Halloween 2014

Halloween was quite lovely this year.  Some of the fall leaves are still hanging on and the weather was pretty good, until a few houses into trick-or-treating when it started to rain.  Which was fine, since the kids really didn't need to go to more than a dozen homes to beg for free candy.

These first few photos are a walk we took the day before Halloween.  I wanted to go on a drive through the hills just north of us to enjoy some of the last of the beautiful fall colors and I dragged Brian away from work to join Simon and me.  The road we were on wove in and out, past the estates along the Bedford, NY and Greenwich, CT border.  We happened to find the Greenwich Audubon Society, which isn't very far from our home and is a gem in our own backyard.  

When we set out on our drive we weren't planning on going on a hike, but when life shows you a beautiful trail on a beautiful day, you have to go exploring.

A cemetery in Greenwich.

Jack-o-Lanterns

Halloween

Ready for school.

Kindergarteners do a little parade and sing along on Halloween.
This is the moment when Oliver spotted us in the crowd of parents.

My little Halloween getup.

 Trick-or-Treating

with about 20 cousins in Connecticut...

It was a little crazy.

Isabella as a "fashion vampire".

Oliver as a pirate.

Simon as a dragon.
This photo was taken after the 4th house.
He was ready to munch on candy not chase after more!

The Year of the Dragon

We use to have a New York City "bucket list" on our wall.  It was all those things that we wanted to do while living here.  That list is long gone (in one of our many moves, I'm sure), but I seem to still have a mental list going.  (And since NYC always has new fun stuff to do, my list is never ending.  I'm coming to terms with the fact that I will never be able to do everything in this amazing city and must accept that 95% is enough.)

Going to the Chinese New Year parade was on that mental list.  This year--our 7th winter in the city--I was going to go!  I marked it on my calendar a month ahead of time even (very rare for me).  The morning of the parade Brian felt sick (he finally caught what the kids had), the kids were bouncing off the walls, and I was thinking it wasn't going to happen.  But, somehow, when I really want something to happen, it does.  Everything came together.  Brian started feeling better, Oliver feel asleep in the ergo on the way there, and Isabella always thrives on being outside--so she was a trooper.

Since Chinatown was going to be beyond crowded we left the stroller at home; Brian had Oliver in the ergo and I had Simon in the sling.  It worked so well.  We got there a bit late, but found a decent spot and watched the parade for about a half hour.  Then we headed to Joe's Shanghai for yummy soup dumplings (my fave!).  After that, and the best part of the day, was when we wandered the streets full of confetti, shot off some confetti canons ourselves and just enjoyed the day.

Christmas Highlights

Christmas was lovely.  Simple, pure loveliness.  The Carini's came down for a few days from Connecticut (they stayed in a hotel, cause there is no room in our "inn") and we celebrated the holiday with them.  It was surprisingly simple, fun, and dare I say, calm.  Just the way Christmas should be.

Christmas Eve

Grandpa was an excellent sport donkey for the Christmas story, carrying a pensive Mary; guided by an adorable Joseph (or was Oliver a shepherd?).

Great Grandma with one of her 15 great grandchildren

Exhausted Mary.  Gentle Joseph.  Squirmy Baby Jesus.

Christmas Morning

A highlight was walking to and from church on Sunday.  Spencer played Christmas carols on his accordion the whole way.  It was beyond awesome!

Activity Advent: Gingerbread Cookies

We made gingerbread cookies.  The kids were in a mess-making-mood and I was in a not-so-patient-mood.  Even Simon tried to climb up and join the cookie making party.  This is the only photo captured.  They were, oh, so delicious!  Here is my favorite gingerbread recipe.  (Not to be confused with my awesome gingersnaps!  Someday I'll post that recipe.)

Activity Advent: The Angel Tree

One warm day we walked across Central Park to the Met Museum to see the Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche.  More commonly known as The Angel Tree.  No photos were allowed at the tree.  If you want to see the tree, click here.

Here are some fun photos of our a beautiful day in the park.

Activity Advent: Gingerbread House

 I purchased one of those pre-made gingerbread house kits from Trader Joe's as soon as they appeared at the store.  (Last year I waited until after we moved.  But they were sold out.  Thank you Mom for saving the day and bringing one in your suitcase!  FYI: The one from Target--last year--was better than TJ's.)

Oliver ate the little candy people included...before they made it onto the scene.  And, fortunately, we had some candy stashed away, because there wasn't much in the kit.  Ummm...and, my kids ate a lot.

Activity Advent: Making Gifts

We spent a couple of days making gifts for others.  It's not an easy thing making a gift for someone else, who lives in the same house...when your house only has two rooms.  I was super stealth a couple of times and was able to hide things at the last moment.  It made the merry making even more exciting.  Isabella, wide-eyed and bouncing on her tippy-toes, "Mom, hurry!  Hide it!  He's coming!"

Isabella and Oliver are really into letters right now.  I found some ideas on Design Mom that I thought they might like to do.  And they loved it.  It was a lot of fun doing these projects with them.

monogrammed mugs

glittered initials
I added a little paint to the glue (watered down) so he could see where he put it.

Activity Advent: Hot Chocolate Crawl

The weekend before Christmas we went on a hot chocolate crawl.  We were in SoHo and only hit up 4 places throughout our day of window shopping.  We contemplated going to more, City Bakery (a favorite) and/or Jacque Torres (another, more local, favorite), but really, four (!!!) hot chocolates in one day was plenty.  We were in a cocoa comma.

Also, We passed a Grom as well and turned that down since we had recently been there (and had taken half home, and sipped it for days...it really is a melted bar of chocolate! Yummm!)

Hmmm...City Bakery...I think I know what we are doing today!

Balthazar
Better than Starbucks but not as good as the stuff we make at home.

Vosges
Different flavor than I've had before.  It was good hot haut chocolate.  Thin and watery (unlike melted chocolate of other hot cocoa) but the flavor was full.

Mariebelle
Mairebelle was our first experience with gourmet hot chocolate when we moved to the city.  We have had it several times and, unfortunately, it's not consistent.  Sometimes it is out of this world and I get a bit of a buzz from it (I'm serious).  But other times it's too thin and lacking in richness.

Van Leeuwen
We happened to pass the truck and noticed they had hot chocolate (I love their ice cream).  It was, surprisingly, very different.  It was very sweet and must have had amaretto syrup in it.  It had an undertone of a yummy waffle cone.  (Is that amaretto?)  Good, but different.

It was a very fun day!!!

And, I realized, as I wrote this, we have drunk a lot of hot chocolate in this city during our several years here.  I'll have to post more of our hot chocolate adventures.  


I really want to try the hot chocolate from La Maison du Chocolate.  Their truffles are heavenly!

Activity Advent: O Christmas Tree!

Last week we went in search of our Christmas tree.  As a kid I loved going into the mountains and cutting down a tree.  So I've been surprised how much I've loved our tree hunting tradition here, in the city.  We walk two blocks, look at a few trees, haggle with the tree dealer, then carry our tree home...in our hands.  And decorate it before bedtime.  It's quick and easy.  Perfect!

The guy selling the trees was super sweet with the kids. It made the experience even better.

I love comparing this photo with the one last year, when I was about to pop Simon out.  What a difference a year makes!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE decorating the Christmas tree with my family.