NYC Girls Trip

I had the best time in NYC with two of my very favorite people. Kristi and Megan were my counselors when I was a Young Women president in California a few years ago. I loved serving with these amazing women and they became some of my very closest friends. They're the best of the best! Kristi is moving back east soon and came out to Connecticut a few weeks ago to find housing for her family. She decided to bring Megan with her and to tack on a few days in NYC to the end of her house-hunting trip. I was so thrilled to join them in NYC! It was so, so good to catch up! 

All three of us have spent time in NYC doing the touristy stuff, so this trip was pretty low-key, just lots of walking around the city, talking, laughing, and taking advantage of all the good food in NYC :)

Walking through Central Park, burning off our Shake Shack lunch!

We went to the Manhatten temple and it was so neat to do temple work and to sit in the gorgeous celestial room together. It brought back memories of doing temple trips with our old young women!

That first night we had delicious pizza at Patsy's on the Upper West Side.

 Followed by dessert at Amy's Bread. Yum.

 The next morning we began our day in the chilly line at the TKTS booth in Time Square. It was worth the wait because we scored wonderful seats to Finding Neverland for 50% off. Afterwards, we warmed up with brunch at Sarabeth's and it was so, so good. 

(I've since heard that the lemon ricotta pancakes at Sarabeth's are amazing, so I am dying to go back and try them out). 

 We did a bit of shopping after brunch and then headed to the Lunt-Fontanne Theater for the broadway musical Finding Neverland. I loved it! It was a really fun show with great music. The main actor Tony Yazbeck was excellent. He really sold the show for me. And the 7th row tickets were the closest I've ever been for a broadway show, so that was a plus!

 Getting some NYC treats at the M&M store for Megan's kids. 

We had fun walking around Eataly and getting dinner at one of the restaurants. 

 I loved my pasta: housemade ravioli with spinach and ricotta, in a lemon butter and pistachio sauce. So good! This was actually my first trip to Eataly and I thought it was such a fun atmosphere with delicious food. 

The very best hot chocolate ever at City Bakery. It's so rich and creamy that all you need is the "shot glass" size. 

Kristi and Megan stayed through Sunday, but I took the 10 pm train back to New Jersey on Saturday night after two wonderful days in New York. Oh, I love these ladies so much! They are such good women, such good moms, such good friends. I felt so recharged and inspired after 48 hours with them.

P.S. Yes, Josh is amazing to happily take a day off of work and watch the kids Friday and Saturday. Even when Mya and Bryn got a 24-hour food poisoning spell while I was gone. Oh boy! Husband of the year!

Christmas Gingerbread Men

In December we had our third annual Gingerbread party with friends. This year the Egans and Thomases joined us in decorating (and eating!) gingerbread men.

I use my mom's yummy gingerbread recipe that is so soft and good. I may need a new gingerbread cookie cutter, though- because mine makes very squat, chubby gingerbread that almost look like flowers instead of gingerbread men :)

Some festive toppings

Some of the crew getting started on their cookies

 Bryn and Mya

Tate enjoyed observing the chaos and munching on his gingerbread man.

 Two of the Thomas girls with their creations

 Two of the Egan kids with their creations

 It was a fun and delicious night!

Christmas Eve

 We spent Christmas Eve with some of our good friends from church: the Thomas family, Hibbs family, Comparetto family, and the Ure family. We always miss family at Christmas time, but thank goodness for dear friends who feel like family! I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few blurry pictures to document a few parts of the fun night. 

 Bryn and Mya being silly during the candy game.

 Bryn was the angel in the Nativity just like last year. This year she added a fur coat to her angel costume to add a little more drama to her role. 

I love these cute kids that my children get to be friends with.

 Laps full of sweet kids who feel more like nieces and nephews. 

 Maddie loves babies and somehow put Tate into a trance. He never cuddles like this with anyone besides Josh and I, but somehow Maddie got him to lay on her lap for a long time. 

 Afterwards we put the kids to bed and got ready for Christmas. After many years of girly gifts at Christmas, Josh was so pleased that Santa brought a basketball hoop this year. I think Josh has used it as much as the kids have :)

Visitors from NH

One of the highlights of May was having Catherine and Charlotte Pyfer visit! The Pyfers are some of our very best friends from Dartmouth and we have really missed them this past year. Josh was so busy studying for the CFA 24/7 and Cat's husband Brian was busy studying for finals, so we decided we should get together and keep each other company while our husbands were so busy. Best decision ever. What a fun few days we had catching up!

 Charlotte was born a few months after we moved, so we were so excited to finally meet this sweet girl!

 Charlotte + Tate

 We went on long walks (like the old days), went to a couple parks, walked around the lake, made a child-free trip to Cheesecake Factory for dessert, but mostly just hung around and chatted. Honestly, my voice was hoarse the day after Cat left because I had talked so much. It was so good for my soul to spend time with such a good friend. Love you, Cat!

Tate was trying hard to win Charlotte's heart, but first he needs to learn how to sit up!