Merry Christmas! . . .

Every time I go back up to NY everything is a whirlwind.  There’s just always SO much to do that we constantly seem on the go.  So here’s what we did on our latest trip . . .

Tuesday I left work early which ended up being a great thing cause it took FOREVER to pack up the car for the long week ahead.  We had SO much to bring for the five day trip including all of Noah’s stuff, Christmas gifts, and Shea!  We FINALLY got out of the house around 7:30 but it was a LONG and tiring drive up to LI.  When we got to the house a little after 12:30AM, I only got 4 ½ hours of sleep before I had to get up, feed Noah, and get dressed for our Christmas Eve day in the city.  We had 8:00AM reservations at Norma’s in the Le Parker Meridian for breakfast.  Why did we have reservations so early when the restaurant was completely empty?!  Cause when I made the reservation through opentable.com, it was the only timeslot available!  Oh well, couldn’t sleep in now that we were here so we sat down and had a yummy Christmas Eve family breakfast together.  Mike had the Waz-za and I had the Norma’s Eggs Benedict.  Both were fantastic and the service was great.  After breakfast we headed over to FAO Schwarz.  We got there in time for the store opening and were greeted by the toy soldiers and all the workers.  After a little fun with all the toys, we made our way down to the Rockefeller Christmas tree and then back to the car.  It was drizzling all morning, but we still had a great time.  I think this will become a family tradition!  And once Noah gets bigger we’ll also go see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City.  We were supposed to have lunch at the Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridian too, but since it was still early we decided to head back to LI.  When we got back to the house, we had a chance to relax for a little bit, but not for long.  Soon we were up and about again and off to the Elio’s to meet the rest of the family for our annual Christmas Eve get together.  Highlights this year on the menu were the lobster (of course), Karynn’s crab stuffed mushrooms (mushroom down!), and Lynn’s lemon ricotta cookies (I turned around for a minute and they were all gone!), but the real highlight when my family gets together isn’t really the food but the laughs and stories and time spent together.  I guess that’s what the holidays are truly all about for us (God bless us Every one!).  The next day we all met up at church for Christmas Mass and then everyone came over to my parents’ house for dinner where Chinese food was the menu of the night and plans for Cousin Crawl ’08 were set.  Friday morning, Mike and I went to Roosevelt Field to hit up the Apple store for my parents’ present.  It was insanity!  I TOTALLY forgot how crazy Roosevelt Field can get during the holidays.  Luckily though, Mike was able to get a parking spot quickly and even though we had to wait on a line to get into Apple we got what we needed and headed on home just in time to get dressed and head on out to the city to meet up with Alv for happy hour.  Mike and I got there first and met some of Alv’s co-workers but soon Lor, Lynn, Muri, and Paul showed up and it was on!  I guess everyone was in a pretty festive mood cause soon enough the shots and buckets were flowing!  I’ll admit I had my fair share to drink that night (can you blame me I haven’t gone out in over a year!) as you can tell from the pictures.  This ended up being one of our best cousin crawls yet (even though we only stayed at one place!).  Katrina, Karynn, Jay-R, and Brian came out too!  At around 12:00 we went to another bar, but it was a little too crowded and getting late so decided to hit up the Burger Joint for some late night eats, but it had just closed (so close and yet so far – one day we WILL eat here)!  So instead we went to this street cart for Chicken and Rice.  I guess it is supposed to rival DC’s Manoosh!  Anyway while we were waiting on the longest line ever, I texted our friend, Genevieve, who lived in the area and it turned out she was just coming home from a night out on the town too so we got to meet up.  It was great to see her!  Once we got some food in our bellies, it was time to head on home so we packed into Karynn’s Jetta and I fell asleep the whole way.  Man, GREAT TIMES with the couisins.  Surprisingly, I woke up Sunday morning completely fine (even though I only had 5 hours of sleep again).  Plans were to head out by 11:30 for the Cousin Winter Clambake ’08 at Aim’s house in Jersey, but we still had to pack (all our stuff was EVERYWHERE) and we left our keys in my Mom’s car the day before and so had to wait for her to come back from work before we could pack up the car and leave.  I thought I was going to be feasting on lobster and clams by 1:00 so I didn’t really eat breakfast which was a huge mistake cause by the time we left the house, drove through bad traffic, and got to Aimee’s, it was 3:00 and I was starving AND had a huge hunger headache!  Luckily though nothing a couple plates of Terry’s yummy steak, lobster, clams, corn, baked potatoes, and dessert couldn’t cure.  The Clambake was a great time to just relax and catch up with the cousins some more.  Festivities included basketball, hot tubbing, kiddie photo sessions, poker, AND a gingerbread house contest!  For the record, Team Kimmee would have TOTALLY won if Team Rachel didn’t cheat by stealing our piping bag AND eating one of our walls!  Why are our competitions always so controversial?!  Eventually though all good things had to come to an end and we rolled out of Aim’s house around 7:30.  Luckily Paulie was with us and so him and Mike switched up driving a couple of times cause it was another LONG drive back to VA.  There were SO many accidents!  We got home safe and sound though just in time to spend a relaxing Sunday recuperating from all the festivities.  Here’s some pics from the weekend . . .

Christmas Eve Family Breakfast at Norma's in Le Parker Meridian . . .

I had Norma's Eggs Benedict (Buttermilk Pancake layered with Canadian Bacon and Grilled Asparagus) . . .

Mike had the Waz-za (Waffle - Fruit Inside Fruit Outside, Crackly Brulee Top) . . .

Noah with the FAO Schwarz Toy Soldier . . .

The Noah's Ark at FAO . . .

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