NYC

After many years of wanting to go back to the city, I finally made arrangements to go yesterday and have some well deserved fun.

After going to bed late the night before, 6 am came pretty fast. Breakfast was had by most at DD...I settled for my usual TURBO. Caught the train in Milford and off we were.
Subway passes in hand, we headed to Times Square to purchase tickets to see RENT that afternoon. The wait was long and cold, but went by fairly quickly (if that makes any sense!). We were entertained by lots of diverse people...Pigeon Joe....Jamaican XMAS tunes. Tickets were 25%ff the normal price of $100; 4 were purchased (I was treated!) and off we were to explore.

Edgar: "I need to go to the ATM"
Nacho Admirer #1: Lady in her 40's

A wrong subway was taken to try and get to the MET, so we headed to grab lunch at Pax (I had an awesome slice of veggie pizza!) and people watch (dude looks like a girl!). Did I mention it was cold! We saw one of the guys from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" taping a segment.
We arrived at the Nederlander Theatre for the 2 o'clock show. The theatre was not as big as I thought it was, but it had a good vibe going. The show was amazing! It has been one of the longest running shows on Broadway. The cast included Frenchie Davis from American Idol. The singing was great! I would definetly go back for another experience.
http://www.siteforrent.com/intro.html

After the performance, we headed to Chevy's on 42 ST for dinner (Shaggy and Mamacita!). After packing away most of my dinner, chili con queso and a Tecate, my belly was more than satisfied.

Nacho Admirer #2: 3 toothed black lady in her 60's "What time you got suga?"

Next stop on the non-agenda was Rockafellar Center. We saw the tree and the swavorski star- too bad they aren't lighting the tree until next week. It was cool to see people skating on the rink. We decided to go to "The Top of the Rock". Tickets weren't bad at all ($14). We headed to the top of the center and took in amazing views of the city at night...it was so peaceful....a good time for reflection. The Empire States building done up in red/green lights is breathtaking. Heading to the next level up was also a good time. The attraction stays open until 12 a.m. and you can go for as long as you like.
http://www.rockefellercenter.com/home.html

Last on our list of things was FAO Schwarz. Holy toys! In the time we were there, we saw a lot, but not nearly all they had to offer....doll making station..make your own Hot Wheel.
We found the life size piano that was in the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks...it was cool! You could purchase it for a mere $250,000. The other toys weren't too badly priced; I picked up some wooden toys and a bamboo toy set for Jakob.
http://www.fao.com/home.jsp

Finally making it back to Grand Central Station we had time before our 10:22 train back to CT. We enjoyed some good old Star Bucks and a good dose of people watching (chinese girl posing against the glass of the map!).

Nacho Admirer #3: 14 year old

The plan was to "go pee!" befor the ride home, but that didn't happen. We were so involved in the people watching that we made the train with like 2 minutes to spare. There were not many empty seats and some were left standing. I decided to stand with the guys as I have a thing about sitting next to people I don't know. Nacho and Jorge performed well on "the pole".

The quite ride home back to my house was a nice time to reflect on the fun day I had in the city with good friends. The feeling of being in the city was good....not too many people...not crazy hustle in bustle...and the feeling of Christmas in the air.

Thanksgiving Melee

Thanksgiving with the Schreier's kicked off Wednesday night with having the guys over for pizza, beer, and making cookies!

We had a good time! We made sugar cookies (each one perfectly made and decorated by Jorge), 2 chocolate cream pies (Nacho), an apple pie (Jorge). Edgar, Todd, and Jakob played video games. Much beer was polished off and festivities quieted down around 1:30 a.m. Little Hasselhoff managed to stay up til the end too!
Because Thanksgiving with Brian fell through, we decided to have Thanksgiving at our house and invite the guys over.

This was our first time cooking the turkey in the turkey fryer I bought like 2 years ago. It came out awesome! This was the first holiday that Todd and I have had to prepare everything ourselves as my family usually comes over for dinner. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, rolls, corn, beans, onions/gravy, green stuff, cranberry sauce, olives, and 18-20 lbs. of turkey! We were all finished eating and Jorge was still piling the turkey on his plate. Because we were all still pretty full, dessert wasn't a huge hit. The movies of choice this year were "Saw" and "Lampoons Christmas Vacation". Nacho, Jake, and I headed out for DD...a search for a sprinkled donut for Jake....and a very quick trip to Walmart where I bought Polar Express and a Thomas the Tank Engine game for Jake's VTECH system.

The day of thanks ended around 8 p.m. Jakob cried when he heard that they were leaving...he cried at the door while he was waving goodbye....and he cried for like 30 minutes after they left..."I miss them so much!"
He has a blast with them and they are all really good with him.
Friday was spent relaxing and cleaning up. My Mom stopped over and decided that she was going to have Jakob overnight.

My plans for Saturday are to head to NYC. Todd was asked if he wanted to go and he showed no interest. There was a spark of interest on Friday morning, but I wanted to go and have a good time and hear NO COMPLAINING about ANYTHING.