Christmas Tidings

"Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food and beer.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?" 

~Bill Watterson - The Essential Calvin and Hobbes~

I'm sitting in my bedroom blogging this evening as my husband spends a few hours with his parents and his sister. Because my sister in law is going through some serious health issues of her own, I have been temporarilly banned from the house. Stupid flu. 

This has NOT been a "normal" family Christmas. Daughter #1 worked today and is now crumpled up in bed feeling crummy. Daughter #2 has taken some Christmas food to my mother and gone to see her boyfriend and his family. They are getting older and I'm reminded of how my parents must have felt as my sister and I moved on with our lives. It's bizarre and saddens me some. 

I was starkly reminded of the first Christmases Yoda and I spent together - days when we barely had a couple of dimes to rub together, not much else than that. Those were rough, but good days. Because of the move, cash is at a premium so we drew names for gifts. This was hard because as "mom" or "dad" you want to give your kids everything. This was the first year we had to really limit ourselves so Yoda would have gas money to get back to Dallas and some grocery and laundry money as well. The gifts we exchanged were small, but from the heart. I think this is the way it should be. Forget quantity... quality is a much better thing. 

(Sigh)

As I have been grounded today, I have spent some time working on my Smash Book. It's a non-traditional scrapbook by K&C Company that my daughters got me hooked on earlier this summer. I added a few things from a couple of my trips to New York City, San Francisco, Inn of the Mountain Gods, St. Louis, and Dallas, TX. (I think I've been a few places, eh?) If you are wanting something a little different for a scrapbook, but don't want to invest the time and energy in a full-blown big one, I highly recommend a Smash Book. Awesome stuff right there.  For me, each page is a reminder of how blessed I truly am. 

And speaking of blessings... I pray for you and yours a Merry Christmas filled with Christ's love, faith, hope and truth. (Whether you believe in Him or not.) 
I'll see you again on the flip side. 

New York City - Days Two - Four

I was blessed to have a relaxing trip this go around to the Big Apple. I got to spend a lot of time in the Flatiron District and wandered from about 30th street to 10th street and between 5th and 6th avenues for the most part.

My sister and I started off the day at Equinox at 19th and Broadway. Great place to workout and I now feel totally gipped at the Amarillo Town Club. The locker rooms are high end and large; the lockers are twice the size of mine and I just realized I'm jealous of a gym. LOL!

After hanging out and wandering around aimlessly, my brother in law took me and Christina to lunch at Blue Water Grill, right up the street from their office and one of the top 10 restaurants in the entire city. This was followed by shopping down 5th Avenue for some much needed T-shirts (New York was extremely muggy; therefore, I was a sweat magnet.) We picked up Romeo at the NY Dog Spa and Hotel, picked John up at the office and we headed home where Christina made dinner.

Wednesday morning, while Christina went to the gym, I wandered around taking pictures and enjoying the city. We then took in "Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark" followed by dinner at Carmines. I have to say the performance of Spiderman was AMAZING and Carmines had the best Italian food I have eaten in a very long time. I could get used to that kind of food. (In fact, my mouth is watering now just thinking about the shrimp we had as an appetizer. The shrimp were HUGE.)

Side note: If I could figure out how to do a photo slide show on this thing, I would and I will try to figure it out so I can properly insert a bunch of cool photos.

Thursday morning rolls around and I have to say, wasn't a fan of Thursday. Christina and I barely had time for breakfast at the Hollywood Diner before Christina tossed me in a cab to get to Newark Liberty for the flight home. Literal tossing as Christina was supposed to drive me, but the car elevator at the garage was FUBAR so there was no way to get the car out and I had to take a taxi. Christina flags down this taxi and pretty much throws me and the monster suitcase, which has been lugged over a majority of the Flatiron District, into the cab. She was kind enough to provide me with a Dunkin Donut's beverage though, which helped because the AC in the cab was for crap. (Remember the hot and muggy thing? OY!)

The driver was pissed that he had to take me to Newark and he took the longest way humanly possible to get there. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the signage for the Lincoln Tunnel and not the Holland Tunnel. In case you didn't know... you have to travel UPTOWN to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. It's about 39th street or so... to put this in perspective, I was close to 34th street when I took the train in to Penn Station and was staying on 17th street. He drove the OPPOSITE direction he needed to because he was pissed. Apparently NY cabbies aren't allowed to pick up return fares from Newark so he was getting kind of screwed on the deal, but I figured I would give him a good tip and he'd be fine with it.

Now, I get to Newark with some time to spare which is good. However, now this cabbie tells me the credit card machine is broken in the cab, and of course also the receipt machine is also broken. Christina told me both of these occurrences are ILLEGAL, but what could I do but pay the freakin $71.00. I told him he would have gotten a big tip for taking me there, but with the CC machine down, he wasn't getting all the cash on me. I got the medallion number as well as his name, but nothing I can really do about it now (other than still be pissed at him.)

All in all, the trip wasn't nearly long enough, but it was a great trip. There were none of the 5 museums in a day or 27 touristy things to do in a week. What I did get was some real NY time and time well spent with my sister and my brother in law who were kind enough to put up with me for a few days. Can't wait for the next trip.... :-)
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