The highlight for the kids I'm sure was opening gifts, which was all done before dinner. I think Cecilia's favorite present was her American Girls baby doll, which she has since named Ki-Ki, the accompanying backpack, bottles, and clothes, and Ki-Ki's high chair.
I also got a few nice shots of select family subsets:
The next weekend, we went to see the Zoolights at Stone Zoo with the Johnsons. It wasn't as extensive as Edaville, which was a good thing because it was much colder that night. We got to see a few animals, and a bunch of lights.
Cecilia, Bronwyn and Jasper got to see a real reindeer!
And of course, some highlights were the two rides we let them go on:
In early December, we decided to reward Cecilia for being SUCH a trooper and traveler for our trips to Philadelphia and New York. So we took her to the Edaville Festival of Lights, which is essentially a huge light celebration of Christmas, complete with Santa, carnival rides, and hot chocolate. The full set of pictures can be found here, but below are a few highlights.
It's only open from 5:30-11, so we went on the early side in consideration of bedtime. It was still light out, so it was perfect for the carnival portion of the park. Of course, Cecilia loved riding all the rides.
Here is a combined video of the Dumbo ride, Carousel, Ferris Wheel, Caterpillar ride, Turtle ride, and Train.
Once it started getting dark and a little colder, we went inside for some food and hot chocolate. In one of the buildings, there were a lot of snow and Santa scenes, which were pretty cool.
There was also a Santa Claus whose lap kids could sit on. Cecilia was all excited about this and repeated said that she wanted to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. We stood in line for about 10 minutes, then she heard his booming HO HO HO and caught site of this big huge dude dressed in red, and said immediately, "I don't wanna sit on his lap!" So we left the building. :) But not before buying a light-up wand, which she loved:
We got some fried dough and hot chocolate - the first time Cecilia's ever had it!
One of the last things we did was ride the steam train around Edaville, which is the main attraction. They set up a huge number of holiday lights, some of which are moving, throughout the entire grounds, as well as for the train ride.
I tried to capture an example on video here:
Finally, as we were heading out, they must have had 20 or so of these lit indoor scenes that you could look at along the path, all Santa or Christmas-themed. By getting Cecilia to look at the next one, then the next one, and the one after that, it was a fun way to get her moving out towards the exit.
Just like we do every year, the Lubang's and the Lubretsky's headed to NYC for Thanksgiving this year. We all went up a couple days early to enjoy the city (and Grandma of course).
Cecilia always likes playing the piano:
This year, we also went en masse to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall:
I wish I could have gotten a picture or video during the show, but Cecilia was spellbound the entire time and didn't look away at all! She still remembers all the dancers and Santa Claus and the big stuffed bears dancing ballet.
On Thanksgiving, Cecilia put her her best party dress and her shiny silver party shoes for the occasion:
Here are Cecilia and Jacob playing around a little bit while the first guests are just arriving:
As usual, everyone ate a ton of food, and enjoyed talking with family and friends:
Suppertime on Thanksgiving runs right around Cecilia's naptime, so around 3pm, she pooped out and was super cute after having fallen asleep on a random chair, with all these people talking around her:
The next day, we met Tony for brunch at this fantastic Indian place, and also spent some time walking around FAO Schwarz. Surprisingly, Cecilia liked the fountains outside more than the actual toy store. I think it was too crowded inside for her.
We went to Philadelphia in the middle of November for Ryan and Elizabeth's wedding (which was actually in Lancaster) and stayed for a week. We spent several days with Paul, Annemarie, Nicholas and their new baby Caroline! Cecilia and Nicholas had a lot of fun playing together, and Cecilia discovered the joys of an iPad.
We also stayed in Philadelphia for several days, and one of the days we took Cecilia to the Please Touch Museum, which is probably the best children's museum I've ever seen, set right in the heart of Fairmount Park. It just happened that Jill (of Jill and Adam) and her kids Levon and Josie were going as well, so we went with them! (And they got us in for free).
Of course Cecilia enjoyed the carousel ride:
And climbing all over the random animals:
Playing the piano:
And at the end, we actually managed to get a picture of all the kids together. Nobody's crying, picking their nose, or making a nasty face, so I consider it a success:
One day in early November, we were all in Aaron and Jacob's basement for some fun, and Abby and Olivia were there too! Cecilia always has a great time with the two girls, and they seem to enjoy playing with her too.
Here is Cecilia on the spin-around toy:
Then Cecilia and Abby started bouncing on these big balls. Cecilia takes a pretty funny spill on one of them. I think it's a good idea that they switch balls half-way through so that Cecilia has the smaller (and flatter) one while Abby is on the bigger one. I keep cutting back to the kitchen because this whole time, Olivia is busy making a meal for the other two girls.
Finally, Abby and Cecilia get to enjoy the wonderful meal that Olivia cooked for them:
