Cold, but Merry

It's been incredibly cold in the city (we know, not as cold as Chicago, but it's still cold), so Marin and Charlie have had a lot of "inside days." Charlie would be content to watch a continuous spool of "Go Diego Go." When Marin starts to feel like a bad Mom, they change over to his other favorite indoor activity: picking Charlie up by his ankles and tossing him onto the bed. This was a particularly satisfying toss.

This is a blurry picture, but it's the best we have of a particularly memorable winter night: We braved a snow storm to check out the Christmas market in Columbus Circle (worth a look if you're in the area). Then we ate dinner at the Brooklyn Diner where Marin had one of the best hamburgers in recent memory. There is something really, really cool about sitting in a warm diner and watching the snow fall in New York City.

On the last Saturday before Christmas, we decided to stay well away from the shopping areas. Instead we visited the American Museum of Natural History where Charlie could burn off some energy running around in the Ocean Room.

Gil showed his Cougar pride for bowl game day, even though it meant leaving his coat home on the coldest day of the season.

We don't have a ton of space so we're getting creative on finding places to put up decorations.

Gil's mother sent us a fun "12 days of Christmas" package. Marin set the gifts up across the top of the entertainment center (again, not much space), and every night she has to get out the step stool to pull down the next surprise. Marin really needed an outlet for her tendency open her presents early.

As much as Gil complains about the tourists at 30 Rock, he didn't exactly put up a fight when Marin wanted to get a picture taken with the Tree.

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a fantastic holiday season this year! Marin, Charlie, and I are going to celebrate the holidays this year in New York City. We are going to miss family in Utah but are excited to start our own New York City traditions for Christmas.

There are so many wonderful ways to celebrate the holidays here in New York City. We haven't been able to take advantage of all of them, but we still have time!

Thank you for your thoughts, cards, and kind messages that you all have sent.

View from my office window

If you look hard enough at the above picture you can see the statue of liberty (when you spend as much time as I do in the office, you notice all kinds of stuff outside the windows).

The pictures are taken at different times of night, and posted in no particular order. If I put these pictures online then they are less likely to get lost. And I decided I should take these pictures now because I'm on the side of the building "with a good view."

Commute to 30 Rock during the holidays

I work in the building 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Its famous because (1) NBC has its headquarters there (and named a comedy sitcom after the building--30 Rock; (2) The Christmas Tree; (3) Top of the Rock viewing area; (4) the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall; and (5) The Rainbow Room.
Because of the volume of tourism around the building, its pretty difficult to get in sometimes. Especially during the holidays. For some reason, Marin thinks I am overreacting and being a grinch. For the record, I document a typical commute during the holidays via pictures.

Yes, this is the police controlling the crowds so that cars can go through the avenue. Good observation, the crowds are actually fenced in.

If you notice, everyone is coming towards me. I am becoming a pro at swimming upstream!

I have more, but uploading seems to be an issue right now.

Quick summary sans photos

Once again we're having trouble uploading pictures, and we've never been so anxious to share our adventures. You'll just have to click through links if you want to see what we've been up to. Christmas in New York is the greatest, and we are having a blast while we are procrastinating our Christmas shopping. Here is a summary of our December adventures so far:

December 1: Winters Eve Festival in Lincoln Square
December 2: The Nutcracker ballet at One World Financial Center
December 3: The tree at Rockerfeller Center and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
December 4: Model train show at the Citi Building and the origami tree at the American Museum of Natural History
December 5: Santa Claus at Macy's on 34th Street
December 6: Stake Christmas progam in the newly remodeled Lincoln Square building
December 7: Rest
December 8: Gift wrapping and dinner with the sister missionaries
December 9: Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Marin's feet still haven't hit the ground)

There will be pictures soon, I promise! Here's a story about the Christmas spectacular though: there was one point where the Rockettes all held up big blocks to spell out "MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR," and one of the Rockettes had her block turned around so it said "happy new yelr." It was so cute. I felt so bad for the Rockette because I think she was the same Rockette whose hat kept falling in her eyes in the scene where they all ride the tour bus. I'm not sure though (they look remarkably similar).