Christmas and New Years

Well better late than never, right?

Yeah...we're going to go with that one.

Anyway, here's a pictorial account of my fun visit to California for Christmas!

This strange fellow was riding the airport shuttle in Seattle during my layover...

My grandfather has a museum where he keeps the old things he's collected.  This is him with his saddle!

My grandmother and I made cookies out of leftover pie crust!

Again in the museum - this was what my grandparents' cattle was branded. Heart Bar!

This picture is hanging in my grandparents' house.  I'm just so cute I wanted to share :P

In the Christmas spirit!

My grandmother and I also made pretzel candies

The Mission Inn always has this great light display at Christmas. This is the first time I've seen it!

My aunt and uncle's kitty cat :)

More lights at Mission Inn

Christmas morning!

Making boxes at my aunt's house

My aunt's dog, Bubba

New Years Eve - On my way home from work.  They had started blocking everything off in the morning.

New Years Eve party supplies!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013!

So far in 2013 I have partied with friends, old and new, slept, and now I will make cinnamon rolls.  I think it seems like a pretty good year so far!

Ice Sculptures!

When I was heading home from work yesterday, there were people making ice sculptures in the plaza next to my building and I thought it was really neat!

Eggnog Cookies!

Work is having another baking day tomorrow and the theme this time is..... Holiday Cookies!  My theory is that when people think of holiday cookies they mostly think of gingerbread or sugar cookies with frosting.  So I decided I wanted to do something that might be a little different.  So I made Eggnog Cookies!  I also tried eggnog for the first time today.  I don't think it has a bad flavor, but it's not something I want to drink. I think it's too similar to milk and I don't really like drinking milk either (unless it's chocolate!).  In the cookies it's pretty good though.  It also got the roommate stamp of approval so I deem it acceptable to bring to work.

In other news...less than a week until California!

Cookies!

Adventures with Laura

Laura came to visit me this weekend!  Long story short, we had a blast and here are some pictures that prove it!

We saw Bring It On the Musical!  It was very campy but the cast was extremely talented. It was amazing some of the gymnastics and throws that the actors were doing.  We also won tickets to the Newsies lottery but I don't have any pictures of that.

Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center

The Lion King musical is having a free exhibit because the musical is celebrating 15 years on Broadway.  It was pretty interesting, it displayed some of the different costumes and sets and staff were on hand to explain how different elements of the show work.

We also went ice skating!

We also went to Grand Central!

Laura got to meet Seth and so we also took a picture.
Notice a lack of beard?

Ice Skating!

I don't think I've been ice skating since I was in high school, but apparently the thing to do in New York in the winter is to go!  There is an ice skating rink that appears every winter in Bryant Park and so Monica, Kari, and I decided we needed to go!

Can-Can Can You Do the Can-Can?

This is just a tad delayed because I've had other stuff going on this week, but Monday night I saw The Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular.  My roommates and I had bought tickets several months ago and Monday night was finally the night!  Long story short it was so so much fun. I'd seen the show a couple of years ago and most of it was the same but they do make changes here and there every year. Basically the Rockettes show is a bunch of different dances, all vaguely narrated together by Santa.  Highlights include an ice skating rink that shows up on stage, a 3D movie, and a nativity scene with live animals.

It completely put me in the holiday spirit because the show itself is pure joy.  The only small thing that made me hate every person ever (conflicting emotions...I know) was that people were taking flash photos and were still coming in late to the show 20 minutes into it.  So Obnoxious!  The late thing, actually ok fine, some people have good excuses.  But the flashes!  They even announce it at the beginning not to do it!  And another thing, most of the flashes came from towards the back of the theatre...don't they know that from that distance the flash would do nothing to help get a better picture? They are even better off NOT using flash because it will show up better!  UUURRRGHGHHHHH.

Ok, now that little rant is out of the way...onto the videos and pictures (that I did NOT take during the show and only in the lobby)!

I couldn't choose just one video so here are a few.

It's almost Christmas!

Almost Christmas means lots of fun activities!  That also means lots of fun pictures!  Wooooo!

So a while ago (like October), it was Seth's birthday!  And for his birthday I knitted him a scarf (I know, I'm so impressive).  And this weekend it was finally cold enough for him to wear it!

Isn't it a great looking scarf?

We also went with my roommates to see the holiday train display at Grand Central station.  It was pretty neat.  And as Sheldon Cooper says on The Big Bang Theory, if you only have one day, make it a train day!

Train!

The other thing I'm very excited about at the moment is that I finally came up with a way to get better internet reception in my room.  Before I could barely check my email because the wi-fi just didn't stretch that far but over Thanksgiving weekend I got a new router that I could have more control over.  The trick ended up being getting the router closer to the rooms and sticking it somewhere in the middle of the hallway.  A couple problems with this solution was that there wasn't really anywhere to set the router in the hallway without it being in the way and people tripping on it, and also it didn't quite reach where the modem and the outlets were.  So...the solution!  I jerry-rigged the router to stick on the wall and then went all around the city looking for cheap extension cords.  I found a 50 foot extension cord for fairly cheap at Home Depot and then I also found this thing called a coupler that connects two ethernet cables.  This way I didn't have to buy a 50 foot cable but instead could use two that we already had.  It looks a little tacky I think but it's way better to have working internet.  Also...yes the router is setting on what is supposed to be a soap dish....  Clearly I'm like MacGyver.

The other other thing I'm excited about is that we have a Christmas tree!!!  I found a fake one at Rite Aid and decided the apartment needed to be more festive.  After picking up lights and some small ball ornaments at the 99 cent store it looks awesome!  We also used a curtain we had and don't use as the tree skirt and Kari made some origami cranes for the tree and I made an origami angel as our tree topper.  It looks great!  We'll add more ornaments as we acquire them but for now I think it's pretty great!

While running errands today Kari and I also stopped by the shops at Columbus Circle where they have a light display and it lights up to music and is fun to watch.  So now I'm completely in the Christmas spirit!

From the outside

Looking Up

From the mezzanine level

So pretty!

Closeup of the origami angel

Closeup of the origami crane ornament

Fuller picture of the tree in the room

Also while trimming the tree and decking the halls we finally put up some of the posters we hadn't bothered to put up (seen above).  Also Kari's sister Katy had done this really awesome painting of characters from the musical Rent and we finally put that up!  It's very impressive so I wanted to share :)

A Katy Original!

Tomorrow night we're going to see The Rockettes so look for that post soon.