Rudolph's Test Run

Daniel and I made his horsey into Rudolph for the day. We thought Rudolph needed a test run before the big night with Santa. He is obviously enjoying himself.

All smiles and giggles!

His snowman wanted a ride too.

Good job Rudolph, good job.

Baking 101

What's better than listening to Christmas music and making cookies? Answer: Listening to Christmas music and making cookies with Daniel. Whenever I am cooking - Daniel wants to be right there with me. He's going to be quite the chef someday! I love cooking with Daniel. He had so much fun. He kept tasting the flour saying "mmm...good." I don't even care that flour ends up all over my kitchen!

Any good chef knows that flour belongs on your face - not in the bowl. It makes you look like you've been slaving away!

Snow

It snowed again the other day and Daniel wanted to go play in it as soon as he woke up! So, at 7:30 in the morning Shannon and Daniel were in the back yard building a little snowman.

Here's the little snowman they built.

Yumm...snow.

New Tradition

I'm so excited to start a new tradition in our family this year! I just bought The Elf on the Shelf. It is a cute book that comes with your very own little elf and explains how Santa knows if you have been naughty or nice. The story tells you that the elf comes to your house around the holidays and watches what you do every day and then goes back to the North Pole every night and reports to Santa how you have been. So every night the elf moves (with parental assistance) to a different location in the house and every morning the kids get to find the elf in his new spot. What a great idea. I think the elf that comes with the book is so cute! http://www.elfontheshelf.com/

Baby, It's Cold Outside

It's been so cold here lately. We had our first snow storm on Sunday! Daniel looked out of the window in the morning and said "touch it?"

Our Tree: We've had our tree since the day after Thanksgiving but we just got done decorating it! It's been a slow process. I wasn't sure how rough Daniel would be with the ornaments. We're playing it safe and keeping all of the breakable ones near the top.

Work Christmas Party & the BIG Christmas Tree

This weekend was Shannon's work Christmas party. I had only seen his office building from the outside before so it was fun to see the inside for a change! They had all sorts of things going on like magic shows, dance classes, raffles, games, lots of food, places to take pictures, etc. We mostly just walked around to see what was going on and then headed down to the floor that had all of the kids' activities. They gave all of the kids a little penguin stuffed animal - which made Daniel happy. There were so many people there that we only saw a few that Shannon even knew. After that, we went down to Chinatown/Little Italy and then back up to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree. We got home later than I would have liked -but it was a fun day nonetheless.

Shannon and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. I believe they got the tree from somewhere in Connecticut. Go Connecticut!

They had balloons made to look like penguins everywhere. Daniel kept picking them up.

Daniel at Shannon's desk.

Daniel workin' away...

Shannon works on the 30th floor. Here they are looking out of the windows from his floor. It made Daniel a little nervous. Daniel kept saying "All done."

Some views from his floor. The Empire State Building.

The entrance to his floor. It's just cool for me to see where he goes everyday!

Daniel enjoying some of the activities.

The Sargento Cheese Christmas Carolers: We saw them singing along the street in Little Italy when we were walking around. I bet you didn't know there was such a thing as the Sargento Cheese Carolers...then again...who did? They were pretty good too.

Of course there were a ton of people there to see the tree. That's when I appreciate having a stroller to carve out a path for us in the crowd.

It always surprises me how tall these buildings are. At the very bottom of the picture you can see the star from the very top of the Christmas tree.

Christmas Tree

I love the day after Thanksgiving. Not only because you get to enjoy Thanksgiving leftovers without having to cook anything, but also because that's the day we pick out our Christmas tree! Christmas is in full swing at our house. I've already been listening to Christmas music for weeks now! Daniel's favorite song is Sleigh Ride - he calls it the "horsey song" and requests it every time we get in the car. We listen to it over and over and over agian. Last year Daniel was too young to really enjoy Christmas, but this year should be fun. I'm really looking forward to it...and it's just getting started.

Picking out a tree at Stew Leonard's.

Decorating the tree.

Daniel didn't seem too surprised to see a tree in our house - he just said "cool" when Shannon brought it in.

The Macy's Parade

This year we decided to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Since the weather was so great this year (65 and sunny) - we decided that this was the year to go! It was such a fun experience and I'm so glad we went! The parade started at 9 am and we got there at 7 to get a good spot. We found a great spot at 65th along Central Park West and we were only 2 rows back. We were able to meet up with our friends the Hoyt's there - it was nice to have some company. Oh and how random is this: the people that sat next to us during the parade all had on BYU gear and were visiting from Utah! Small world in a BIG city!

Daddy and Daniel playing

Yeah it's starting!

The Hoyt's

I like this picture. It almost looks like Daniel is one of the balloons! :) He loves Jo Jo.

Shrek was a new float this year.

Doesn't it look like Shrek is just about to pinch Daniel's head?

This was the crowd behind us. All of these people piled up on the truck that was blocking the road to get a better view.

This is for my nieces! High School Musical star- they are such big fans.

Another one for my nieces! High School Musical star.

Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the Martinez's house. We each brought something. I brought the mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, a sour cream apple pie and a sour cream apple-cranberry pie (my favorite). All of the food was excellent and the company was great!

The tables looked beautiful.

Allison in the kitchen carving the turkey.

The kids at the kids table. We were so impressed that they were actually all sitting there together at the same time!