We survived our trip to the Big Apple. We arrived on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, the airport wasn't that crowded and no one got stopped for a pat down. After a short pit stop at the hotel we spent the afternoon at Central Park. Jimmy and Alex remembered climbing on the big rocks when we came five years ago. Not to be outdone by her brothers, Helen said she remembered too. (She was two years old.) Will had a blast climbing and running everywhere. It was hard to keep up.
We also couldn't resist playing with the leaves. We don't get the change of seasons down south.
On Thursday we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Helen and Yiayia were right up front while the rest of us were a little farther back. Will wasn't too impressed with the parade. He was happy to sit in the hotel lobby with his juice and blanket. I think it was a little too cold for him.
This girl loved it.
The end of the parade when Santa rides in on his sleigh.
Alex and Yiayia warming up in the hotel before we head out for dinner.
Our delicious Thanksgiving feast. Helen requested one of the drumsticks.
Papouli carving the turkey. (Low lighting, no flash, blurry photo, precious memories.)
Friday morning we set off once again to Central Park to explore the zoo.
We met a polar bear...
and stopped for a snack.
Later that night we saw The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. It was a great show! The kids were entertained the entire time, except Will who was fast asleep until right before the end.
Afterward we headed off to Times Square where we met Spiderman...
and got our picture on the giant screen. We're in the top left: Papouli in black coat and white hair, me with Will on my shoulders and Mike next to me. Yiayia and the kids are somewhere nearby.
I wonder what these two were talking about...
We arrived home on Saturday. So good to be back to our routine. It was a busy, but fun four days. Now we're in the midst of Christmas preparations. The tree is up and the house is as decorated as it's going to get. The kids have made their wish lists (which consist of every toy in the Toys R Us catalog) and hung up their stockings. All that's left to do is shopping, wrapping, mailing cards, food shopping, cooking, cleaning, more shopping, more wrapping. On Thursday, Jimmy has a chorus concert at school. Yiayia and Papouli will be joining us. Looking forward to some good Christmas music.
