Christmas already?? Indeed, the festivities have begun. Because a very dear friend of mine is being baptized in New Jersey on Sunday and I wouldn't miss it for the world, our family is taking a little trip this weekend. Jeff and I decided that we couldn't go to New York at Christmas time without taking the kids, so we're all heading to the Big Apple on Thursday. (Well, not Bryant. I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid.)

Since this is the kids' Christmas present from us and we wanted to make sure they fully understood that, we wrapped up a bunch of stuff for them to open tonight.Right down to their brand new long johns, which my children have never had a reason to own before now!They each got a new hat and gloves as well. Brad's sports "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," which he thinks is pretty darn awesome. He was so crazy tonight, I couldn't get him to be serious for anything. But this picture strangely foretells of his teenage years, I have a feeling.Bailey's hat, not so much. It's strangely reminiscent to Cousin Eddie. I didn't know the ears would stick out that much. But oh well...

This is where they get to see how much their plane tickets cost... did I mention we wrapped everything?
They also got to see their reservations for Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty on Saturday morning and we ran down the entire itenerary with them that we've planned out so far, including our reservations for Serendipity on Monday. (Yes, that is Jeff holding the map, thank you very much.)
And my favorite shot of the night is when they opened up their tickets for Friday night. We'll be heading to the New Amsterdam Theater to see Mary Poppins. This, I can't wait for! Broadway, here we come.

So to the Cyberworld at large that now knows we'll be out of town this weekend, I'd like to mention that we do have a security system and a very scary watchcat. And two goldfish.

More pics to come in a few days. First, I must pack...