New York City at Christmas! For my birthday Mike took me to NYC! We were supposed to have a nice romantic get away without the girls. Unfortunately due to the bad weather we were unable to take the girls to my parents house in MA, so we ended up bringing them along. We have made a few adjustments to our agenda and we are all having a great time, although bundling up two kids and lugging the stroller up and down the subway steps is a lot of work. The girls have been enjoying the lights and Pearl loves the many Santas we see on every street corner. I have been enjoying the store front windows. The most amazing thing to me is all of the people, it is so crowded especially near Rockefeller Plaza and the BIG Christmas tree. A little trivia about this years tree. It was in someones back yard and their neighbor always thought it would make a great Christmas tree for Rockefeller Plaza. They finally consented as they felt the tree was starting to die anyway. Wouldn't it be cool to have a tree from your backyard all "spruced" up and shining with thousands of lights for millions of people to see.

Rose and Pearl loved playing with the dolls at the American Girl Store. Rose and I peeked in the restaurant where the dolls have their own fancy chairs and dishes. The AG store also has a hair salon, a theatre, and a photo studio where you and your doll get to be on the cover of the magazine. Our girls did not have a clue about all of this other expensive stuff and were very happy to spend a few minutes playing with the dolls.

Pearl gets so excited looking at Christmas lights!! Here she is looking out our window at our neighbors Christmas lights. When we drive around and look at lights in our neighborhood Pearl is squealing with delight while Rose is begging for us to take her home because she is sleepy. Sorry the video is dark but you still get the idea of her excitement.

My friend Emilie came to visit with her little boy Joseph last week. Emilie and I met in college (Grace College in Indiana) and moved to Nashville together where we both met our husbands! She is now living in Charleston SC which sounds a whole lot prettier then Philly, especially this time of year! Emilie and I had fun catching up and my girls had fun playing with "Joe" as Rose decided to call him or "Josas" as Pearl says it. He is about three weeks older then Pearl and quite a bit bigger even though she is big for her age. That didn't seem to bother her as she tackled him a few times, I guess having a big sister has given her practice. Poor Joseph didn't know what had hit him between Pearl who would try to pull his Pacifier out of his mouth and Rose who would then shove it back in the poor boy was probably glad when he returned home to peace and quiet. We tried to get pictures of the kids together but it is very hard to get them all in one picture at once. We went to the mall one day and Pearl and Joseph enjoyed the carasoul Rose was to scared to get on it.

Lotsa o' Leaves.
We have a huge tree that lost its leaves a few days after Thanksgiving. It was lots of work to rake it but lots of fun to play in the leaves. This was our first fall in three years.

Pearl is a little climber and suprised us with this little trick.

Thanksgiving was a very warm day here. The girls had fun playing outside in the leaves with my mom, while Mike and finished getting the feast ready. A friend of mine made the cute shirts for our little Turkeys. Pearl's tummy looks like she already enjoyed the yummy food but this is her everyday tummy as she eats like it is thanksgiving on a daily basis.