Our Christmas Tree - 2013

It's amazing to see our godson's wonder at the sight of the tree before him.


Ethan was a little apprehensive when he first walked in, and then took Felipe's hand to bring him over to the tree with him.  They had a nice time exploring the colors and the ornaments that were on the tree.






Taking a closer look...


...and just a little touch...

Happy Halloween!!!

Felipe and Grace at work.

Grace arrived this afternoon!  Only a day late too!  We had originally planned a fun pumpkin carving party - unfortunately the hurricane got in the way of making that possible.  We ended up cancelling the party per se - but kept up the pumpkin carving anyway...just the three of us.  We ordered pizza and popped the original Vincent Price version of "The House on Haunted Hill" while we planned our pumpkin designs. 


I decided to go with a rat...inspired by our dear friend Mr. Ratolino.




Grace went with a Batman theme.


Felipe went with a crazy face pumpkin. 


The finished pumpkins! Really pleased how they turned out.  We've roasted the seeds, which are now cooling on the kitchen counter and then decided to watch another movie...

The Shining!




Overall a terrific Halloween, albeit a quieter one than we had planned.  I'm so happy to have Grace in town for a visit.  She was asking what to do tomorrow with her day, and to be honest...I can't think of too many things that will be open or available to do tomorrow in Manhattan.  Well, we have lunch together to look forward to!  More posts to come soon!

Catch Up: Thanksgiving 2011

Throwing back to the crisp cool days of Autumn - here's my long delayed Thanksgiving post! Where was I?

My friend Laura, whom I've known since I was a freshman in high school, and went to college with, had come to NYC to spend Thanksgiving with me and Felipe. It was wonderful to have the time together - since we haven't had more than an hour here and there to hang out since college. Laura arrived on the Monday before thanksgiving (if I recall correctly) - but I had work all week. Thankfully Laura has done a lot of travel and is one independent gal and doesn't mind touring around on her own a bit. So during the week she went to a variety of touristy things (the tenement museum, Louis Armtrong's house, etc). On Wednesday night Felipe and I had an opera to go to, but I got out of work a bit early and went with Laura to see the Macy's balloons being inflated. She had plans to go to the parade itself - but I'm not one who's much for crowds like that, and I had cooking to do - so I went with her to see the balloons.

It was SUPER CROWDED!!! oh New York City, I shouldn't be surprised, it's a tradition for Thanksgiving. At least they were organized with how they allowed people to view the balloons. It was fun too to see them kind of "sleeping" on the ground before their big day.






After the balloons came back down to the apartment and I went to the opera with Felipe while Laura relaxed at home. She had to get up real early the next day - so relaxing was a good thing!

Thanksgiving day I did my usual prep and got the whole meal together. We don't get too fancy here - so I had the turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, and Laura made some terrific corn bread.



Sammi, Nicole and Mike joined us and we had a delicious dinner, played some games and just enjoyed the evening. And of course - we ate too much food...but not so much that there weren't left overs ;)

Catch Up: A Holiday Gathering with Friends

There's nothing better than spending times with friends or family. We were really lucky this holiday to get a lot of quality friends time in! Claire and Sean were in NYC for the New Years holiday, and so we made plan with the usuals to have a couple of get togethers - Josh and Virginia hosted an amazing 5 course New Years Eve Dinner, and so we didn't want to do another full dinner party just before that. Instead we had everyone over on the 30th of December for a pre-new years eve party - just drinks and a huge lot of random food. But the friends are more important than food and drink! Every year we host a holiday dinner, and the last couple of years it's been lacking Sean and Claire - as they live in San Francisco - and we were so stoked to have them hanging out with us this year!


The silly photo.


Good Conversation :)



It's not often the whole group of us can get together - but we do have fun when we do. I wish I had photos to share from the amazing New Years Eve dinner that Josh and Virginia posted - but I was too busy enjoying their delicious food to have a camera in my hands. Overall, our holidays rocked - we had two and half short but fun packed days with my family, and then three short but fun packed days with friends. If only all of life could be this way!

Yay! A Real Christmas Tree This Year!

Felipe's new 2011 Ornament - Glitter Santa


Glitter Santa's friend, Glitter Snowman

Felipe and I decided that this year we were going to get a real tree! This is my first real tree in about 10 years and his 2nd real tree ever! So after work we stopped by one of the tree stands on the upper west side and picked out our first ever real christmas tree together. We carried it home (I held the top part, while he held the trunk) and put the Christmas music on and trimmed the tree. We don't have space in our apartment for a large 6 or 7 foot tree, so this one is about 4 feet, and to give the illusion that we've got a larger tree, we set it on top of a side table. Here it is!


I really enjoy sitting on the couch looking at it. And the smell is terrific!

One of my other favorite things about having a real tree, are the fantastic shadows that the lights and the branches cause to fall on the wall. Just beautiful!

Happy New Year 2011!

We had a terrific New Year's Eve! We all had dinner at Ernani's house (a family friend) in Copacabana. We were there for a while eating and dancing before heading over to the beach.

Me and my brother in law Sergi dancing Samba, tons of fun and very tiring on the legs!

After dancing, at about 11:00pm we walked the two blocks from Ernani's apartment to Copacabana Beach - what craziness! There will thousands of people on any given street and when we got to the beach, and were met by 4 million other people, well let me tell you - that was a sight I never thought I'd see! The Beach stretches for about 6km, so thankfully everyone had plenty of space to stand.


They had 4 live music stages, and screens set up all over the place. At 10 seconds to midnight they put the countdown up and everyone started screaming. At midnight all the lights on the beach went out and the fireworks started. 20 different boats set of 25 tons of fireworks for the first 20 minutes of the new year. it was an AMAZING sight. Everyone was cheering and happy, and colored by the sparkling fireworks in the sky. I couldn't have imagined what it would feel like to be surrounded by 4 million revelers, but it was really something out of this world.


Here is a picture of the crowd last night. If you look at the middle left of the photo, you will see a big white screen...we were about a hundred feet to the right of that - can you see us? ;)

We stayed on the beach until about 1:30am and then walked back to Ernani's apartment where we waited a bit longer for the crowds to clear out (although I'm not sure that actually happened - they seemed just as many when we left at 2:30am). By the end of the night we were wiped out, but happy.

Happy New Year to all - I wish you the best of happiness and health in 2011!

Happy Thanksgiving (yesterday)!

Nicole's taking a photo of the group of us...ravenous and ready to eat!

So Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I know, this post should have gone up yesterday, but then how would I have included the photos?! Plus...I spent the whole day preparing the meal, so yeah! We had a fantastic time with my mom, Cord, Nicole, Sammi and Mike - it's a meal and an evening I look forward to all year!


See me in the back there... Everyone did a good job of not digging in to the turkey before everything else was ready ;)


After dinner we entertained ourselves with games of Taboo, playing with Josie, and drinks!


And just before leaving us...Josie sat in the kitchen wishing for some left overs....


We had a wonderful day/evening, and I hope that all of you had as good a Thanksgiving as we did. I know that I am thankful to have my "Manhattan Family" to celebrate with, as well as having my mom out here too!

Happy Indepence Day!

This picture was take at the Westmorland park in Madison in 1986. You can see from left to right, my sister's friend, my older sister Mariam and myself. We always had so much fun decorating our bikes for the parade - crepe paper, balloons and mini flags! Then we would ride in the parade, and spend the rest of the day in the park, eating cotton candy (it was the only day of the year we were allowed that treat), and playing games.

Unfortunately Felipe and I don't have a bike parade to ride in, but we will be watching the fireworks over the Hudson later tonight! Happy Fourth of July to everyone! and watch out for mosquitos....

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy New Year! -¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

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Merry Christmas - Feliz Navidad - Bones Festes

Merry Christmas to everyone! We did more of our celebrations yesterday with the family here in Barcelona (well...Vilassar really). It was a great time, and I got a couple of nice photos too :D

A nice family portrait



Ana and Sergi opening gifts.


Felipe looking festive :D


Yay! A new purple sweater!

And then we ate...there were ten of us for dinner (Felipe, me, Eda, Primitivo, Ana and Sergi and then Sergi's family). Eda and I had a fun time preparing for dinner - setting the table and making the food (I did the turkey! and we made a few desserts).




Here is Primitivo carving the turkey


And the desserts:



We had so many desserts it was almost diabetes inducing: pave (an egg cream with layers of cookies and dulce de leche on top), some sort of strawberry and whipped cream cake, mini apple tarts, mini chocolate tarts, dark chocolate and coconut truffles, brownies, candy covered almonds and pine nuts, and a chocolate panetone that we didn't even open. And of course wine and cava....

It was a wonderful night, capped by Amigo Invisible (Secret Santa), where we all shared gifts and talked far into the morning.

Merry Christmas to all - I hope your celebrations are merry and that the holidays give you warm memories.