Ben at Christmastime

6:12 a.m.  Tuesday
Ben (walks downstairs):  "Dad, is it Christmas yet?"
Dad:  "No, not for a few more days."
Ben:  Sighs.  Walks back upstairs.  Climbs into bed with me.

6:13 a.m. Tuesday
Ben (singing, loudly):  "Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus."
Ben:  "Mom, did you know Christmas is in a few days?"
Mom: "Really?"
Ben: "Yeah, it is. Dad said so."

7:00 a.m. Wednesday
(Scott stayed home sick from work, so he was sleeping in.)
Ben:  "Why are you still sleeping, Dad?"
Scott:  "Because I have a cold."
Ben:  "Do you need some medicine?"
Scott:  "Ben, you know, laughter is the best medicine."
Ben (wisely):  "So laugh then."

7:20 a.m. Wednesday
Ben is deep in battle using light saber.  There are bad guys everywhere. Ben is in peak Jedi form (see photo).  After battling for while, Ben turned on some music on the CD player as background for the fighting.  What song do you think he picked?  A Christmas CD?  Some Star Wars soundtrack music?  No, he picked Elton John's "Can't You Feel the Love Tonight?"  I don't know about you, but Elton John doesn't scream light saber battle to me.

7:00 p.m. Thursday
Ben:  "Mom, do you think I'm going to throw up, like I did on Christmas last year."
Mom:  "Awwww, buddy, do you remember that from last year?"
Ben:  "Yeah, I remember throwing up on the carpet on Christmas."
Mom:  "Well, hopefully you'll have a good day this year."
Ben:  "I sure hope so."

Can you believe that he remembered that from when he was 3?

Longwood Christmas

One of my very favorite holiday traditions is visiting Longwood Gardens at Christmas.  This year's displays were grand and certainly did not disappoint!  I decided to take my tripod this year to capture some longer exposure outdoor shots.  While I had an excellent time playing photographer, Scott scrupulously studied to the lighting displays to get some ideas for our house next year.  This year's theme was gingerbread; there were large and small gingerbread decorations incorporated elegantly throughout the gardens.

Full-size Trees Made of Gingerbread!

Rainbow Grove

Inside The Conservatory

I asked Scott to play model and "catch the light."  

Time to cast him on America's Next Top Model, right?

Outdoor Displays

The Fountain Show (always a favorite!)

Visions of Sugar Plums

An original poem, written in my current state of Christmas preparation delirium.

The week before Christmas, and all through the house,
Scott's decorated everything with lights, to the chagrin of his spouse.

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care,
with fragile globe lights around them, so better beware.

There are lights in the kitchen; lights on the stairs.
Lights in the bedrooms; now our house sure has flare.
(and a soaring electric bill)
  
And, try through I might to get it to fall,
the wacky wall walker is still stuck to the wall.

  
But what, might you ask, about all the rest of the prep?
While Scott's been alighting, I've done the rest with vigor and pep.
  
The cookies are baked; the cards are (almost) all sent.
The calendar's finished; and the money is spent.
  
The presents are wrapped; the tree is put up.
Holiday plans have been made with menus to sup.
  
It is almost time to celebrate the season. 
So raise your glass!  It's (almost) the holidays! (And, don't forget the reason!)

just how messy can one candy cane be?

Turns out, pretty messy.

What really baffles me is why his hands are so wet.  Do your hands get wet when you eat a candy cane??

I ♥ NYC

We decided to take the family on a little Christmas adventure to Manhattan to visit with Uncle Brian this past Saturday.  Rather than driving, we took the NJ Transit train from Trenton, which, speaking from experience, is a decidedly more relaxing trip than driving anywhere in or near NYC in a mini-van with out-of-state plates.  Unlike our usual planned adventures, we decided to just "go with the flow" for the day and see where our feet led us.  That turned out to be good plan!

Since it is conveniently located nearby Penn Station, we shopped a bit at the largest store in the world: Macy's (which looked even better illuminated at night). The store was jammed packed with people shopping.  While I do not love crowds, somehow the masses made Macy's shopping more exciting.  Children's clothing is way up on the 8th floor, so we rode up wooden escalator after wooden escalator upstairs.  The girls felt very glamorous trying on their dresses. Caroline found a charming red dress with ribbon swirls.  Abby picked a black and white dress with a black ribbon around the waist.  I found out later that Abby's main criteria for dress selection was that the dress was available all the way up to a size 16, so it was definitely a "big girl" dress.  That gave me a chuckle.  I was hoping she'd base her choice on, you know, dress style or color or something related to fashion.

Macy's New York

Not to dwell too much on Macy's, but I would like to add that unlike Macy's King of Prussia where I was recently gift wrapping/greeting, I am totally unfamiliar with the layout of Macy's NYC, which is why it took longer us longer to find our way out of the store than to buy our dresses.

Later in the day, Scott decided he wanted to buy some roasted chestnuts from a street vendor while we walked toward Times Square.  I asked the vendor if he would mind if I photographed his nuts....which I'll remember to phrase better if ever the situation arises again.

Have you ever tried these things??!!  Roasted chestnuts are gross.  I don't know why they are romanticized in Christmas carols.  They don't smell good roasting, and they definitely don't taste that great either.  Maybe they should change the song to something else roasting by the fire.  Marshmallows?  Bacon?

I suggested going to a museum for an hour or two, but the kids really just wanted to play at Central Park.  So, being completely spontaneous parents (ha!), we played at Central Park for a while around 57th street or thereabouts. Central Park has FANTASTIC playgrounds.

 Boulders overlooking the Playground

Spinning (boulders in background)

Other sights from the day:

The New Year's Eve Crystal Ball in Times Square

A closer look

(the colors are lights inside that were changing)

Best School Picture EVER -- seriously!

Check this out:

Yes, that's right.  Ben is wearing a tuxedo and standing next to giant preschool crayons.  I LOVE IT!!!!  We had to buy the tux for a family wedding, so why not get as much use out of it as possible, right?

I'm probably breaking some copyright law(s) by posting a picture of someone else's picture.  Kindly do not download or use this photo. If you would like a copy of a very dapper Ben, I'll order you a legitimately produced reprint. Thanks!

Attention all shoppers...

....there is a person impersonating a Macy's employee in the lingerie section.  Please find her and ask her a random question about the location of merchandise in our store.  Or, even better, about her opinion on your underwear purchase!  She's definitely not busy right now!

What?

That was me yesterday.  I decided to take a break from sediment characterization reports to participate in a little gift wrapping fundraiser for Ben's preschool.  The deal was supposed to be that I would wrap gifts for 2 hours inside Macy's King of Prussia store, and any gift wrapping payments would be a donation to the school.  The gift wrapping table was located in between the Juniors and Lingerie sections, facing the lingerie naturally.

Unfortunately, practically no one wanted me to wrap their gifts, so I only wrapped 3 presents in my 2-hour shift, earning Ben's school a grand total of $13.  

My time at Macy's was certainly anything but quiet though!  It was a bit of a surreal experience, actually.  Since I was standing at intersection of several main shopping paths and trying to make friendly eye contact with all the people holding packages, I apparently looked like an official Macy's employee, even though I was not wearing any kind of identification.

And, since I had nothing to wrap, I got to answer all kinds of questions!

Shopper:  Do you know where the Men's department is located?
Me:  Follow this path to the escalator upstairs on your right.

Shopper:  Ladies' dresses?
Me:   3rd floor

Shopper:  Ladies' handbags?
Me:  2nd floor

Shopper:  Online returns?
Me:  I'm not a Macy's employee, but I would try customer service in the business office upstairs.

Shopper:  Size 8 girl's dress?
Me:  Size 8 child's or Size 8 juniors? 
Shopper:  She a junior, but has a women's body.
Me:  Oh? 
Shopper:  You know, she's developed.
Me:  Oh!  You'll want to try ladies' dresses on the 3rd floor for the best selection.
(I'm not making this up, by the way)

And my favorite exchange (by this time I was really hamming it up)...

Shopper:  Do you like the blue or the green nightgown better?
Me:  I prefer the green. It's a nice neutral sage color and will complement a lot of skin tones.
Shopper:  Great point!  I'll go with the green.  Thanks for your help!
Me:  No problem.  My pleasure!

As I said, I only made $13 dollars wrapping gifts, so it probably wasn't worth the time, but working retail was so much fun I might just go back and pretend to be a Macy's employee again sometime.