Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve with our good friends, John, Shari, Kate and James Peterson. Shari happens to be Mason's babysitter and I can safely say that Kate is Mason's best friend. John served us Ratatouille and we all decorated ginger bread houses.

Christmas day was very quite and somewhat lonely. The good thing was that there was very little pressure and lots and lots of time for Mason to focus on his new toys.
Surprise! I didn't cook a nice Christmas meal... instead we ate at Greek Peak, the nearby ski-resort. The first time Mark left the house since his second surgery.

Merry Christmas!!!

We don't live in New Jersey, just visited- but this picture seemed festive enough to be our "Merry Christmas" picture. We love you all and hope this message finds you happy and healthy! (Hopefully next year we will be on the ball enough to get some actual picture cards sent out!)

Merry Christmas and may your New Year bring much adventure and happiness!

New York City at Christmas

Rockefeller Center, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular and the Charmin Sponsored Restrooms were just the tip of our fun filled Christmas trip to "The City." We also saw over 100 million pennies, Saks Fifth Avenue window displays, several shops, lights, taxis, the World Trade Center Memorial, and my sweet friend, Scout, and her family. What a wonderful couple of days happily spent with the Crook grandparents!

The Perfect Tree!

Thanks to Grandma and "Papa" Crook we were able to find a tree, cut it down and get it home even with the close call at getting stuck and the half inch layer of ice on top of the snow. (Mark and I were not much help since I was busy taking pictures and Mark was still somewhat disabled from his first surgery).

Let it Snow!

Here is Mason trying out his new ski gear! He seems pretty excited but we shall see what happens when he takes a ride on the snow.

Mark is ready and willing to get Mason on the slopes. Unfortunately our December adventures have been limited by Mark's surgeries. (Double hernia repair... laproscopic the first time... when that didn't work they had to slice him open three weeks later).

Thanksgiving

We stayed in Ithaca over Thanksgiving. Gratefully it was not as lonely as last years Thanksgiving. Mark's cousins that live in Scarsdale (mentioned previously in our blog) came to visit our tiny little townhouse. It was cozy and very nice to be with family. The morning of Thanksgiving we all went on a hike to Taughannock Falls. It was a chilly morning but ended in a beautiful view. (The tallest waterfall east of the Mississipi).

Thanksgiving dinner was made completely by Mel, (despite my struggle with cooking). We were about an hour and half late eating- but the meal ended up tasting OK.