Christmas 2013

 Christmas is not actually done yet as we need to celebrate with the Diviney family, but I want to get some pictures up anyway. We enjoyed Christmas with my mother-in-law and hers on Monday before Christmas. Then we headed to mom and dads' for five days. Really we are so used to the six hour drive it goes by like nothing. Today (our trip home) Trinity got the snow she prayed for in the morning and it was a beautiful drive into Spokane. The next four hours everything was covered in frost, even the metal fencing looked white and the trees were spectacular. Many Washington locals know that as you cross the state right about in the middle, the farmers have put big light "signs" in various Christmas shapes on the ends of their gigantic rolling circle sprinkler systems. These displays have been up since I was a child and are still maintained and lit up each year. There are children's characters like Barney and Clifford and traditional ones like a dove, and nativity, and finally fun ones. . .rockets, race-cars, snowball fights, etc. The kids and I were shouting out what they were the minute we could make them out, a fun game for all of us. We had a wonderful time with all of our family so far.
 I only made one batch of cookies but I did make Jeremy a cheesecake since mom ended up with so much extra cream-cheese. We had our usual brunch of chilli relleno, cheesy hashbrowns, and cinnamon rolls. Mimosas were added this year instead of the plain champagne we usually have. Even I could drink to that. There were game nights, and we all watched The Big Year, which in case you haven't seen it, you should. Or maybe it's just a Miller thing. The kids got their sledding in, although it was runner blades only this year as not much snow but the perfect ice instead. I even got Trin to go down the big hill with me. I actually had to go sideways and bail on a friends driveway (that wouldn't have been there when I was a kid!) because we got going way too fast and wouldn't be able to stop at the bottom of the hill and we didn't have a spotter for cars. It reminded me or our sledding when I was younger. Man, we did crazy stuff as kids. No helmets, no protective gear, just four or five teenagers layered on a runner sled (with the top kid barely able to reach their fingertips to the sled base for balance and the bottom kid miraculously not crushed from the rest of them)  careening straight down a third of a mile hill. Even better if it was in the dark on a moonlit night. We. Were. Awesome.
 Home again now with the usual mass unpacking but first, pictures!

Diviney Family Christmas - part 1

slinky!

 iphone eraser, thanks zoey and hailee

 excited much?

 what's in here?

 peace, yo our shirts match

funky music robot necklace

not pictured "mr. mike", cousin William, grandma, auntie angie, auntie amber

btw Trudy's Almond Rocha is now expected at the Miller Christmas. Oh yeah.

Christmas Eve - Just Us

here is a funny video of their reaction to the Xbox 1

Christmas Day - in no particular order!

 Matching Dresses

 Granda and his girls

Shel and Philip

 Uncle Brian and Nancy Jane

 the Nee' Nee'

 yay! Sophia for Sophia!

 I managed to make Ben look chubby!

 what's this?

 Apparently in December when mom watched Isaac and he was sick he was very happy to play with this frog pillow at the store so that was his present. I love to hear of good bonding times. =)

pretty sweater for a pretty girl

 love this picture of the four girls

 typical face I get now when I ask for a picture

 she's too much. My beautiful girl

 similar smile

 rocket!

 hmmm?

socks

 
 cutie

okay so she wasn't super excited about the Katniss Barbie but her mother is more excited to play dolls with her now! and I DID get her a princess dress for it. . .

 
 LAVA LAMP

me and brother

New York: city sidewalks

So when Jeremy's partners offered to fly me out for the first time in six years for Jeremy's annual New York facetime with them we didn't say no. The fact that is was delayed from it's usual October to December made it all the better as I realized I would get to see the big apple in all it's Christmas splendor. What I wouldn't give for a pedometer to measure how far I walked these past few days. I have these odd sore muscles on the back of my knees. The concrete jungle was still really fun though. On Sunday it was snowing when we got off the plane and it looked so romantic I wanted to squeal. Truly picture perfect. However, the harsh reality of the snow slapping me in the face as we exited the subway and had to walk to our hotel made me very grateful that I had packed hat and gloves. We grabbed a bite at the diner in the hotel and tromped up to Times Square. I took some pictures at the Disney store for Trinity. The next day Jeremy would be in meetings all day so I actually got to snuggle in bed a little longer on my own. BLISS. Then I went to Macy's and killed the rest of the morning. Walked up to Bryant park where they have a Christmas bazaar set up around the perimeter and an ice skating rink in the middle. I perused an actual ALIVE and OLIVIA store. They are really great designers but of  course they were very much out of my price-range. =) Then back down to the hotel to charge my dying phone and back out to Macy's because after all I had only hit like two of the seven stories. Finally I met up with Jer and we walked back up almost to Times Square to grab a bite at Chevy's before attending Newsies,which was playing at the Nederlander Theatre. It was a really enjoyable show with not a little geeking out after as the stars came out to sign autographs afterwards. We had tickets four rows back and center. It doesn't get much better than that. The next day I spent a few more hours meandering on my own before Jeremy was able to join me. We ate at a highly rated (thank you Yelp) pie place and headed up to the Central Park area and the nicer shops on Lexington. Bloomingdales had nice windows. 5th avenue had some great decorations, including a giant strand of Christmas lights that lay on the ground. I wanted to climb around on them but I didn't actually walk down that far. We veered off to check out the tree at Rockefeller Center. The skating rink there is actually really small, I much preferred the size of the rink at Central Park. If it had been lighter longer I would have made Jeremy do the carriage thing but it was already getting dark so we bypassed because it was too cold. Lo and behold on the corner of Rockefeller Plaza was a giant Anthropologie. Their windows were AMAZING. I tried on a $300 dress that made me feel AMAZING. That was fun! I actually bought only a handful of things and didn't come anywhere near the allotted budget my "live vicarously through you" sister had given me. lol. Last but not least we enjoyed dinner with Jeremy's partners and their wives. Then up at the crack of dawn to head back home. It was a fabulous getaway.

 I took the Disney store pics for the kids.

 the New York "uniform"

a bird cage with tablets that digitally displayed the aviary wonders

 the $198 ALMOST splurge

 the Macy's displays were the most technical

 tree and ice skating at Bryant Park

 Betsey Johnson

 one romper mass clearance $5. will she actually wear it? tbd.

 the one forbidden pic I took of the stage. they had theses three moving scaffoldings that looked like city stairs. really great mobile set design.

 "Davey" 

 um, yes that's me and JACK KELLY. 

 Dylan's Candy Bar

 these windows were more sparkly and detailed than they show

I "heart" Anhropolgies windows!

Catch ya later, NYC!