Festivities of the season

 

It was so sad.  Dave's dad fell the day after Thanksgiving and broke his neck.  This is the second time he has broken it.  He spent time in the hospital, then at a care center, then back in the hospital and then the care center again.  All within the month of December. To me, he is the epitome of someone who not only endures to the end, but does it with grace and determination.

 

 

 

Lily, Jack and James were in their school play.  It was about monsters and every kid had a mask on.  We never could tell which ones were James and Jack.  Lily is the one on the left, at the microphone, with her hands out. 

 

Scott is a grandpa now.  McKenna's little guy, Crew, is an adorable little chunk.

The Ogden Temple looked beautiful one night as we were going in.

We had a girls Christmas treat making day.  Missed Steph.

We went to OC Tanner Christmas Party at the Grand America.  It's always nice there.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house.

Dinner and a Jazz game with Alex

Alex had given Dave a Cheesecake Factory giftcard for Father's day.  Since it was for a significant amount, we took him with us to use it.  Then we walked around City Creek before heading over to the Jazz game.

 

 

The Macy's windows in Salt Lake had the same theme as the windows in New York - Peanuts gang- , but these were made of candy.  Very impressive

Our last day on Long Island

Stephanie had to work on our last day.  Dave and I went on a morning run over to a park near their home.

 

It was a huge park filled with memorials.  This was a World War II memorial.

 

They also had a 9/11 Memorial because over 360 people from Nassau County lost their lives in the World Trade Center that day. 

 

They had two pieces of steel beams from the buildings.

 

A lot of the people who died worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.  There were also a lot of firefighters and police from this county who died.

Who would have thought the day after Thanksgiving would be warm enough to be running in shorts and a t-shirt.  The weather on this trip was delightful.

Long Islander's are big into Diners.  We all met Steph on her lunch hour at this one.

 

 

I had one of the best Reuben sandwiches ever. 

 

Steph went back to work and Jared and Shad took Dave and I to the airport.  We absolutely loved spending Thanksgiving with the family.  Thanks, guys.  We love you all so much.

Checking off another thing on my bucket list.

When I was a little girl our family always watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  We usually went over to my Grandpa and Grandma Niederhauser's house because they had a color TV and we didn't. I always thought it would be the coolest thing to see it live.

 

Finally, at age 55, I can check that off my bucket list.  We got up and took the subway uptown.  Because of all of the terrorist threats there were armed policemen on the subways.  I also saw a woman carrying a pie, which reminded me it was Thanksgiving and nothing rattles New Yorkers.

 

We were among 3 and a half million people that were estimated to be lining the parade route.  Before it started we were at Columbus Circle.  I ready read online somewhere that it was a good viewing spot.  Not.  The photo of the yellow Macy's stars shows how far away we were.

 

So we hoofed it uptown to Central Park West and 65th street.  It was so much better there.

 

 

Mariah Carey was on this float.  But she wasn't singing.

We stayed for the entire thing.  Santa was happy to be at the end.

On our walk uptown to get a better spot for the parade we walked by Lincoln center and Julliard.

 

After the parade ended, we walked across the street to Central Park.  The weather all day was beautiful, in the low 60's.  It was fabulous.

We were hungry but didn't want to eat lunch since we were headed back to Steph and Jared's for Thanksgiving dinner.  So we got a waffle just outside the park.

We hoofed it to a subway station and along the way passed this beauty.

Steph picked us up back in Long Island.

It was wonderful to have Thanksgiving dinner with this crew.  Jared cooked the turkey on his smoker and it was so good.  Steph made delicious rolls, sweet potatoes and other yummy stuff.

We had to continue our after-dinner tradition of gingerbread house decorating.  Shad was a pro his very first time.

 

In the evening, we watched movies and just relaxed.


Shad asked me to play "basketball" with him one last time before he had to go to bed.  He likes me to play the song from the Black Eyed Peas, "I've Got a Feeling" that is on my phone, while he shoots baskets after I pass him the ball.  He cracks me up.

And yes, he has a hard time putting the ball down, even to brush his teeth.  He wanted me to come in the bathroom and get one last picture of him with his ball.  Haha.