We started off Christmas Eve at my dad's house which is tradition since my parents divorced when I was little. The entertainment of the evening was watching my nephew (who is 3) and niece (who is 1 1/2) open their presents. They are hilarious. It's always great to be with family.
We gave Calvin a hard hat so he can be like Bob the Builder. He told us he was smiling for the picture. I don't see it.
Luckily, this year we did not get locked out of our apartment on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, our doorknob has held up.
We slept in Christmas morning and then opened presents with just us two. We love having our own little Christmas together and we both got some AWESOME stuff. My top three are a new pink camera & case, a sparkly sweater, and a make-up bag that says "Naughty" (long story). Tyler's top three (I'm choosing for him) are his guitar, the GPS device his parents gave us, and a white sweater from Express. Our favorite gift together is Guitar Hero World Tour which we opened well before Christmas because we couldn't wait.
Then we went to my mom and Tim's house and opened presents and ate cookies. We played our first game of Ticket to Ride and now want to buy it. It's fun!
We headed out to Tyler's aunt and uncle's house where we ate prime rib, played Guitar Hero, and opened more presents. And yes, Kim's apron says, "I like Cougars....medium rare". But don't worry, we'll stay true blue to BYU!
We left their house in South Jordan around 10 but it had been snowing and was snowing hard when we left so we ended up driving back to swap cars with Tyler's uncle because they have an Explorer. Even still, we didn't get home until well after midnight because the snow was so bad. We drove around the point of the mountain and the wind was blowing so hard that cars 10 feet in front of us disappeared completely. It was the SCARIEST driving Tyler and I have ever done. We were so grateful to get home!The next morning we rose bright and early and flew to Jersey to see Tyler's family. We went to Hershey, PA and visited the chocolate factory. After touring the facility, we are now experts. ;)
We went to Philly for New Year's Eve and nearly froze our bums off! We kept warm by doing jumping jacks and drinking hot chocolate. The firework show was beautiful. We had front row seats right by the water (they set off the fireworks from a barge), and it was so cool! It was worth being so cold!
We saw Twilight for the second time. I know there are many, many differing opinions on this, but I just want to say I liked it. PS-Going to the movies in Jersey is so expensive! We went to a matinee and it was $8 a ticket! Sheesh.We went into New York and did a session at the Manhattan Temple. Cool fact--the Celestial Room is a room inside a room to block out any possible outside noise. It's a really pretty (and really small!) temple. We walked around Central Park a little. I wanted to break into song and see if everyone would start dancing and singing like on Enchanted, but Tyler was too embarrassed.
We stopped by the Rockefeller Center and saw the infamous tree. It's big.
Tyler's mom Lupe and I strolled through Times Square and took some pix but it was so so so cold we didn't stay that long. We were there and that's what counts.
Did you notice the policemen on horses?! I've only seen that in the movies.
Before we left we met Ron in Philly for lunch and ate at Five Guys (YUM!). Ron works in Philadelphia so he knows all the "cool" places. He made sure we got pretzels at the best pretzel place there.
We did a little shopping at H&M which is my favorite store and there are none in Utah. Someday I will live within driving distance of one.
Philadelphia is a cool place. They have neat buildings. The building behind Tyler & Lupe is the tallest building in the world made without steel (it's all brick and mortar).
They also have LOVE there. It IS the city of brotherly love after all. And we loved it.
We are now home, safe and sound, and back to the grind of school and work. It was so nice to get away for a little bit, but it's also nice to be home.
