

 We also went and saw the cool window displays on 5th ave. This window display was Saks Fifth Ave. about a yeti. It was fun to read about! 

 We also went to this way cool grocery store called "The Garden of Eden". It was packed with fun natural foods. Looks at these apples.. the are INDIVIDUALLY wrapped! How cool is that! 

 This was a Christmas tree this year! My mom sent me these really neat ornaments to put on our "tree". This are cute wood signs that have different words for Christ. 

 Walking to Church. Is was insanely warm! 

 Another fun thing we did was go see the Deker Heights Lights. It's this pretty rich neighborhood where people go all out on their light decorations! There were some pretty amazing displays on people's lawns! Just picture giant Nutcrackers as tall as houses, huge blow up santas and TONS of lights everywhere! 

 Christmas Eve day we went with some friends to a Pentecostal Church and watched the Christmas Pageant. There were live donkeys and goats and a real baby Jesus! It was a lot of fun and really got me into the Christmas Spirit. 

 That night we went to Chelsea Market and got our LOBSTER! Spencer was in heaven. They were each 3.5 pounds! and they were delish! 

Christmas day we opened presents and then went to Spencer's boss's house in Connecticut for dinner. It was a good day. Charley got some fun toys, books, puzzles from family and this cute hat from her cousin. She liked the wrapping paper more than anything though! 

 We also got to skype with my brother on a mission in Mexico! SOO great to hear his voice and see him! 

 So spencer spoiled me and got me a Macbook Pro for Christmas and I had to go back to the Apple store to get something else and had to snap this pic as I went in. This store is sweet!!! It's a huge glass box on the outside and when you walk in, you go down these spiral staircases to get to the actual store underground! It's the busiest apple stores in the world with more than 100 employees! It was crazy busy, but I actually got to talk to someone right when I got in! Great customer service!

 Spencer's brother came into town from Boston because they went to the Notre Dame football bowl game together. We got to spend some time with him and walked the Brooklyn Promenade and the Brooklyn Bridge. 

Something cool I noticed was at every light pole, people put locks on the chain and throw the key into the river. If you have been to Paris, they do the same thing on a bridge there.. Brooklyn is no Paris, but I guess it's close enough. 

a few random things.. 

 Fun pics of Charley

5 months!!

 This year, Spencer and I did something fun for each other. Each day in December we tried to do an act of service for one another. It was fun to serve each other and to think of different things to do each day. One day I ironed all of his shirts. This was my first time ironing his shirts.. my mom is so good and irons my dad's shirts for him every time she washes them.. I now appreciate ironing a bit more because I realized how long each shirt takes! 

Pinterest idea! blend spinach with some water and pour in ice cube trays.. thow one of these bad boys in your smoothie and you get some extra iron for the day!  

 Love my morning runs with these girls!