Christmas in Connecticut

Note: This post contains 10 days worth of a fabulous vacation! and a fraction of the pictures we took!

We were so excited, last year, when Robert's sister moved Connecticut - we had family closer and could go visit. This year we went up for Christmas!
With cousins 24/7, this to do, places to go, it was non-stop fun!
There wasn't any snow when we got there, but that just meant jumping on the trampoline without being bundled up.

I became a hair model as Heather practiced and I learned how to do some up-dos.
Here's the "club ready messy bun" - I think my hair is a little long for it, but it gave me bangs again without having to cut one hair!And another messy bun - not "club ready." To each I asked the kids what they thought. Logan looked at me, laughed and said, "no." I think he is use to seeing me with my hair down pretty much all his life! It was fun and I now have new styles to do on the girls and figure out how to do on my own head, which is different than doing hair on someone else.
There were lots of games, including some exciting rounds of "Spoons."
If you know the Becksteads, you know what that might entail - and the stories of that game were brought up later and I'm sure for years to come!
We went to the church gym for some extra room to run around and play.
Alyssa got some basketball shooting tips from the master, a.k.a. her aunt, in preparation for rounds of BUMP.
There were Parker races - even the girls took a turn.He had a blast riding, as did the carriers.
Christmas Eve brings the traditional acting out of the Nativity. Everyone has their parts.Mary and Joseph coming into Jerusalem.
And below the whole cast taking their bows. All but Mary and Joseph had multiple roles.
I was on camera duty - video and picture. Robert was the narrator and Heather had put together the script. Afterward, Logan - who has been very excited about Santa for the last few months - came and told me that Christmas is also Jesus' birthday.
That night he went around telling everyone "Merry Christmas." It was very sweet.
A big storm was heading in and we were suppose to have snow on Christmas. Georgia got Christmas snow, first time there was snow on Christmas Day there in over 100 years! Alyssa was upset we missed it. And we had to spend Christmas without snow. But we had a great day anyway. How can you not when you wake up to this -
Alyssa got the tea set she's always wanted. I didn't know that she would love to collect tea sets. I'll have to be on the look out for them.
Santa brought Jake exactly what he wanted: Toothless, from How To Train Your Dragon.Lego sets are always a perfect gift - here are the boys opening up the one from Grandma and Grandpa Beckstead.I made weighted blankets for Jake and Natalie.After opening stockings and gifts and having breakfast, the rest of the day was spent sketching (Camden and Hunter got drawing sets and the girls joined in learning how to draw), building Legos,and having a tea party.Alyssa made hot chocolate, using the mini-marshmallows from the package as "sugar lumps," and gathering an assortment of snacks to eat during the tea party.The storm started the next day and the kids waited a bit for it to accumulate before bundling up and heading out to play before it got too dark.

Below is Natalie in a fort that had been put together with wood and cardboard and that the kids had worked on during the first couple of days we were there.

They didn't have to worry about missing out on the snow, the next morning we woke up to this:

That's about 2 feet and then places with deeper drifts.
That day was spent outside - we made them come in for lunch, but Logan cried about that, wanting to stay out.

Robert spent a lot of the day shoveling (even with shoveling the driveway 2 or 3 times the day before) and throwing snow at the kids.
After all the shoveling and with a good snowdrift, Alyssa dug through a tunnel in one part of the front yard.

It also made for a great little sledding run, although the bigger kids went down the road a bit to sled on a steeper part of the neighborhood.

The next day, still cold and cloudy, we loaded up the sleds and went sledding at a big hill nearby.

Jake tried out a little snowboarding. He was pretty good for never having been on one and living in a non-snow area. He loved it.

At first Logan went down the hill with Robert, but then decided that I was the best one to ride down the hill with. Later, he wanted to try going on his own, which meant me running along beside him to readjust the sled's direction when he went off to the side and then to carry the sled back up for him.
Some friends of ours, that we know from our Houston days, now live near Heather and Troy. We went over for food and games, taking turns playing with their Kinect - it was a lot of fun to see them again.
We went back over to the church again, this time bringing another family as well, for games of dodge ball.
And laser tag.
After wearing ourselves out we headed to Friendly's Restaurant for dinner.
This brought back memories for me of eating at the Friendly's by us growing up and my two Saturday stint as a waitress.
We took a day and went into New York City, taking the train in to Grand Central Station. Then we took the subway over to the Staten Island Ferry. Before going on the ferry, we stopped for some pizza.
I really need to work on making a New York pizza crust! New York pizza is the best!
The kids loved riding on the ferry
and seeing the Statue of Liberty.
The kids were amazed at the buildings and how it was like looking down a hall.
The subway on the way back was crowded - a true New York City experience.
The "freaky face" is really the back of a guy's sweatshirt and Alyssa and Troy are sitting right across from him (you can see Alyssa's long hair). The rest of us were squeezed into the end corner (no room to hold out the camera and take a picture there).
We stopped by a bakery in Grand Central Station for cupcakes for our on-the-way-home-treat. They were really good!
If you ask Logan, his favorite part of going into the city he would say, the trains and the boat.
My family humored me by going down to Scarsdale and driving around to see all my old houses (we lived in 5 different houses in the same town growing up), schools, and church building.
We first stopped by the bagel shop that my dad would go to on Saturday mornings, bring them home hot. They are the best bagels!
We ate them as we drove around. Robert didn't stop and wanted to move along, so I didn't get a chance to take out my camera, but I loved remember all the fun times I had growing up.
The snow at the beginning wasn't very good for packing, but by the end of the week it was perfect! The kids got to use the snowball makers that came in stockings.
And Robert helped build a snowman over 6 feet tall.
They used sticks for decoration and bits of pine branches for bushy eyebrows.
Even with the snow, the swings and zip line were enjoyed.
Everyone took turns playing games and the Wii when they came in to warm up.
We went to the largest dairy store in the world - Stew Leonard's! They had taste tests all over the place and made all these different foods right in the store.
One of the coolest things was the rice popper. They would suddenlyshoot out of the popper. It was really cool. They made fresh potato chips, starting with the potato, different flavors of popcorn, etc.
You could make the cow mow and watch, on a television, the dairy and cows and milk coming in to be processed and packaged right into the containers.
They had displays all over the store and little animated songs. The one below was over the dairy area.

They had different animals and scarecrows flipping over bars. There was so much to see, so much to sample and a place to get ice cream right outside the store.
On the way back to the car Alyssa got Troy really good with a snow ball - you can see the remains on his shoulder, which caused him to go after her for a whitewash!The car wasn't even a safe spot to go!
She gave and she was a good sport in taking it too!
New Year's Eve we spent at some friends of Heather and Troy's - the family that came to play games at the church with us.
The night was spent dancing to the Wii's Micheal Jackson the Experience,
sword fighting, playing ping pong, eating, taking, and counting down to midnight.
Logan fell asleep 20 minutes before midnight, but everyone else rang in the new year!
When I woke Logan up to get in the car to go home, he cried and said he didn't want to leave. On the way home he asked when we were going to visit again.
Thanks Heather and Troy for having us. We had a wonderful time!