Yule in Review

Christmas really is better with a kid around. It's great to have presents waiting under the tree and to look forward to a great meal, but it's even more fun to wake up with a little one and watch them open his/her gifts. This year we stayed in the area and it afforded time for some old and new holiday traditions.

In the new category, we had Deston's first Holiday Sing at school. It was truly adorable to watch all the Kindergarteners sing their hearts out. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a little teary! Santa Claus even made an appearance at the end.

I love that bow tie!

 

An old tradition is to drive around looking at
Christmas lights. There's a pretty good showing in
our neighborhood, so I had been enjoying the occasional stoop lights. I had heard that Bensonhurst in South Brooklyn was a good spot for lights, so our plan was to drive over that way. Drew decided to look it up on the web, and discovered Dyker Heights was also known for elaborate Christmas decorations. Dyker Heights is about 20 blocks away--a very comfortable drive. We got in the car on Christmas Eve, and to my amazement, Drew put on Christmas music without me even mentioning it! As we got close, traffic started backing up and Drew mentioned reading about it. Of course, since this is New York, there were lines of cars waiting to drive onto the most heavily decorated streets. Purely by chance, we found a parking spot and got out and walked around. This is a big break from tradition--I've never walked around to look at lights. However, it was much faster than sitting in the car staring at the same house for 10 minutes, waiting for the cars in front of us to move. We were treated to quite a spectacle. The huge houses in Dyker Heights were positively glowing with lights, inflatable creatures, and moving figurines. Many houses had signs from decoration companies, so I gather they pay for all their elaborate lighting. Granted, it's a lot of effort to cover your house with lights and goodness knows what else.

That's a lot of lights!

It's not a choir without a hundred figurines.

A most menacing Nutcracker

This Santa, and house, loomed over the street. Santa
was flanked by two working miniature carousels.

This house had a miniature David.

It was cold!

A caroler from every nation.

These folks did it right and didn't put the Baby Jesus
out early.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening presents in Christmas jammies.

Christmas morning started at the very reasonable hour of 7:30 am with Deston waking us up with the simple declaration, "Christmas!" From there we had a relaxing morning of opening presents, eating breakfast, and Skypeing with my sister! It was our first ever time using Skype and I hope to use it a lot more. We also got my mom a webcam so we can have more face time.

All in all, it was a great Christmas and the week off afterwards has been great fun. Deston has many toys to build (it was definitely a Lego Christmas) and he's been quite busy. I've been watching movies, doing yoga, and not much else! We'll see family again on New Year's Day for Grandma Billie's birthday. Well, Deston and I will, Andrew will be working. As we're actually going out this New Year's, I hope we won't be too tired!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Having fun with cousin Jamie--playing "secret agents."

Playing with the Pokemon decks that Santa Claus brought.
He even brought ones with instructions!

Showing off my new vintage coat from Andrew!
The fur is definitely not fake, so that's a little weird,
but it's a fabulous coat.