17!

Timothy turned 17 today! We startd the celebration yesterday by setting up his main gift while he worked--a new gaming computer in his own space. 

 The Geek Squad even gave him a little birthday message in setting up his computer!

He had some friends over for a sleepover, and I figured they wouldn't get to cake eating until late at night, so we did a cake picture beforehand.  And since Sam's club no longer makes the double layer cookie cake, he got one double layer piece for himself and a Hyvee cake to share.

He's been planning for his party for months and saving up lots of Pokemon cards to open.  He had fun opening them with friends and got quite a few good ones.  His shirt was a gift from another friend...Benedryl cat meme.

Once his friends left, he enjoyed a birthday nap.  We got Freddy's take out for dinner and watched 2 episodes of Mr. Beast Games to finish out the night.

Happy Birthday to this young man who still gives a little smile when mom asks!

 

Christmas Cookies

I don't bake much at Christmas, as we always end up with more than enough goodies.  But sugar cookie cutouts are a must! Teresa did most of the decorating and I helped on a few. The cookies turned out quite pretty and tasty too!

 

New York at Christmas

We just returned from a quick weekend trip to New York Ciy.  We went with the idea of showing the kids NYC at Christmas and taking in a few shows.  It ended up being pretty heavy on the shows with some Christmas sprinkled in--but no complaints here! We almost missed our flight on Wednesday night, but God's grace they did not close the gate and we made it to NYC.  We stayed in Queens.  We had a nice view of the city from our window, and Manhatten was only a train ride away.

We began our time in NYC with a stop at a Christmas market.  There were lots of handcrafted items and a variety of food for sale.  We mostly just browsed.  Later in the weekend, Teresa did pick out a bracelet.  The bryany Park market was very crowded on Saturday morning.

It was a bit chilly outside, so we did need to find some places to warm up.  We went in a mall near Columbus Circle a couple of times.  There was a Shake Shack there that Timothy enjoyed.  The decorations were pretty too and they had a neat gingerbread display.  Max Brenner's was another warm up spot.  We got hot cocoa there.  It advertised as the best cocoa in the city and I am pretty sure they were right!

Another stop we made was inside of Macy's.  The decorations were beautiful in the main store.  In Santaland, the decorations were pretty amazing too.  We did meet with Santa, but it was more the experience of Santa land that we went for.

The shows were a main highlight of the trip!  We saw Six, Elf and then split up for Book of Morman and Chicago.  I think we all enjoyed the variety of shows but had individual favorites.  I liked Elf best.  There were snow bubbles at the end of the show!

We had a lot of fun walking around the city on the last night.  Being near times square, looking in tourist shops and enjoying a brownie!

And of course seeing the Rockefeller tree was amazing!  There are so many lights and it looks so pretty lit up at night.  There were big crowds too, but we managed to get some nice views.