Christmas in the City

Hosting Christmas at our tiny apartment this year was so much fun!  Seven of the Carini clan came and enjoyed the holiday celebrations at our place, making a total of 11 bodies in our 600 sq ft apartment.  (They did sleep at a hotel and I'm only estimating that's how big it is.)  I've never hosted Christmas and the only time we've had that many people in our apartment was with a casual pizza party...not a holiday meal.  It was a big deal for me, I was a little nervous, but it all turned out great.  After they left our small apartment felt surprisingly huge. 

Oh, Christmas Tree!

About two weeks ago we picked up our fist Christmas tree from the deli on W 73rd & Columbus.  It was an exciting moment for me.  I've always loved the tradition of getting a tree and decorating it.  This is the first year we felt comfortable splurging on a tree since we were going to be in town for Christmas.

Since we have never had a tree before we needed some ornaments.  Isabella LOVED making some salt dough ornaments.  We had a lot of fun.  I got the recipe and inspiration from here.

 

And on Christmas day we took some cute photos of the kids in front of the tree.

Let it Snow!

Just over a week ago we had a fantastic winter storm blow in and leave almost a foot of snow on Sunday morning.  Brian attempted to get Isabella to church while I stayed home with sick Oliver.  According to Brian, Isabella was impossible to get to church.  All she wanted to do was jump in the snow and roll around.  Really, who can blame her?!  After church I strapped Oliver on and met Brian and Isabella in Central Park where we played in a winter wonderland.

First Foods

Oliver has started eating solid food recently.  I was so hesitant to start because with Isabella it was more a battle than it was worth.  But Oliver is doing well...as long as it is sweet, but who can blame him?  And Isabella is an excellent helper!