Season's greetings from the City! We had a fun December visiting a few of the sites, and lights for Christmas! We didn't see all of them, but we had to save some for next year right? The first thing we did was visit the famous Macy's Santa on 34th street! Clint was finished with a class one Wednesday by 1 so the kids and I hoped on the train to meet him and head up to see Santa.
As I think I have mentioned before, getting around in the city can be pretty crazy, especially when you throw kids into the mix. We have our car here, but while most of you would think that driving would be the most stressful thing, for me its the parking. The key to driving here is to be selfish. Once you figure that out, you are fine. Parking on the other hand is on the street, and its all parallel parking and you might have to park a block away. Ugh. Also, there are several fire hydrants on each block and you have to be 15 feet away from each otherwise you will find a $115.00 ticket on your window. And then there is street cleaning. Here in Brooklyn, they clean all of the streets once a week and cars are to be moved to be able to accommodate the dept. of sanitation or else you will find another hefty ticket on your window. For our side of the street it is Tuesdays from 11:30am-1:00pm. I usually try to do my grocery shopping during this time, and then don't use the car for the rest of the week, unless Clint is driving.
The train can be a much easier way to get around, even though I usually look like a pack horse.
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| Our train stop...where's Owen? |
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| There he is! Strapped to the front, diaper bag/backpack strapped to the back, stroller in one hand and Malia in the other! |
There are some subway stations that have elevators, but not all, and if they do, they are not at each exit, so sometimes making Malia walk up the stairs is faster....and its good for her! When we got to the stop for Clint's school, we had to walk up 3 stories worth of stairs! Malia was a champ and never complained!
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| Once above ground, things get easier. |
We got to school a little early, so we wandered around the financial district and saw the Woolworth Building (where Clint has class) and City Hall. During this walk, I had my first celebrity sighting! I passed Steve Schirripa, who is probably best known for his role as a mobster in the T.V. show "The Sopranos". He was just walking cool as a cucumber in his Yankee's jacket, but you probably don't get hassled too much when most of the roles that you play are mobsters, loan sharks, or hit men.
Because of security at the Woolworth building, we can't go in and see Clint's school, but when we went to pick him up Malia had to go potty so she was lucky enough to pass security and see Daddy's school-she thought it was pretty cool.
Our next stop was Macy's! Like I said earlier, Clint was done with class at around 1 so when we got to Santaland, there was hardly a line-PERFECT. To visit Santa you must go up to the 8th floor. To arrive there you can take one of the probably 8 elevators, which have an employee who fills them as if they were a traffic officer, or you can take the wooden escalators!
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| Built in 1902, Macy's Herald Square was the first building in the world
to have the modern day escalator. The wooden escalators are still in use
today! |
Owen and I took the elevator with the stroller, and Malia and Clint took the escalator. They're very creaky.
Santaland is a place you get to walk through as you wait in line to see Santa. They have all sorts of cool decorations, and dancing puppets that reminded me a bit of the "Its a Small World After All" ride at Disneyland.
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| Earlier this month after reading a story about Santa, Malia said "I don't want that man to come in my house!" This was her face during most of the experience. |
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| Once we got to Santa, Malia refused to get out of the stroller, so we just wheeled her in front of him. She also wouldn't speak to him, she would only respond with head shakes and nods. | | | |
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A word to the wise.....
Malia has been taking a dance class that is taught by her Nursery Leader. Its free and they do it once a week at the church. Malia has loved this class. Unfortunately, Teacher Roxy is moving to California this month, so now the class is over. For their last class, they danced to different parts of The Nutcracker. At the end of their class time they perform for the moms. I took this performance and put it to some music. This class is made up of 3 and 4 year olds, so if you wondering why nobody else is dancing....that's why. Not everyone loves to perform as much as Malia!
For one of Clint's final projects, he and his group created a mock campaign for keeping our subways clean called "Trash Not Tracks". There is SO much trash that gets thrown onto the train tracks, instead of the garbage cans, making it a good day when you can use the subway system and not see a giant rat....gross. Clint was in charge of the visual.
He found this door on the street and brought it home. It had chalk board paint already on it. He then installed a peep hole with a picture so that when you would look through it you would see this....
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| A delightfully clean subway station! |
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To get the door to school, Clint had to carry it in pieces(legs, hardware, and drill in his backpack) on the Subway! He was nervous, but everything ended up working just fine.
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| Owen helping Clint carry the door out |
Off to Rockefeller Center! One evening, we went off to go see the infamous tree at Rockefeller Center! There were a lot of people(naturally) and a few extra fun things to see!
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| Today Show Studio-WAY smaller than you'd imagine |
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| Rockefeller Center |
Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center seems to be in any movie/show that takes place in NYC in the winter! Originally we thought, hey we should do that! Then when I started doing research we found out just how much it is.... It costs $35.00 to skate! There are only 150 people allowed on the ice at a time, so most people have to wait in line for quite a while, and I heard that because of how popular it is, you are only allowed on the ice for a certain amount of time. But guess what-there are ice skating rinks all over this city! Not far from "The Rock" there is a rink that is free for admission as long as you have your own skates, and if you don't have your own skates, then rentals are available for a very reasonable price. I think that will be the route we'll be taking.
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| Ice Skaters! Malia's favorite part! |
There's a Lego store right next to Rockefeller Plaza, and of course Clint has to run in and take a look! He saw some pretty cool things!
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| Entire display is legos.... |
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| This display was about 9 feet tall! |
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| R2D2....need I say more? |
We had Stake Conference this month. What a great experience! Since space is limited here in the city, there aren't any church buildings that are big enough to hold an entire stake. So what do we do? We take it to the Marriott! This hotel was pretty swanky, and so beautiful the way they decorated for Christmas!
Our area authority was Elder Matthew J. Eyring- one of President Eyring's sons- he gave some great talks! One of the things that he said that really stood out to us was - If its not planned, its not a priority. If its not a habit, its not a priority.-
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| Conference Room before the Sunday morning session started. |
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| Fancy light fixtures! |
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| One of the beautiful trees in the lobby. I don't know what Malia is doing.... |
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There is an area of Brooklyn called Dyker Heights. Every Christmas the owners of these ridiculously large houses go all out in lights, statues, inflatables, etc. We went for an evening walk to check it out!
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| The lights on this tree were BEAUTIFUL! The picture doesn't give it justice, but the way the lights twinkled made the tree look so sparkly! |
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| Notice the HUGE Nutcracker in the doorway.... |
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| I spy with my little eye...a house. Can you find it? |
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| I found this Santa to be a bit creepy... The wooden soldiers behind were huge and their arms would swing back and forth as if they were marching! |
Sunday before Christmas...
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| Linus/Owen decided he didn't want to hang out in Sunday School anymore... |
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| Malia in her new Christmas dress. Thank You Grandma and Grandpa Vickery! |
On Christmas Eve, we traveled up to the Upper East Side and attended a live pageant. It was in a big cathedral like church and had all sorts of live animals! My favorite: all of the lambs that kept crying out during the singing and speaking. Malia loved all of the singing and animals, Owen had no idea what was going on. When we got home from the pageant, Santa had already stopped by and dropped off one gift. PJ's for the kids and Madagascar 3 for us to watch before bed.
Christmas morning was so fun! This would have been our year to spend Christmas with Clint's family, so we had Tim and Arlene on Skype while the kids opened presents. They were troopers! Waking up at 5am for the festivities! Once the present opening started, it was hard to get Malia and Owen to stop, and before we knew it, all that was left was shreds of paper! We were lazy and spent the rest of the day in our pajamas and just played with our new toys. It was great!
The day after Christmas we went bowling with some friends. The kids had a blast! This bowling ally didn't have a slide for the kids to roll their ball down, so making sure there was enough umph behind the push was at times challenging....especially if your daughter insists on doing everything all by her self.
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| Getting a good picture of this group was challenging enough without Malia's crazy faces! |
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| Here we have Elizabeth and Clint wrestling with Kate and Owen on top with Aiden, Malia and Avery on bottom. We all live within 2 blocks of each other, so we try to get together often. We often do babysitting swaps between the parents. |
On the 27th, Clint and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! Elizabeth(pictured above) came up to our place and watched the kids while Clint and I went to the Italian restaurant downstairs and then to see the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline. Dinner was great, and the rest was FREEZING-but still beautiful.
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| I wasn't joking when I said it was freezing and I'm pretty sure this is not taking into account the wind |
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| Manhattan Skyline |
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| Empire State Building |
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| Brooklyn Bridge |
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| Cold |
As you can see, December was full of excitement! Every month I think "eh, this one wont be as busy as the last" but so far I've been wrong! This city just keeps on giving! So if you made it all the way through this post, gold star for you! Speaking of gold stars.....
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| Guess who got straight A's this semester?! THIS GUY! |
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I'm so proud of Clint and all of the hard work he is putting into school. It's obviously paying off!
We love you all! Until next month!
-Clint, Melissa, Malia & Owen
