A Wonderful Christmas Day...

It was a wonderful Christmas day filled with joy, love, family, games and even some gifts. We started out by having my parents come over to our house to watch the kids open their gifts.

The families stockings.

The tree after Santa came.

Another view of the tree.

The girls got some webkins in their stockings.

Brynn with her Baby Alive doll. I had one of these when I was a little girl, but hers is definately an upgraded version!

The girls each got a new DS, a couple of games and a carrying bag from Santa.

Chaz and Jace are wearing their new sweatshirts and holding Rock Band for the X Box 360 which they got from Santa!

Each of the kids got a new game for the wii. Marissa got Tennis, Chaz got Baseball, Brynn got wii Music and Jace got a Light Saber!

I made each of the girls and quilt and my mom quilted them for me! They turned our really cute!


We got each of the kids a new ipod in their favorite color!


After we were done opening presents at our house we headed to my Mom and Dad's house to open present there. My mom made each of the boys some new pajamas and got each of the girls some new long johns that they can either use as pajamas or long johns!





When we were done there, we completed our travels by going to David's parents home to see them and some of his siblings. We had a good time there as well. David's parents gave our family the Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot game. Dustin and the boys had a blast playing it!

The girls played "tea party" with Adrienne and with her new Christmas toys.

The Reading of the Christmas Story

Every year we get together at David's parent's house to read the Christmas story. My parents and some of David's siblings and their children also joined us. It was a really enjoyable evening.

Sledding at Richland High School

David took the girls sledding and to play in all of the snow. It is such a rare event that we are taking full advantage of it!

Trying to Get Back to WA...

Ok, so it has been a week since our escipades in trying to get from Boston to Richland. It is finally at the funny point! We left for the aiport at about 4pm because we had a 6:30pm flight. We got all checked in and headed for our gate. We got settled, Marissa got out her laptop to play a game and Brynn quickly found a friend to play with. We quickly found out that our plane had been delayed for 2 hours becuase of the weather in Seattle. We sat there for another hour, and then they bumped our flight up to 7pm, so at 6:15 they started loading all of us on the plane. Right after we all got settled, they delayed our flight again for 2 more hours. So the stewardess' served drinks and we all watched tv (or slept in David's case) for 2 hours before the plane took off for our 6 1/2 hour flight! And that was just the begining.... We landed at 11:30pm West Coast time (2:30 am to us) and we knew that we had missed our 10pm flight to Pasco. But then we found out that while we were in the air, our Pasco flight had been canceled! So of course, everyone else on that flight had already re-booked for the next day! I headed to get the luggage with Marissa and Davide took Brynn to see about re-booking our next flight.

I found where the carolsel where our luggage was supposed to be coming down and we started to wait....and wait....and wait. Finally about 20 minutes later, it looked like our luggae was going to start coming down the shoot and it did for about 5 minutes. We got one of our 5 bags and then the shoot to bring the bags to the carolsel broke. A guy came to fix it, but when he couldn't figure it our he started carrying the bags down 2 at a time!!! LOL - after 20 more minutes we had 3 more of our bags! We were still waiting for the last one when a new guy came to fix the carosel and the rest of the bags finally showed up!

David and Brynn finally showed up. The best flight that they were able to get for us was a 8pm the next night to Walla Walla, then we still had to rent a car and drive the 1 hour to Richland! So, at this point it was about 12:00am (3am East Coast time), so we were hungry and exhausted. We looked around the airport, but of course EVERYTHING was closed! So we started calling Hotels to see if any were available. After about 25 minutes of calling we found one room available. It was only $180.00 a night - LOL at that point, it didn't matter, we just wanted to sleep. So we made our reservations and then asked for a shuttle. The hotel clerk said that the roads were too bad and the shuttle wasnn't running, so we would have to take a cab. No problem right.... WRONG. We got in line for a taxi and stayed in line for the next 2 hours...Yep, we finally got to the hotel at 3am (6am East Coast time). We still hadn't had dinner and now it was breakfast time. Fortunately, our room was a suite with a kitchen and they had a "pantry" that we could purchase hot-pockets, tv dinners, crackers and drinks from. We took the food up to our room and I started cooking the food while David started the fire in the fire place.



We got the girls tucked into bed and then David and I made our dinner and sat by the fire to eat. David was sooooo tired that he kept falling asleep while he was eating!!!!

We finally got to bed at 4am (7am East Coast time) and we got back up at 8:30, ate breakfast, checked the weather and decided to rent a car and drive to Richland! Later we found out it was a good decision becuase the flight to both Walla Walla and Richland for the next day were all cancelled! What a crazy trip!

MIT Christmas Party

Today was the M.I.T. Media Lab's Christmas Party. They had it set up really well and it was actually kinda fun. They had 2 large room with a connecting foyer in front. In the foyer you could get drinks and stuff. In the "kids" room, they had their own buffet set up with cheese quesdillas, pizza, fries and chicken strips. They also had 6 different craft activities and a movie set up for the kids. Then they had the adult room with Chinese food and music.

Our Fabulous Trip to NY - Day #2

We made a list of all of the places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do and then headed out to try to accomplish all of them before we had to get back on the bus around 6pm.


M&M store in Times Square. The girls were amazed at all of the available colors.


I took David's picture with the Bank of America banner in Time Square!


David and the girls in Grand Central Station. Their were Christmas projections on the ceiling and walls. It was really beautiful.


One of the Christmas window displays. I bought these cute hats for the girls from a street vendor. There were vendors all over the city, we had fun purchasing some items from them.


Another Christmas display.


Deena at the Louis Vuitton Christmas display. I bought this cute Cashmere scarf from another street Vendor.




We took a horse and buggy ride around Central Park. It was a really pretty park. We want to return in the Spring.


Brynn wanted to buy some food from a street vendor all day! We finally stopped and let her buy a pretzel!


All through the city, there were people who were dressed up for the kids to take pictures with.


The girls getting settled in for the long ride home. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go again!

Our Fabulous Trip to NYC - Day #1

My whole life I have wanted to go to New York at Christmas time. I have watched all of the movies based there, I watch the Thanksgiving parade every year, I watch the ball drop on New Years Eve and see all the crowds and think Wow - I wish that was me! Well, this weekend, David made my wish come true! After attending our church Christmas brunch, we came straight back to the apartment and grabbed a change of clothes and headed out to the bus depot.

We found that you could take the Fung Wah Chinese bus from China Town in Boston to China Town in New York for $15 each way, per person. Since taking the train is $80 each way, per person; this is a great deal! We opted to spend more money on the hotel and get a great hotel in Times square and go cheaper on the transportation. It turned out great!

We arrived in NY at about 7pm Saturday night. It takes about 4 hours to get from Boston to New York. We learned that you have to be really aggressive to get a cab in NY, not at all like in Boston where they are lined up waiting to take you anywhere! It took us about 20 minutes to get a cab. If we were contestants in the Amazing Race, this would have been the perfect taxi driver!!! He drove crazy! He was passing all the other cars and taxi's. He would speed up, just to slam on his brakes when the light turned red. He was even yelling at the cops who had blocked some streets off! Fortunately we made it to the hotel in one piece! We dropped off our bags, put an extra layer of clothes on (it was 30 deg.) and headed out to see all of the lights and the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.


We stopped by the Hershey store in Times Square - Chocolate anyone???


I took a picture of the girls in time square. In the background, you can see where the ball drops on New Years Eve. Next year, I would love to come back here on New Years Eve!!!


Marissa took our picture in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater where the David Letterman show is filmed. David and I are going to make a trip back next spring without any kids to come see a couple of shows taped and take in a Broadway show.


As we walked around Time Square and the immediate area there were lights everywhere! We had to stop and get some hot cocoa to warm us up!


In front of one of the Hotels, there were large nut crackers in front of all of the pillars.


Radio City Music Hall - I wish that we had time to go to the Rockette's Christmas show.


There were amazing decorations everywhere we walked! I bought this crazy hat and scarf while we were in WA for Thanksgiving. It may look funny, but boy was I warm!



The Tree at Rockefeller Center!


These huge snowflakes cover the Saks 5th Avenue store and they flash to Christmas music that is played on loud speakers.


David took this picture to show a good view of Time Square and the sheer amount of people that were there with us!