Christmas In NY

It has taken me a while to post this, which is pathetic because it's really not that long of a post, for three reasons:

1. Because both me and Paul didn't have to go back to work until this week so we had a really nice, long vacation of happiness and joy and togetherness. Why would anyone want to take a minute away from that to post a blog? We spent all of our time together having fun as a family so I haven't been on the computer much. Perfect way to start the new year in my opinion!

2. Madeline and me have had a cold since Saturday and THAT, along with my new found goal of exercising everyday, has led to some majoy body aches. [Exercising on hold 'til I can properly breathe.]

3. I only get minutes on the computer lately. This post has been written in chunks. I write when Madeline is napping or I have something that might distract her for two seconds without the house or office looking like a bomb hit it.

So here I am. Finally writing about our vacation. Yay me!

Paul really needed a vacation. He needed to recover and get some sleep. It amazes me how different Paul behaves when he has had some time to relax. He is a much happier mucha-cha. He laughs a lot more... I really like that.

This year during our time off we spent a week in New York over the Christmas holiday. Paul grew up in New York (upstate, not the city... everyone always automatically assumes the city for some reason) and we always have a great time going up there to see family and friends.

The flight there wasn't bad. Madeline behaved and did very well except for like 2 minutes at the end of the first flight (we had a layover in NC), and that was only because her ears were bothering her - totally understandable. Pretty much every flight people were like,


"Ohhhh she is such a good baby. I didn't hear a peep out of her..." etc. etc.

She really is a good child. Sure she has the occassional temper tantrum.

When we got to New York Paul's parents picked us up and we were at his house in no time. Paul's side of the family (not unlike my own) is very family oriented and we saw almost all of them every single day. I really like that about our families. Both of them are like that.

Madeline took a couple days to warm up to everyone, but when she did it was a lot of fun. She immediately loved her cousin Amanda. They had a lot of fun playing ball, laying on the floor, running around like horses, and playing with their new toys. It wasn't long before Madeline was doing her famous "run happily and give you a big hug and kiss" into Amanda's arms. Before this trip this was something she only did to me and her dad.


We spent a day visiting our good friends Jim, his wife Anne, and their daughter Zoe (who Madeline also took a liking to rather quickly) and Frank. For several years now we have sort of had this tradition to meet and have lunch together. It was a lot of fun to see them again. I love how with good friends it never seems like any time has passed.

After Madeline made some lovely gouges in the beautiful wooden table and broke one of the ornaments on the Christmas tree in the restaurant we had met at, we decided it was time to go.

We did some shopping. I love when I go somewhere and everything just falls into place and I find a bunch of things that I like. So yes, I got some very nice things for Christmas and I am very thankful for that.

We also visited with our good friends Seth and Katie and their little one Clare. Clare and Madeline were born about a week apart and it was fun to see them together again. They are both two of the cutest babies in the world.

Christmas was fun. Madeline got some really cool toys that she enjoyed playing with, but when she opened her new edition talking Elmo (this will be here third talking/moving Elmo) nothing else mattered. She carried that thing around with her most of the time after that.

Madeline spent a great deal of time in Grandma Mevec's cabinets that were lined up along the hall. She loves getting in the cupboards here at home so when she discovered those empty cabinets it was as if she had died and gone to heaven. She spent a lot of time in them with her toys, her ball, and her blankie.

The food was, as always, very good, and it shows. Every day and everywhere you looked there was cookies or cakes... holiday food everywhere! Just one look at my rear and it is proof I was well fed - hence the new exercising endeavor.

The week went by so fast it was ridiculous, which is always the case when you don't want it to go by so fast. We had a really good time though, and I was so happy that Madeline got to know some of her family a little bit better. It is always this time of year when we remember how nice it is to be close to family.

I hope they know that we consider them close to us in our hearts and we always try to enjoy every minute we get with them.

I hate how blogger does pictures so my new and easier solution to this is to do pictures slideshows. Everyone else in the world has already figured this out, so it's not like a major breakthrough or anything. Hopefully someday blogger will make it easier to load and manipulate photographs in posts.