christmas recap...

i know i should be updating with a valentine's day post but i never got around to blogging about christmas. we had such an amazing december and christmas here in nyc. it is truly magical here in the city during christmas. the whole city lights up and everywhere you walk it feels like christmas. it's so fun. being our first december in new york we knew we wanted to have christmas here and it was perfect.

we did lots of christmas-y things all through december.

we saw the rockefeller tree lighting...


we saw the macy's famous santa...


we made a gingerbread house...




we made cookies...


makenzie's favorite christmas eve eve tradition is to watch christmas movies, eat christmas cookies and sleep out by the christmas tree. we started this last year in california and she was so excited to do it again this year. the air mattress she slept on stayed out all of christmas eve, that's what you see in the pictures. :)

we have the christmas tradition to open presents from family on christmas eve and then santa presents are in the morning. even though it was just the three of us it was so fun. makenzie loves to give presents,she made a lot of presents for michael and i and had so much fun giving them to us. she obviously had a lot of fun opening her presents too.

christmas eve...







um, i think she was excited about the pillow pet from her cousins...












we got her ice skates. she was so excited!





christmas morning...

makenzie got up about 6:00am. which is crazy early for her (and us!) she was beyond excited. it turned out perfect though. we opened presents, had cinnamon rolls and played for a bit and then about 9am we all took a 4 hour nap. a nice christmas tradition! :)





















after our wonderful christmas naps we went to go ice skating in bryant park. we waited for hours in line but it was worth it to see the joy in her face while skating for the first time. we have gone a ton since then and she is really doing great! i got some skates too (cuz those blue ones are just too ugly) and we have had a lot of fun skating together every weekend.











i love my family and so incredibly blessed to have such special times with them.

baby, it's cold outside...

so, we are heading in to see if we can bear out first winter in NYC! having never lived somewhere were it gets crazy cold for long periods of time it is a new experience for me too. in concord we would have freezes, snow on the nearby mountains, etc., but they never last more than a few days at a time. and then living in Houston and Southern California during my adulthood, we really never experienced winter. I hated that on Christmas you could wear a t-shirt and be fine.

so far i really do like it. it feels so right that in december it's cold and we have to bundle up. i'm sure it helps that its the holiday time so it feels fun. so maybe in february i will be over it. i would so much rather it be cold that hot so i prefer this more. i do have to see after living her for 8 months now, i LOVE the seasons. i love that we have had spring, summer, amazing fall and now winter. and even though it was 100+ in july with 99% humidity, it only really lasted miserably for that month and then it's gone! not like when we lived in houston and this time of year you still deal with gross sticky days. and it's so much better than the same old 77 degrees and sunny that orange county got 90% of the time!

This week has been the coldest so far. With temperatures in the low 30's all week and the "feels like temperatures" in the teens! And since we walk everywhere we just bundle up and bear it! I got Makenzie a nice thick down coat and it seems to be doing the job and keeping her warm on the walks to school and at recess! I have yet to buy my warmer coat, I'm thinking it is definitely time. I just don't feel like walking in the cold to the stores to buy it! :)

On Monday morning we walked outside to go to school and it was snowing! i was so surprised because i couldn't see it through the windows. it was snow flurries, just really lightly falling. but makenzie was thrilled. she called them "snow furries" and thought it was so funny to walk in. :) it was so cute. later she said she had "snowdrops" on her jacket. :) the kids were all thrilled as we piled in the classroom. i'm sure when the snow falls and stick enough the play in the kids will all have a blast.

makenzie learned that a "white christmas" means hoping for snow on christmas. so now she's dreaming of a white christmas too! we'll see!

here she is on the walk to school that day. except you can't see the snow furries. :)

operation christmas child...

this year we decided to send a shoebox of christmas gifts to a child through samaritan's purse's operation christmas child. i thought it would be a good lesson in giving to others at this time of year. makenzie loves christmas and is excited about all aspects of it: the decorating, jesus, baking, santa, gifts, music, lights, etc. every year is so much fun seeing how they grow and change in understanding christmas but love it all the same.

makenzie was very excited to pick out gifts. she picked to give to a 4 year old girl. she did a great job thinking about what would be appropriate and what would fit in the shoebox. she also, kind of surprisingly, never said anything about wanting for herself what we were getting this girl, which was so nice that she was really getting the concept of what we were doing.

We filled the box and then makenzie filled out this cute letter to the child to put in it. it had information about makenzie, where she lived, what she likes, etc. really cute. and then you can register the box online and get a tracking number so you can see where it's going to end up. they email you once it's reached a child. so fun! Here's the site with all the info: Operation Christmas Child






(side note: makenzie read the Fancy Nancy book Spectacular Spectacles and in it her friend gets glasses and so Nancy wants some. Since she doesn't need them she finds an old pair and pops out the lenses to have glasses too. Makenzie decided to do the same today and wore them all day!)

the bird book...

today makenzie got out her paints to make a book. she worked so hard on it. first she drew the outline for all the different birds. then she painted them and then she wrote about each one. i didn't help her at all, she came out of her room with the finished product. so cute! she even added a cover page, an inside cover and a back page :) i did tell her she should remember to write in pencil so that when she messes up she can erase instead of scribbling. :)

neighborhood halloween festival...

we live in such a great neighborhood, right by the park, tons of kids. now that makenzie is in school the neighborhood kids are school and classmates, so it's even more fun!

today we went to the festival at our park. one of makenzie's best friends from school was there and they had a great time playing together. it was a lot of fun. they had a hay ride, crafts, face painting, halloween tattoos, candy, so much fun stuff!

and makenzie looked adorable in her sweet angel costume...





with her friend, sylvia, from school...






on the hay ride...


spin art...


making a halloween bag...




face painting...


the face painter was so good! they did designs like this on the girls at disneyland and makenzie always wanted one but they are crazy expensive. so what a treat to have this at the free festival!