Christmas Eve

Every year for Christmas the whole family ends up at the grandparents house. My grandma puts up three trees each year with a huge village underneath. It is quite an undertaking every year. Instead of stockings we have boots that we have had since we were children. She now has a couple of little trees for the great grand kids she will have. Right now she has one grandchild and she bought 60 stockings...
We all eat dinner downstairs and head upstairs to open gifts! We usually end up doing the cousin gifts first. When everyone gets together for Thanksgiving all of the cousins pick names. This is usually the best part of the night because some people are able to get really creative with their gift ideas. After we have opened those gifts we open the gifts from our grandparents George and Diane. Starting with the youngest which is Titan. All of the cousins are getting older, so it is nice to have a little one around because they are the ones that are entertaining to watch.

My twelve year old cousin Macall made Taylor a Slanket for his gift. She made it herself and it had a place to put your feet and hands. The bedazzled 17 on his shirt is the number in the family that he is according to age. This is totally Taylor and the colors just crack me up. This is Macall with Fluffy the dog. She is getting to be such a cute little teenager. I can't believe over the past year how much she has grown as well.

Titan is pretty much the cutest two year old around. He knows how to count in Spanish! What two year old can do that. He was so cute opening his presents he had to look at all the boxes and talk about what he got. While everyone was opening their presents he walked around with a bag of Wheat Thins that he munched on. I am glad he was able to come and that he is such a happy child. There really isn't a lot of children left in the family, so it is nice to see him. It has been so long and he just keeps on growing! I can't believe he is two!

This morning deer were munching on the plants in the front of the house. They ran away when they saw me, but I forgot how often you see deer when it gets cold.

Walking Around...

Even though there isn't snow yet (not complaining) I love how very festive NYC is during Christmas time, so I took some pictures!

I had to run some errands so I took the scenic route and went through Central Park and took some pictures of trees without leaves... Also some pretty apartment buildings near Central Park. The picture on the bottom left is right next to Central Park and the apartments look gorgeous inside. While walking near Central Park I saw Ben Lyons! He is a movie critic and really cute. :) Good way to start my stroll through CP.

I really like not having to drive everywhere and spending my time in traffic, but today while trying to get home a train had stalled and backed up all the trains towards my apartment. It took 25 minutes for the problem to be resolved which is fine because I wasn't in a hurry, but some people were and they were not happy. New Yorkers are very impatient they really don't know how to relax.

NYC Ballet - The Nutcracker

I went to the NYC Ballet production of The Nutcracker last week! I had been waiting to go for a really long time and I dragged Brittnee along. I haven't been to a Ballet in a really long time and I have missed going to them and to see one in NYC I can't believe I haven't gone sooner!

The ballerina's did a great job portraying the different characters that they were in the ballet. This picture is of snowflakes and one of my other favorite was the Angels they were children and did a great job. All the costumes were beautiful and really brought the whole ballet to life.

The stage is HUGE. That is the great thing about seeing any theater productions in NYC all the stages are really big and the sets are that much bigger, so that it doesn't matter where you sit you are able to see the show. I loved the sets even though there weren't very many. The show was short and simple and I loved the interpretation of it. The choreograph and music really reminded me why I love classical music it is so soothing and really is a comfort to me.

Our seats were on the fourth ring.....the tippy top. We still were able to see everything that is what counts! The problem with having the cheapest seats is that we seemed to be on the ring with all the parents who like to torture their children and take them to the Ballet at a young age,
so when they are older they hate them :)

I got to sit by a four year old that did not want to be there and used my armrest as a pillow for the last half of the show. Not going to complain about that though because at least she was quiet when she was asleep unlike when she was awake and had no idea what was going on in the Ballet. As everyone knows children under 5 attention span is about five minutes and after that all she did was ask questions about what was going on until she fell asleep. Thank heaven for small miracles.















I really enjoyed all the children in the production though I am amazed at how disciplined they are. Their ages range from 6-10 years old. I really want to know what the secret is on how they kept those children quiet. They danced very well as well and looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Can't wait to go to another Ballet!!

Also, NYC has HOT ballet principal dancers.... These are some, but trust me there were a lot more than this and two of the dancers are from SLC. I thought that was interesting

Radio City Rockettes

Radio City Music Hall where the Rockettes perform. I had never been here before and I was very impressed. It gorgeous and huge!! Brittnee and I were able to get buy one get one half off tickets, so we were smart and got the more expensive tickets with the better seats because they were cheap and had a great view of the show!


I was truly amazed at how high tech this show was. I would of liked to of seen it ten years ago to see how technology has changed how and what they do in the show. The first part is in 3D where Santa takes you on a sleigh ride. The wonderful thing about this was that most of the movie clip was 3D and wasn't just saying it was 3D it was very interactive and I was very entertained. This is a great show to take children...not the Ballet.


The Nativity scene that was done was beautiful. I am glad that they got to the heart of what Christmas is all about and spent a lot of time on this scene. There were also live camels and lambs on stage no joke I thought they were fake, but they were real! I want to know how they pulled that off and where they keep the animals when they aren't performing.

I loved this scene there is so much to see that you just don't know where to
look because you don't want to miss anything!!!

They did a cute scene from the Nutcracker.

The Rockettes are truly amazing. This picture is of them being soldiers.

The sets and choreography were amazing. I wish that I could see it again. This may have to become a tradition. I am glad that there is such creative people in the world, so that I can be entertained. After seeing this show I felt like it was Christmas and I am grateful for that. Being in NYC is great, but when the holidays roll around sometimes it is not the same without family.

Christmas Tree Lighting

When I learned that Josh Groban was going to be one of the performers at the Rockefeller Tree Lighting I was even more excited to go then I was in the first place. I can't remember if I have ever watch the whole thing on TV I am sure I have. Brittnee and I didn't know what time to get there so we got there at 3:00 well we were a little early. The pens (that they use for animals) were still being set up for where put everyone after you have sat in line and had a security check. The different lines correspond with a different pen that the NYPD put you in. I am sure they have it down to a science, but I seriously want to know how in the world they came up with the idea of putting us in pens and pretty much herding us like cattle into them. The problem with having Rockefeller as the venue for the performance yes I know its gorgeous, but if you are a spectator you don't actually get to see the live performance up close and personal. It is in the ice skating rink and isn't level with where they put everyone. They had huge TV's so you were able to still see the show, but its not the same.

The pens that they put us in... I wasn't joking and that is what they called them as they were herding us in.

The tree came from a family in NY and the family that donated the father was one of the firefighters that helped during 9/11. It is 74 feet tall and gorgeous when lit up! Especially with all the other trees lit up and the other Christmas decorations that they have throughout Rockefeller for this great time of year. New York really knows how to get into the holiday spirit!

Josh peforming Bells of New York City!!!

Brittnee and I had to stand for six hours straight in pretty much the same spot and it was raining when we got there and for most of the time we were there. It finally stopped when the show was about to start. By the time we were heading home my toes were frozen and I had pretty much lost circulation in my feet, so when it was over and they were herding us out of our pens I could barely walk out of there!


Since Brittnee and I got there so early we were in a pretty good area and were able to see Al Roker because one of the press platforms was near us.

When we got there Josh Groban was doing his sound check. Perfect timing!

I guess when you watch the tree lighting on TV it is only an hour, but we got to watch two hours of performances! I didn't know that I just thought it was two hours, so I guess all that standing was worth it. I really enjoyed all the performers that they had on the show. My favorite were of course Josh, Cherice, and Jackie Evanko that girl can sing!!

Macy's Day Parade

On Wednesday Brittnee and I went to go look at the balloons that are in the parade. The balloons are along 79th and 80th street and you are in a huge line that runs along the street, this makes it so you are able to see all of the balloons. The balloons are covered in nets and held down by lots of sand bags.

It was cool to see them up close. Mickey was by far the biggest in my opinion and he is a new addition this year. There was lots of people and of course lots of kids that couldn't see anything because there was so many adults. Poor things.

This is my favorite balloon and makes me laugh when I look at it. He is so cute and round.

On Thursday morning Brittnee and I woke up 4:30 AM and headed down near Central Park to see the Macy's Day Parade. By the time we found a good spot it was around 5:45 AM and the parade starts at 9 o'clock that means we had a lot of free time to sit in the dark and try to stay awake and entertain ourselves. Of course we had to sit by the people that got there at 4:30 in the morning and they had three kids with them that pretty much bounced off the walls until they were told repeatedly to settle down by the doorman. Seriously who tortures their kids (and me) and brings their children that early in the morning to a parade! Let them watch it on TV and when they are older than six years old bring them.



Forty-five minutes before the parade was about to start. Brittnee kept on giving me a look and I knew I didn't want to know what was going on right next to me. I finally looked and one of the kids that was sitting near us needed to go to the bathroom and rather than take him to the bathroom that is across the street...She gets out this contraption that looks like the circle rings you throw in a swimming pool and takes a plastic bag and puts that inside of the ring. The child proceeded to go to the bathroom right next to me and this kid was NOT 2 or 3...no we are talking 6 or 7. After he was done she ties the bag and puts it in another bag and puts it who knows where with all their stuff. I seriously wanted to vomit after that whole episode.

Anyway back to the parade. I really enjoyed seeing it live I have never watched the whole thing before on TV. I know if I were to watch it on TV I am sure I would miss a lot of it of the actually parade. The best floats were the princess castle and a bridge with a small ice skating rink below it that had these two cute kids skating. I was surprised that I didn't recognize a lot of the celebrities that were on the floats most of the ones I knew were the people from Nickelodeon....Victoria Justice, Big Time Rush, Miranda Cosgrove. Some of the other ones I knew were Kanye West, Jessica Simpson, Joan Rivers, Jimmy Fallon and Michael Grimm the rest of them I had no clue who they were.

I took this video of the Macy's Parade Band.

Jimmy Fallon is the one with the red scarf.

.The kids are on a small ice skating rink.

My favorite float and I want this for Christmas.

I am really glad that I was able to go even though I don't know if I every want to go again :) Maybe if I have different neighbors next time I would be more willing to do it again.

Thanksgiving 2010

Brittnee and I decided to tackle Costco this week because we were invited to Thanksgiving and we had to bringwe needed to bring fruit and veggies. I have been procrastinating this trip for quite some time because I knew it would be very time consuming and I was right. We made a trek to Costco and by trek we walked, took the bus there, and took a cab home because we had so much crap we couldn't hold it all with our short little arms. Living here you really do learn to appreciate the convenience of a car, but I am thankful that NYC does have other modes of transportation.


For Thanksgiving Brittnee and I headed down to 23rd Street (very far away from our apartment). We were invited by a girl in our ward. We thought it was going to be a pretty casual dinner, but the girls that hosted went all out and I am truly grateful for that. It was nice to sit down for a nice dinner with genuinely friendly people. There was 16 of us invited and none of us really knew each other which was great.

Some of the highlights were that one of the guys there who is going to school in Boston his sister went to high school with me and she is serving her mission in Canada small world! Miss New York was also a guest at dinner. She is very pretty in person even more so than in photos. She told us a hilarious story about her crashing the Macy's Day Parade and getting kicked off the float with just 5 blocks to go till it ended. I found this video of her. I wish I would of taken a picture at dinner of everyone that was there!