Our Happy Holidays

Well, we all know I am always 2 months behind. So here is a few pictures from Nov to Jan.

I was sooooo happy to have Thanksgiving off this year (I can't honestly remember the last time that happened). We went the night before to watch the giant balloon inflating in preparation for the Parade. I think there were more people crowded on those 4 blocks to see the balloons than watched the parade!

Our friend works at Macy's, and she was so kind to give us tickets to sit and see the parade. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we had great seats to watch the floats, balloons, and the crazy clowns.

I guess this is to encourage recycling?

We went one chilly night in the end of Nov. to the Rockefeller Tree Lighting Ceremony. We stood for a long time with famous people singing to us, somewhere too far to see. And finally, the tree was lit. Here is a before and after picture...

We decorated our own tree we bought from two men on the street. They were both from Mexico and said they had never seen pine trees, so I guess we can't blame them for selling us such a crooked tree. It was also very dead and dry, so it shed more than a cat. But it smelled so good and if you tilted your head, it was pretty.

Citigroup puts on this amazing train show during the holidays. You walk around a neat display and look at models of NY scenes from the past 50 years. There were over 30 moving model trains, and it was very impressive. My Dad would have loved this. There were so many kids there, including our friends and their little boy.

We couldn't leave for Christmas because I had to work, but we were able to go to Canada right after for the great Salmon get together of 07-08. All of Jay's siblings and their families were able to go home for a few days. We hadn't seen everyone together since our wedding, and we met a new niece and nephew. It was so fun....what you would call "happy chaos".

We followed some family traditions (Peter's), watched home movies, and sorted through boxes of "memories".

The four brothers rekindled their secret combinations, which seemed to be made up competitions and laughing about things that were unintelligible to everyone else.

We were happy to get to see Eva's baptism (Jay's niece).

The big Family dinner, including Paul's famous wings.

And for our last night before returning home, the Salmon's had a party. We got to bring in the New Year with some of Jay's buddies.

We had so much fun! Thanks everyone!