Christmas in NYC

This month has been so crazy that blogging hasn't come anywhere near the top of my to-do list in the past few weeks. We've been home from our trip to NY for 2 weeks, but it was such a great trip that I just can't skip it. I've always wanted to visit NYC during Christmas time and now that my sister Whitney and her husband Matt are living there the timing was perfect. We enjoyed visiting with them for week and got to do all of the Christmas things I've always wanted to.


It was freezing, but checking out the tree at Rockefeller Plaza was worth it.


I knew it was cold when Max stopped trying to take his gloves off.


The subway actually worked out great for getting us everywhere we wanted to go. Reed loved it and attempted to make friends of strangers on every ride. A combination of invading personal space and using sign language worked pretty well for him and kept him happy and busy while we traveled.

Matt and Whitney took us to Max Brenner's, a restaurant where chocolate is used in pretty much every dish and dessert. The kid's menu actually featured a syringe of chocolate as one of the options. Reed was in heaven.


Ice Skating at Bryant Park with Reed was one of the highlights. As this blurry picture shows, Sam and Reed flew around the rink together.


Being out in the city was wonderful, but so was staying inside. One evening we made a gingerbread house. Reed was so proud of our messy work.



This is not a wonderful picture of us, but the view from their apartment was too beautiful to not include.

Reed Dickson, Attorney at Law

We're currently trying to figure out what Christmas in New York is all about, so pictures will be forthcoming, but before we get to that I thought I'd share a quick story about Reed.

The story starts with an evil police officer giving Lindsay a speeding ticket even though she had done nothing wrong (the details of the speeding ticket are unimportant, but if you must know she was driving at about the speed limit for the rest of the road but a police officer was lying in wait about a half a mile up the road clocking people coming out of a curve where the speed limit is 10 mph lower).

We have learned that it is always best to go to court when you get a ticket since they will usually reduce the penalty if you do, even if you don't have any representation.  Lindsay brought Reed to represent her (Max was there too, but she only brought him in order to be able to discreetly work out her arm muscles).

Reed was fascinated by the whole experience.  When they were inside the courtroom he kept asking Lindsay which one was the judge, and she pointed out to him a youngish black woman seated at the highest seat with a black robe on.  She described her to me as a nice lady with a no nonsense attitude--she didn't hesitate to tell people exactly what she thought of them or the situation they had created for themselves.

When it was finally their turn to appear before the judge, Reed grabbed the citation and ran up to the bench waving it.  The judge took the ticket and asked, "What's this?"  Lindsay said, "It's the ticket.  I'm sorry."  After she looked at the ticket, it was returned to Reed and he turned to run back to Lindsay, but tripped.  People throughout the courtroom chuckled and Reed dashed behind the podium where Lindsay was standing.

The judge then asked Lindsay, "How do you plead?" and Lindsay told her, "Guilty." Then the judge smiled at Reed and asked, "Are you Mom's helper today?" Reed nodded and said, "Yes." She was very nice to Reed, and I hope he broke up the tedium of the day for her.  After a brief pause she told Lindsay, "Oh just go." Lindsay thanked her profusely then took the kids and left the courtroom before the judge could change her mind. The case was dismissed thanks to the help of our little lawyer.

If anyone needs legal help, Reed has plenty of availability, except for mornings on Mondays and Wednesdays--that's when he has preschool.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a small but special Thanksgiving dinner with my parents at home this year. Max slept right through dinner, but our little Indian (with or without a costume) celebrated enough for all of us.





Max may have slept through dinner, but that didn't get him out of wearing the big collar. Amazingly enough Reed was jealous that Max got to be the Pilgrim.

Blog Catch-up

I know there must be throngs of people waiting on pins and needles for more pictures from California--so here they are. This blog is really my only record keeping so I'm going to go ahead and post everything I've been meaning to post for the past few weeks.

Family Pictures

Recently I came across the blog of a really cool photographer in Temecula. Since we were already planning to be in CA I decided to ask her to take a new family photo for us. Max was having a bad morning (very unusual for him), but you'd never know from these pictures. She was great with the kids and I was very happy with the results. Sorry to include so many pictures, but it was hard enough to just pick these.

Goodbye Queeny

This past week Reed's fish, Queeny, fell victim to an inexperienced caregiver. During a routine bowl cleaning I accidentally sent Queeny into shock when I scooped her out and put her into a cold glass of untreated water while we freshened up her bowl.

Reed didn't seem too upset (phew!) until a few hours later when we went outside to give her a proper burial. In the middle of digging the hole I ran inside to get the phone. When I came back outside he was crying with large tears rolling down his cheeks saying, "I miss you Queeny." It was the cutest sad thing I've ever seen.


Final Goodbyes

California Fun

Reed and Max both enjoyed the horses at Zoomars, the local petting zoo, while we were in San Clemente. I told Reed to say "Yee-Haw" when he was riding his horse, but he said, "Mom..that is too embarrassing." Isn't he a little too young for that?


The bunnies and goats were quite friendly--especially when being offered food. Is it just me or does that bunny look like one of Reed's long lost relatives??


NOAH'S ARK EXHIBIT

Another highlight was our trip with Nana and McKenzie to the very well done Integrative Noah's Ark Exhibit for kids at the Skirball Center in LA. It was a stressful drive getting there in time, but it was very worth it.

Reed and Luke loading the animals two by two into the ark.

Max was right at home with a drum stick in his hand. I believe this Xylophone-type instrument is native of India. He didn't sound half bad on it either.

California Halloween

We've been in California for the past two weeks and therefore on a blogging hiatus as well. We will be going home tomorrow, but I wanted to post our Halloween photos before people starting busting out their Christmas decorations. More photos from our California adventure coming soon!

Here is my little scuba diver. I loved his costume., but it was pretty impractical for trick or treating. He actually did better than I thought walking in his flippers, but I quickly ended up carrying him from house to house.

In case you can't tell, Max was an Octopus:)


Several months ago when we figured out that we would be in CA over Halloween, my sister and I planned for all of our kids to trick or treat together in "under the sea" costumes. Belle was a mermaid, Luke was a Shark, and Scarlett was a goldfish to complete the theme.

Catwalk to the Pond

A month or so ago we got a new camera and since then I've been dying to get some good practice in with it. This afternoon when we walked to the pond behind our house I went paparazzi on my kids as we made our way there. They only felt slightly tortured and I finally got to really use the camera. 120 pictures and 50 sticks thrown into the pond later we were all satisfied. My favorite ones are included below.

What happens in Virginia....ends up on our blog

I've been meaning to post these pictures from our recent week long adventure in Virgina, but it's taken me a few days to get back into the swing of things since our jam packed vacation.

In retrospect, I can see that we were a little crazy to plan a nonstop itinerary including stops at Virginia Beach, Jamestown, Williamsburg and Washington DC (including a tour inside the White House and Capitol Building) with a troop including 2 babies, 2 3-year-olds and 1 6- year-old, but we all survived and loved almost every moment of it.

No matter where we were going, Max was great and pretty much just happy to be there.


Reed giving a sermon at the church at the Jamestown fort.


Reed really wanted this hat at Williamsburg until the parade of colonial drummer boys came by (below) and he decided he wanted to find a drum instead. We saved our $20 and got this cute photo instead.




The history might have been a little over their heads, but Reed and Luke had a blast together wherver we were--even if it was yet one more old building.

Williamsburg was really interesting, but after being there all day, we all felt like they looked. The best part was the end of the day when we followed the minute men to the capital where they acted out the declaration of war and raising of the flag ending with cannon fire. Too bad they slept right through it.


These are our pictures from DC---can't you tell?? We got a wonderful tour of the Capitol building and White House as well as the National Archives and Mint. It's probably no surprise that the kids needed a break after all that where they could just be kids on a DC street corner.