Christmas. Kinda.

Sally at the playground in Union Square
Maggie and Sally at Union Square


Sally at her skating lesson in Central Park
Sally in the hotel
Sally wearing Maggie's "I'm a cotton headed ninny muggins" t-shirt
The rocks in Central Park
Sal and I wait for the flight to New York

I don't have any pictures of Christmas. Of the amazing moment when Sally saw that Santa had come, of the snowmen the girls built, of the oodles of cute cousins ... I just never think to get my camera til it's too late. (Thankfully my sister in law Christina picks up the slack and sends me pictures that prove these things actually happened, thank god for her). I don't even own a decent camera. I want to be one of those moms who takes gorgeous pictures of her kids in their adorable outfits with their hair just right and the light streaming in beautifully ... then I wake up from this daydream and every now and then remember to pull out my i-phone and get a picture of my kids despite their messy hair and mismatched outfits. Maggie and Sally manage to be beautiful despite my lack of lighting, so ... this is all a way of saying, on my god, christmas was AWESOME and I only have a few lousy pictures to prove it.

First and foremost ... my dad came to California before Christmas to pick Maggie and Sally up and take them to Wisconsin for a few days with Grandma and Grandpa before Tony and I got there. This whole thing was planned a long time ago when Tony and I were going to go to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon(like we did on our honeymoon) for our anniversary. Plans changed(I've been dealing with health issues and didn't feel up for the climb back up the canyon, and we subsequently planned a trip to Mexico the week prior - long story, so the idea of going to the freezing cold Grand Canyon when we had just gotten back from 4 days in paradise seemed preposterous) anyway ... since we had this trip to grandma's already in the works and had gotten Sally (who has never had a sleepover) prepped and even excited about it, we didn't want to cancel, just because our plans had changed. So ... my dad came, took the girls, and Tony and I had a few days here alone to rest and get organized for Christmas, it was great. And the girls had a great time - my dad said they were perfect on the flight, Sally took a 2 hour nap, they went to see A Christmas Carol at the Milwaukee Rep, they went with my dad to buy a Christmas gift for my mom, they went to the Domes(a botanical garden) and they went to the planetarium. The kids wore my parents out, or maybe my parents wore the kids out ... but when Tony and I arrived on the 22nd, everyone was happy. And just got happier as cousins began arriving on the 23rd - everyone except Mike and his family from Boston. We spent a great 5 days at my parents. Santa came and was very generous this year. Maggie got a pair of Ray Bans so she can stop wearing Tony's and Sally got some Heelies and a game boy. The other day she turned to me and said, "Thank you mommy for my game boy, I really seem to be enjoying it, don't you think?" She kills me sometimes. Anyway, we left Wisconsin with heavy hearts because it's always tough saying good bye to the cousins, but our sadness was somewhat alleviated by the fact that we were heading to New York. We spent 4 very chilly days in New York seeing shows (Tony took Sally to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular while I took Maggie to Hair and then Tony and I went to see Next to Normal while Mags babysat Sally in the Hotel, oh and Maggie loved Hair so much she went back the next day all by herself). We went ice skating every morning in Central Park since our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the rink and it was a great activity for Sally, Tony and I to do while the teenager got her beauty rest. We climbed the rocks in Central Park, went to this awesome new playground in Union Square, went to the Museum of Natural History two days in a row, Tony took Maggie to see some french film at Film Forum, we ate, and ate and ate. And then we came home. Back to sunny weather. We were happy to be home, after such a great trip. We're already planning our next trip to New York in April to see the new Green Day musical, American Idiot. And Maggie I'm sure will go see Hair again as she is fully obsessed with it now.