• personal

    snow day! in florida. sorta.

    It’s not really snowing in Florida.  But this is the first post I’m writing from there and it’s about snow.  Go figure. The blizzard hit us with 15.1″ of snow last Saturday.

    Somehow looking at the snow pictures from Florida just doesen’t seem as bad as it did in NY. Don’t hate me but it’s 72 degrees (at night) and I’m looking at the lights on A1A. Can’t wait for the morning so I can see blue sky and green palm trees and turquoise water.

    Ok, so you hate me a little. But you know I really, really, REALLY needed this vacation. Saturday morning holds a massage and lunch overlooking the ocean. Ahhhh….

    You just know there’s gonna be trouble looking at those expressions.

    web226

    web1114

    and there was. For Jack, anyway!

    web1310

    web323

    web154

    Love those sparkly eyes and rosy cheeks and nose.

    web911

    Timmy was like Randy in A Christmas Story. He couldn’t put his arms down and he couldn’t get up when he fell over.

    web182

    web519

    web164

    web1010

    web173

    web618

    Totally nailed this shot of Patrick. Right before the giant snowball fell on his head.

    web192

    web418

    web146

    web812

    After shoveling the driveway (it’s long and narrow and John can’t do it cause of his back surgeries) for 1.5hrs I helped the boys build a snowman. He came out pretty good I thought.

    web1213

    web715

    Really so glad to only be looking at snow pictures instead of living in it. Sorry.

  • personal

    merry christmas!

    Here’s a few from what our Christmas looks like around here.

    Each of the boys have their own trees with their own ornaments that they have picked out or received as gifts over the years. It’s a great tradition!

    web245

    The tree. Daytime and nighttime. Ahhh….

    web426

    The infamous leg lamp (aka the hot glow of electric sex gleaming in the window. Or Frageelay- must be Italian).

    web333

    I asked Santa for coordinated presents under the tree this year. He rocked it!

    web179

    Jack woke up this morning at 8:30, Patrick at about 8:45 and we had to wake Timmy up at 9:15!! But the first thing he asked was “is it Christmas morning and there are presents??!” Can’t start a day badly like that!

    Then the unwrapping commenced and there was happiness all around.

    And the aftermath.

    web528

    Gotta go clean up and ummm….pack! Being that we are leaving in 3 hrs I guess I should get on that, huh?

    Merry Christmas, everyone!

  • personal

    the radio city christmas spectacular

    As a birthday gift for his mom, John bought tickets for ALL of us (and I do mean all… Joe, Gail & baby James, Inez, Thomas, Brendan, Sean & Aidan, Mom & Dad, and us) to go see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  Since the ‘menfolk’ always go to baseball games together, he figured this would be something fun for his mom and everyone else too.

    The only catch was that since there were 14 of us (the baby didn’t need his own ticket) the only show that was available for all of us to go to together was the 9am on a Saturday morning. So that meant getting up at 7am, on the road by 7:45am, and into the city by 8:20am. Which we did. For me, under duress cause that’s even earlier than I have to get up to get the boys to school! And I worked the night before, shooting a party til 11:30pm and not going to bed til around 2am.

    But of course the show was worth it and the kids all had a great time! I think Grandma did too!

    Love watching their eyes light up at the whole spectacular spectacleness of it all.

    web232

    web912

    web327

    web421

    web521

    web620

    web717

    web150

    web1011

    web813

    We also celebrated Aidan’s birthday and took a picture of all the boys together again back at grandma & grandpa’s house.

    We are headed over there again tonight for Christmas Eve and then on the plane tomorrow afternoon to Florida. Can’t wait!!!

  • personal

    chanukah

    Guess I’m late on this post too. Do you think I’ll ever catch up??

    web224

    We did all 8 nights with Grandma & Grandpa. Timmy’s become quite the chanukah expert from school.

    Uncle Nelson came over and cooked the very traditional Chanukah spaghetti in meat sauce for dinner and got to take a turn lighting the candles.

    web320

    Well, happy Chanukah anyway. Hope yours was good if you celebrate.

    web137

  • personal

    Christmas in the city

    There’s really nothing like NYC at Christmas. I would never want to miss it. (yes, even with the cold and snow). It’s not really Christmas without a day or more in the city.

    We took the boys in for the usual spots: the Tree, the 5th Avenue windows, FAO Schwarz, The Plaza, Times Square Toys R Us, just the streets and sights of NYC, and finally the Hard Rock for dinner. We walked a zillion blocks and had a great time.

    web413

    web107

    web314

    web133

    web128

    web88

    I’ll take pretty much anything in the window.

    web129

    web514

    web98

    web143

    web613

    web1111

    web614

    web161

    web710

    web151

    The boys at the tree. Still hate the fact that you can’t go in the great middle picture spot anymore without having to do the vendor picture. What a ripoff.

    web219