Christmas 2011

Alright, here's a rundown of our Christmas this year...

Our friend Varnali came over to help us set up the Christmas tree (we were able to borrow the tree from friends in our ward)

I got to go to a couple of fancy schmancy Christmas parties.  The first was the Google holiday party, as Varnali's guest.  It was held in the New York Public Library.  Paul stayed home with Andrew so I could go.

One of the rooms of the library was set up as the "piano room" where this musician would play and sing Christmas songs with you.  I think we sang Jingle Bells with him.

We got to be on the Google home page with our friend KyungMin (also one of Paul's fellow CMU graduates)

Here you can see the painted ceiling in one hallway of the library.  

The second swanky party I got to go to was Paul's work party, which was held in an old bank building in Brooklyn.  They had a photo set-up where you could take your own photo with a camera remote control.  You can see the rest of our pictures here.

Our playgroup at church made the trip into the city to the Macy's on 34th St to see Santa and their puppet show, which is a shortened version of the Broadway musical of the movie "Miracle on 34th St".  Andrew is not a "believer" but he was still excited to see Santa.  He loves wearing his Santaland pin on his coat.  

The line to see Santa winds through Santaland, which is full of cute scenes from the North Pole and Santa's workshop.  It's kind of like Disneyland.  It doesn't even feel like you're waiting in line.  

Here's the train that takes you to the North Pole

Santa's Sleigh

I was really impressed with their Santa-meeting set-up.  Your child gets their own face-time with Santa in a little room secluded from everyone else waiting in line.  It really makes your child feel special. 

Aww, what a great Santa.  I think I start to believe just a little when I see these pictures.

(I have no idea what they were talking to each other about.)  

On Christmas Eve we went to the "Newport" area of town where there's an outdoor ice skating rink.  The area around the rink was very festive with lots of lights and decorations.

Andrew needed to be held up constantly while skating, but I think he enjoyed it.  He was great at walking in his skates on dry ground.  

Here's a little interview of Andrew while we took a break from skating to have some hot chocolate in the tent next to the rink.

He saw some figure skaters doing spins on the ice, so he picked up a few moves:

The tall lit-up tower under the wreath is the new Freedom Tower (World Trade Center) that's still under construction.

Andrew anticipates the present-opening on Christmas morning

Andrew's first pop-up book, from his Grandma Susan

Andrew and Paul open one of his presents from Aunt Bonnie (this video is a little long, sorry)

Here we all are

We continued my family's tradition of eating crepes on Christmas morning.  Our favorite fillings are blueberry sauce, sour cream, and powdered sugar (pictured below) and Nutella and bananas, topped with whipped cream of course :)

We had a shortened church service, and then the rest of the day looked a lot like this.  Christmas is so fun with a three-year-old because after the present-opening excitement you actually have new toys and games in the house to play with.