Christmas 2012

What a great week Christmas week we had!  It was jam-packed with fun events, get-togethers and of course, great food and PRESENTS!! (and lots of pictures - below is a mix of camera and iPhone photos)

As usual, the weeks leading up to Christmas were also filled with fun activities:
we saw the Radio City Christmas Spectacular,

went to a few holiday parties, did crafts and baking, and spent the early parts of our mornings looking for Pickle Tony, who came to visit us again this year (and he left us some pretty cool stuff too)!

 One great thing about Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year was that Erika and Richie were able to spend even more time in NY than usual.  I also was very lucky to be able to take the whole week off and Jay even got a bunch of time off.    We kicked off the festivities on Saturday when Grandma and Papa watched the boys so that Jay, Erika, Richie, Jasmine, Mike and I could all go to the Syracuse vs. Temple game at MSG.   We had a great time but unfortunately Syracuse could not pull off a victory.  (much like the Jets the next day)

On Christmas Eve morning, I STILL had more shopping to do, so the boys all braved the mall with me so I could get everything done and while there, we all got one last chance to convince Santa that we were good and really wanted him to come to our house. 

 Christmas Eve night began with the annual opening of one present, putting out cookies and milk for Santa and the crowd favorite: the making of the piles.   As usual, there were a ton of presents

The next morning when we woke up, we all headed in to the living room and.... SANTA CAME!!!! The kids were so excited when they saw Santa filled our stockings, ate all of the cookies and left even more presents.   Number one on Ryan and Dylan's Christmas list: Playstation 3 and Santa did not disappoint!

The next 2 hours were a blur of flying wrapping paper, screaming kids and gifts a plenty: this process was repeated many times though out the day - when we went to Omi and Poppy's, when Aunt Carrie, Marc and the gang came over, and with the arrival of all of the other guests.

As usual, Grandma did an amazing job cooking and we all had a fantastic day.  

 

Christmas was unfortunately over in a flash and I think it will take us weeks to get the apartment back in order. Besides the gifts we all received in Westchester, there were even more waiting for us when we got home.  First, we had to get everything back upstairs though which is always the hardest part.

When we got upstairs, we were so surprised to see that Santa left us another present: the Playstation 3 Batman Lego game.





The kids could not wait to set up playstation and get started.


We made out like bandits this year and have some wonderful memories of Christmas - only 342 days until we get to do it all over again! Thanks everyone for a great Christmas xoxo